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5/The consequences of godwit chick inflexibility are most profound for female chicks, which most grow larger than males. Contrary to our predictions, female chicks did not forage more than males. Their growth rates also peaked later than males, after local insect abundance had begun to decline.

The growth rates of female godwit chicks peaked later than those of males, meaning that they peaked after local insect abundance had begun to decline.

4/In the chick phase, however, the story is different. Godwit chicks appear unable to alter their activity patterns in response to changes in the environment. When conditions were cold, even older chicks moved little. And, it was only after a week with little food that chicks began foraging more.

Relationship between food availability and godwit chick movement.

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3/Despite the changes to their nesting habitat, local godwit breeding densities have not declined, nor are fewer nest sites now available. And, surprisingly, godwit nesting success has increased by 22% over the course of the study. The muskeg bog may, therefore, be acting as a climate refugium.

Hudsonian Godwit chicks hatching. Photo by Shawn Billerman.

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Nathan Senner @drgodwit.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

2/Across the two papers we investigated how Hudsonian Godwits are responding to climatic changes during their breeding season in Alaska over the past 17 years. We found that the bog has dried and grown more botanically diverse, but that the bog as a whole is changing faster than godwit nest sites.

A male Hudsonian Godwit on a nest. Photo by Andrew S. Johnson.

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Project PhD student Rozy Bathrick has also put together an amazing interactive museum exhibit detailing our project's findings and ways to help solve the bird-window collision crisis. The exhibit will be opening on the UMass campus on April 2nd in the Olver Design Building. Come visit if you can!

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Nathan Senner @drgodwit.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Absolutely thrilled to share that our student-led Bird Safe UMass project was awarded a Massachusetts State Biodiversity Grant! We will use the $$ to place bird-safe window coverings on four of the deadliest buildings on the @umassamherst.bsky.social campus this spring. www.mass.gov/news/healey-...

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Nathan Senner @drgodwit.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

As #CMSCOP15 begins and considers whether to list a number of shorebird species as globally Endangered, it's exciting to share our new paper outlining the collaborative infrastructure the shorebird community is creating to tackle conservation issues. conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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7/Ultimately, large, age-structured populations may be robust to rare mass-mortality events. But, if those events start to happen more frequently, recovery may become impossible. What's more, climate change is also selecting for earlier breeding, putting martins between a rock and a hard place.

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6/Nonetheless, our demographic analyses suggest that because of the reduction in reproductive success and the number of adults killed by the storm, martin populations will take at least 6-7 years to recover. That's if another storm doesn't come along first. If that happens, recovery could decades...

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4/Following the storm, martins delayed breeding by 12 days and their reproductive success was the lowest in 27 years of citizen science monitoring. In 2022, they also returned to TX and LA 2 wks late. Using these data, we estimated that the storm killed 5-24% of adult martins across the two states.

3/By examining the specimens, we determined that the martins likely died of cold exposure and not starvation. We also compared their genomes with those of martins sampled from TX both before and after the storm. Remarkably we saw signatures across the genome of differences among these three groups.

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Nathan Senner @drgodwit.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

1/ Remember when Ted Cruz went to Cancún as the Texas power grid failed? It wasn't just the people of TX left behind, it was also the wildlife. Out now @natecoevo.nature.com, our paper led by @mstager.bsky.social & @treeswallows.bsky.social documents how bad the storms were for birds. rdcu.be/e7aUy

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Please repost! We are looking for two field technicians to work on our deer mouse project in the Colorado Rockies this spring-fall. Learn about physiology, ecology, and evolution, all in one project! Not to mention that you get to be in the ⛰️. Reach out if you have any questions.

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Nathan Senner @drgodwit.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

One of the coolest parts of tracking birds is getting to see those individuals in the wild again. Yesterday, near São Luis, Brazil, we saw a Whimbrel tagged in TX by Manomet and U. of OK in 2022! Since then it's been to the MacKenzie Delta & Southampton Island + Cape Cod, MA! Photos: Alan Kneidel

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5/This suggests that mice exhibit incomplete genetic compensation, likely because other environmental factors also influence oxygen demand. The short-term need to shiver when it's cold, for instance, may outweigh the longer-term negative consequences that high blood viscosity has on the heart.

