Hubbard Brook Research Foundation

08/28/2026

As a new generation of young Black-throated blue Warblers embarks on their first southward migration, Hubbard Brook and Cornell Lab of Ornithology ornithologist Joe Welklin reflects on the overall nesting success of the Blues this summer at Hubbard Brook:

"Chipmunks and red squirrels were abundant this year due to a strong beech and sugar maple seed crop last year, meaning predation of Black-throated Blue Warbler nests was high. But pairs begin re-nesting soon after a prior nest fails, meaning many nests made it through the predator gauntlet and successfully fledged. A few Black-throated Blue Warbler pairs even fledged two nests! The old motto of try until you succeed rings true for these species."

Joe's video below takes us back in time to one nest’s first week after hatch. Oh, they grow up so fast!

A pair of Black-throated Blue Warblers feed 7-day-old nestlings in ...

08/24/2026

Nobody knows the sound of the ovenbird like Hubbard Brook's own Dr. Miranda Zammarelli!

This "Outside Story" article from Northern Woodlands Magazine quotes Dr. Zammarelli, who has been listening to the ovenbirds of the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest for five years for her doctoral research.

“There is a singer everyone has heard, / Loud, a mid-summer and mid-wood bird...” Heard, yes, but maybe not seen. This bird keeps me…

08/10/2026

Young Voices of Science Fall 2026 Applications open August 19 to September 4th! Please share with your networks!

Application will go live here:
https://youngvoicesofscience.org/?page_id=9

08/06/2026

Our student researchers give Hubbard Brook its magic ☀️

Thanks to all of our students and crew leaders for bringing your curiosity, humor, creativity, and determination to Hubbard Brook for this 2026 field season! We will miss you!

07/15/2026

Outtakes from Hubbard Brook’s 63rd Annual Cooperators’ Meeting 🌱

The Cooperators’ Meeting is our big yearly idea-sharing conference, where folks from across the extended Hubbard Brook world gather in one place to speak on their work of the past year.

It is incredibly valuable to have this time together in person. Thanks to all of our Hubbard Brook collaborators, colleagues, friends, and supporters for making the week a success--especially the building staff, who do an immense amount of behind-the-scenes work to prepare the space.

📸 Slide 1: 2026 Group Photo

📸 Slide 2: Our newest research team on site, the Moss Crew, here to study interactions of moss and bryophytes with stream chemistry.

📸 Slide 3: Selfie from the annual Grad student pizza dinner, featuring the best group of ~late 20 somethings around!

Photos by Raisa Kochmaruk.

07/01/2026

Enjoy a rare video of a female ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapilla) feeding her nestlings at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest.

Ovenbirds are warblers (not thrushes!) that build small, burrow-like nests on the forest floor that resemble pizza ovens- thus their name, "oven bird".

📸 Video captured by Joe Welklin, a Research Associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and crew lead for Hubbard Brook's long-term bird study on warbler reproduction and population dynamics.

View the full video at Cornell's Macaulay Library: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/660631340

Learn more about Hubbard Brook's bird study here: https://www.birds.cornell.edu/hubbardbrook/bird_research/

Joseph Welklin's photography: https://www.josephwelklin.com

06/08/2026

“Science Night” at Hubbard Brook has been a cherished summer tradition for decades, bringing generations of summer students together with more senior scientists to share research, ask questions, and pass along Hubbard Brook traditions and stories after long days in the field.

Geoff Wilson, Hubbard Brook’s Manager of Field and Lab Operations, kicked off the 2026 season with our first Science Night of the summer—held on the same porch where Hubbard Brook’s founders chatted about the small watershed approach ~60 years prior.

The first photo and video were taken in the past week. The final two images are from the 1970s, captured in the very same place.

06/05/2026

Throughout the spring and summer, Hubbard Brook researchers use time-lapse cameras to capture hourly photographs of insects visiting UV-lit moth sheets. After the field season, image-processing tools help sort through thousands of photos and identify many individuals down to species.

Although Hubbard Brook's first Community Moth Night of the season was chilly and rainy, we still found a variety of moths and enjoyed a presentation by Dartmouth biology professor Matt Ayres on current moth research at Hubbard Brook.

📸 Event photos by Haley Harrison-Leonardi
📸 Moth photos by Suhavi
📸 Macro photography by Jessica Jones
🎨 "Moths of Hubbard Brook" sheet illustrated by Raisa Kochmaruk

Challenge: How many moth families and/or species can you identify on the "Moths of Hubbard Brook" illustration?

05/22/2026

These images of insects swarming the flowers of a rare balsam willow were captured by longtime Hubbard Brook lead scientist Scott Bailey, near Hubbard Brook’s Rain Gage 1 monitoring station.

Willows are among the first trees to offer nectar in spring, making them an important early food source for insects. Balsam willow is typically a northern species, making this tree an unusual find in central New Hampshire.

View Scott's full observation on iNaturalist here, including the other insect species present on the balsam willow:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/363938242

View Hubbard Brook's page on iNaturalist here, where you can contribute your own observations of plants, animals, and insects and have them reviewed by the naturalist community:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=156083

05/15/2026

🍃Invisible Impacts: Society & Long-Term Ecosystem Change🍃

Invisible Impacts is a virtual symposium aiming to bridge social analysis and long-term ecological data to spark new interdisciplinary research on the social drivers of environmental change.

What new questions emerge when we analyze long-term ecological datasets through social lenses?

📅 June 8-9, 2026
⏱️ 9:30 am PT / 12:30 pm ET - 2:30 pm PT / 5:30 pm ET
💻 Virtual - On Zoom

🔗 Register here:
https://lnkd.in/e7c4GkVx
🌐 For more information, visit our website:
https://lnkd.in/eddtrJYS