The OVEN
The OVEN is a reasearch lab in the Department of Biology at Algoma University. We study communication behaviour of temperate songbirds with a particular focus on nocturnal song and the dawn chorus. We also study the behavioural ecology of species at risk in Northern Ontario including Chimney Swifts and Piping Plovers. The OVEN acronym originates from our studies of Ovenbirds, Piping Plovers, and vocalizations of nesting birds but also the fact that the lab is often very hot.
Dr. Jenn Foote
Associate Professor
Algoma University
Megan Thompson
NOHFC Intern
Algoma University
Rachel Hasson
MSc Student
University of Windsor
Anik Graves
Honours Student
Algoma University
Alexis Lewis
Honours Student
Algoma University
Sean Mertes
Honours Student
Algoma University
Jordan Winter
Honours Student
Algoma University
Riley Butts
Summer Student
Algoma University
Julia Casagrande
NSERC USRA Student
Algoma University
Allie Lucente
Summer Student
Algoma University
Kaitlyn Plastino
Summer Student
Algoma University
Jenn is an Associate Professor at Algoma University and The OVEN team-lead. Jenn is interested in understanding why birds sing at particular times of day. Her work focuses on the timing and content of both the dawn chorus and nocturnal vocal behaviour. Jenn completed a Post Doc with Dan Mennill at University of Windsor, PhD with Laurene Ratcliffe at Queen's University, MSc with Colleen Barber at Dalhousie University, and BSc at St. Mary's University. Jenn has been at Algoma University since 2010. Email: jennifer.foote@algomau.ca
Megan joined the lab in March of 2019 as an Avian Social Behaviour Intern. She brings a wealth of expertise in animal behaviour to our team. Megan is working on several song analysis (ovenbird, white-throated sparrow) projects as well as several field projects (winter resident birds, white-throated sparrows). Megan enjoys bird-watching with chickadees on her head.
Rachel is co-supervised by Jenn and Dan Mennill at the University of Windsor. She joined the lab in spring of 2015 and is working with Blaine to record passerine migratory behaviour across the Great Lakes using a transect of microphones to record nocturnal flight calls. Rachel is investigating the timing of migration within the night as well as across the range and is interested in how atmospheric conditions influence night flight calling behaviour.
Anik joined the lab in the spring of 2019 when she started collecting data for her thesis project on interactions between chimney swifts and herring gulls.
Alexis joined The OVEN as an internship student in the spring of 2019. Alexis worked on the white-throated sparrow project mapping territories of several pairs. Now Alexis is working on her thesis looking at nocturnal song of white-throated sparrows
Sean joined The OVEN as an internship student in the Fall of 2018. Sean entered part of a historical dataset of bird observations from the Elliot Lake region into eBird. Now Sean is working on his thesis looking at repeatability of dawn chorus traits in white-throated sparrows
Jordan joined The OVEN in the fall of 2017. She worked on the RFID chickadee project helping Kristen Marini making observations of birds at feeders and then spent the summer tracking white-throated sparrows. After spending the spring of 2019 at Long Point, Jordan is working on her Honours project on geographic variation in brown creeper song.
Riley joined the lab in the summer of 2019 as a Chimney Swift monitoring assistant with Jennie Pearce of Great Lakes Wildlife Research. She has scanned hundreds of hours of video footage to count swifts at our local roosts.
Julia joined the lab in the summer of 2019 as an NSERC USRA student. Julia has been working on vocal beahviour of white-throated sparrows both in the field and lab.
Allie joined The OVEN as a volunteer in the winter of 2017. Allie is a Social Work student but is doing a minor in Biology and is interested in bird behaviour. Allie joined us for the summer of 2019 as a Chimney Swift monitoring assistant with Jennie Pearce of Great Lakes Wildlife Research. She has scanned hundreds of hours of video footage to count swifts at our local roosts.
Kaitlyn joined The OVEN in the summer of 2019 as a Summer Employment Program Student. Kaitlyn worked on white-throated sparrows in the field, observing behaviour and finding nests. In the lab, she has been scanning boreal forest recordings to look at Connecticut Warbler songs.
Paulina Bas-Rodriguez
Summer Student
Algoma University
Pau joined the lab in the summer of 2019 as a Work Study and Summer Employment Program student. She spent a few days in the field with us working on white-throated sparrows and has been helping identify and annotate songs in our big dataset of field recordings.
Keeghan Rosso
Volunteer
Algoma University
Keeghan is a Psychology major who is interested in cognitive ecology. He is volunteering on our winter resident bird project working in collaboration with Dave Brodbeck.
Adam Solomon
Internship Student
Algoma University
Adam joined the lab as an internship student in the spring/summer term. He got some field experience working on the white-throated sparrow project and some lab experience working with ovenbird songs.