4/In the field, however, across >4000m of elevation, mice increase their hematocrit and hemoglobin at a rate in between those of low- and high-elevation mice in the lab. Thus, high-elevation populations of mice in the wild exhibit higher concentrations than those same populations do in the lab.

3/In the lab, mice from high elevations showed only a small increase in hematocrit and hemoglobin at moderate simulated elevations and no additional increase at higher elevations. Two separate populations of mice from low elevations, on the other hand, kept increasing their Hct & Hb concentrations.

Nathan Senner @drgodwit.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

1/How do maladaptive responses to novel environments influence trait evolution? With field & lab studies, we (@jpvelotta.bsky.social & @mstager.bsky.social) explored this in deer mice along an elevational gradient. And...it's complicated! 😱 academic-oup-com.silk.library.umass.edu/evolut/artic...

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One of the best parts of tracking birds is getting reports of those birds from far away. Thus, it was so cool to learn that not one, but two of the Willet our Mass Audubon-led team tagged in Massachusetts in June were seen in Barbados! Thanks to Michael St John and other birders for their sightings!

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5/Finally, on Friday at #AOS2025, in Grand Ballroom B at 3:45, I will be standing in for Julián García-Walther to talk about his research on the effects of sea level rise on the waterbird community of NW Mexico. His work combines detailed oceanographic modeling and fine-scale bird tracking data.

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4/On Thursday morning at #AOS2025, postdoc Teresa Pegan, will be giving the James Cooper Early Professional Award Plenary on, "The Evolutionary Consequences of Migration." Godwits will only play a small role in her talk, but she will have much more to share about their genomics at future meetings!

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3/Following Maria's talk, joint Stager-Senner lab postdoc, Paul Dougherty, will be talking at #AOS2025 in Grand Ballroom A at 10:45. He is talking about tracking Lazuli Buntings to understand the cues that drive when and where they molt each fall, as well as why fieldwork in Montana is awesome!

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2/On Wed morning at #AOS2025, lab collaborator Maria Stager will be giving the Ned Johnson Early Investigator Award Plenary. Maria will be talking about her amazing work at the interface of physiology, evolution, and ecology in a talk entitled, "The importance of flexibility in a changing world."

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Nathan Senner @drgodwit.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

1/Lots going on from the Senner Lab and the @umassamherst.bsky.social community at #AOS2025! @feipenghuang.bsky.social gets the ball rolling with Poster #13 on Tuesday evening. He will be presenting on how Hudsonian Godwit chicks (try to) avoid predators in space and time.

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3/Winter storms, especially during strong El Niño events, can erode berms. It may take years for them to re-form. Without berms, terns and plovers can struggle to find nest sites. El Niño events are also becoming stronger and more frequent, leading to prolonged periods without berms on some beaches.

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Nathan Senner @drgodwit.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

2/The danger of flooding also influences where birds place their nests on beaches. 'Berms' are platforms of sand that form above areas with high wave action. Least Terns and Snowy Plovers preferentially nest on berms when they exist, thereby largely avoiding both waves and unusually high tides.

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Nathan Senner @drgodwit.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

3/Next we asked whether individual birds are changing their migratory timing over the course of their lives. We unfortunately only had one individual that we tracked for long enough to expect to see such changes, but it followed the population-level pattern exactly - shifting its timing by 6 days.

Nathan Senner @drgodwit.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

2/But why? First, we found godwits are also departing their nonbreeding sites in Chile 6 days later, but continue to complete their northward migrations in ~24 days. This, despite the fact that trans-hemispheric migratory birds have been hypothesized to have largely inflexible departure timing.

Nathan Senner @drgodwit.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Help make the @umassamherst.bsky.social campus bird friendly! Since 2022, hundreds of student volunteers have found 100s of bird-window collisions. With $2100 we can put up bird-safe window coverings on one of the deadliest buildings. You can donate here: minutefund.uma-foundation.org/project/46296

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Nathan Senner @drgodwit.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

3/On the other hand, our estimates for South American breeding species are far higher than previous estimates, likely because no systematic surveys had been carried out for most of these species. Magellanic Oystercatchers, for one, may have a far larger population than previously thought (~165000).