Time Schedule

Fall/Winter 2006

• Complete prospectus
• Assemble a committee and finalize project goals
• Meet with federal and state agencies and other stakeholders
• Begin contacting state/federal agencies and other stakeholders for assistance (i.e. bird collection, information on roost sites, and other assistance as determined by needs that may  develop throughout the course of the research)
• Analyze stomach contents of cormorants collected by government agencies, and ascertain the statistical relevance of the results (determine if the birds are affecting commercial fisheries, recreational fisheries, aquaculture, etc. in the areas from which they were collected)
• Develop website

Spring 2007

• Begin designing protocols for summer counts and making necessary preparations.
• Consult with state/federal biologists as to what point in the spring, if ever, cormorants establish their breeding colonies, and where.
• If this information is available, travel to these points and conduct nest counts as well as rudimentary damage analyses (vegetation, environment, nearby colonial wading bird rookeries)
• If the information proves unavailable, attempt to find breeding colonies by traveling to areas that appear desirable for cormorant breeding in order to either prove or disprove the idea that cormorants are indeed breeding in the state.  If nesting sites are discovered, conduct nest counts as well as rudimentary damage analyses

 

Summer 2007

• Take aerial photographs of Santee system to determine locations of DCCO concentration
• Return to said locations and conduct counts
• Begin analyzing the first year’s data and determining statistical relevance of findings.
• Meet with committee and possibly state/federal agencies to discuss accomplishments thus far and things to be changed/improved upon.

Fall/Winter 2007

• Have birds collected again from similar areas to see if the data varies from year to year.
• If it is determined the birds are sedentary throughout the studied range, travel to populated sites and do more in-depth damage analyses to perhaps support further research at another time.
• Conduct a winter count to document population numbers with influx of new birds from the north.
• Finish any work left to be done with the data from the previous year

Spring 2008

• Re-visit nesting colonies and get nest counts as well as observing if damage is better, worse, or the same as when visited the previous year.
• In May, visit summering sites of the year before to ensure all sites were visited at least twice.
• Defend thesis
• Graduate