Campus Scene: Migratory Birds
Cin-Ty Lee, the Harry Carothers Wiess Professor of Geology, has turned his lifelong passion for birds into a full-time hobby at night.
Cin-Ty Lee, the Harry Carothers Wiess Professor of Geology, has turned his lifelong passion for watching, drawing and photographing birds into a full-time hobby of recording them at night.
Lee has amassed more than a terabyte of recordings of nocturnal migratory bird calls using a homemade recording setup on campus. He’s using the recordings in a number of ways, and he’s training other southeast Texas birders to make their own recordings at other locations. The idea is to compare recordings from more than one location to shed light on the little-known habits and patterns of birds that migrate by night.
“It’s purely a hobby,” Lee said. “But it’s just so much fun. It seems like everyone is immediately interested when they learn about what we’re doing. And people are joining in to help out and do recordings themselves.”
Read and watch more about Lee's latest contributions to the study of birds, the environment and their migratory patterns here and below.