Maina Handmaker, a graduate student in Nathan Senner's lab, examines how the long-distance migratory shorebird Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) selects foraging and roosting sites during migratory stopover, and how those choices may influence their entire annual cycle. Although Whimbrel are dramatically declining in numbers due to the pressures of climate change encroaching upon the birds' habitats and migratory routes, Maina and her colleagues made the surprising discovery that 20,000 eastern whimbrel – half of the estimated population – stopped to roost on South Carolina's tiny Deveaux Bank during their annual migration. Maina's impressive work was the lead story on CBS this last Sunday. Check it out here!