Welcome to NH Audubon’s Project Biologist Lindsay Herlihy!
While this is a new role for Lindsay, she has a deep history with NH Audubon. She began volunteering with us in 2002 – as a middle schooler! More recently, Lindsay has been an independent contractor for NH Audubon tagging Wood Thrushes and Monarch Butterflies to continue Motus research. She will continue these projects as well as coordinate Project Nighthawk in her new role. A New Hampshire native and avid bird lover, she has also been bird banding at the Appledore Island Migration Station since 2003. Lindsay studied at Green Mountain College and earned a BA in “Biological Systems Research” where she explored the role of peridomestic birds in the ecology of Lyme disease and the transportation of tick vectors into the peridomestic landscape. She continued her post-graduate education at the University of Rhode Island while working for their Center for Vector-borne Disease. There she studied the efficacy of botanical-based acaricides for peridomestic control of Black-legged Ticks, the arthropod vector of the Lyme disease pathogen.
After spending six years as a high school chemistry and AP Biology teacher, Lindsay returned to pursuing her passion for research and conservation biology. She founded, and is the lead bander at, Black Mountain Banding Station in Sutton, NH. Their focus is on long-term monitoring of breeding songbirds and Northern Saw-whet Owl migration. Though free time can be hard to come by, Lindsay enjoys foraging for mushrooms, reading, crocheting, and of course, birding. She says, “You can’t get this nerd away from the birds!”
Visit the Newfound Center on Juy 15 for Lindsay’s Newfound Nature Talk to learn about the research efforts that rely on banding to study and conserve New England birds!