Skip to Main Content

FNR Field Report: Gabrielle Dennis

Students from Purdue Forestry and Natural Resources took their classroom knowledge to the field for summer internships and paid positions across the country, gaining valuable experience, hands-on training and career guidance. The FNR Field Reports series offers updates from those individuals as their positions draw to a close.Gabby Dennis holds a bird during a banding session.

Senior wildlife major Gabby Dennis spent the summer as an ovenbird field technician at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

In this role, she banded and collected blood samples from adult ovenbirds and chicks, searched nests, used FieldMaps to mark observations, captured adults using target netting and playback, resighted color-banded birds, tracked ovenbird and black-throated blue warbler fledglings with radio telemetry and collected insect and vegetation data.

The position, which the Toledo, Ohio, native found on the Texas A&M natural resources job board and Ornithology Exchange, allowed Gabby to apply skills and knowledge from her FNR courses.

“Learning orienteering from (Summer) Practicum was important because I navigated almost daily by myself using a GPS and/or compass,” Dennis shared. “I used much of my knowledge from FNR536 Disturbance Ecology with Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Saunders. It was interesting seeing another part of the Appalachian Mountains in New Hampshire this summer after being in the Smokies in the spring with that class. It was sad seeing beech-bark disease in NH, but cool seeing ash without emerald ash borer symptoms. Dendrology was helpful for tree ID too.”

Being an ovenbird field technician also taught Dennis new skills, such as how to track fledglings with radioA profile image of an overbird perched on a hand telemetry, how to collect blood samples, how to band nestling and how to search for nests.

Banding the adults and nestlings or finding a new nest were Gabby’s favorite parts of the position, while hiking in very rugged terrain with lots of rocks, mud, elevation and black flies were the most challenging parts of the job.

Despite the challenges, Gabby says the position strengthened her urge to work with birds.

Previously, Dennis gained on-the-job experience acting as a seabird research assistant on Middleton Island in Alaska, and working as an interpretive educator at Columbian Park Zoo.

She also has served as the birds working group leader for the Purdue student chapter of The Wildlife Society. In addition, Gabby has researched bobcats through Dr. Pat Zollner’s lab and assisted with bird banding through Dr. Barny Dunning’s lab.

Beyond her experiences on the job this summer, Dennis also had the opportunity to explore the New Hampshire landscape.

“I summited 7 of the 48 4,000 footer mountains in NH in my free time,” she shared. “My favorite trail was Franconia Ridge, which is a small portion of the Appalachian Trail. It has 360-views when you reach the area above tree line, and it leads you to summit Mt. Lincoln and Mt. Lafayette.” 

A collage of images from Gabby Dennis's summer in New Hampshire. A collage of images from Gabby Dennis's summer in New Hampshire.

Featured Stories

Austin Grant with colleagues during his summer internship with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
FNR Field Report: Austin Grant

Austin Grant, a senior majoring in aquatic sciences with a minor in military science and...

Read More
Seedlings growing in a slash-and-burn agricultural field in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Africa. Credit: © FAO / Giulio Napolitano
Mobilizing AI to monitor forest growth and carbon sequestration

More than 1.6 million square miles of forests have disappeared since 1990, according to the Food...

Read More
Sophia DeMoss stands in a clearcut area at Summer Practicum 2024; Sophia stands next to a skidder she used in timber harvesting at her forestry internship this summer.
FNR Field Report: Sophia DeMoss

Sophia DeMoss, a senior forestry major with a concentration in forest management, got hands-on...

Read More
The front facade and steps of Pfendler Hall
New Faculty, Staff Members Join FNR

The Purdue Department of Forestry and Natural Resources has added a number of new faces to its...

Read More
Tam Tran holds a snake; Tam holds a goose; Tam holds a fish.
FNR Field Report: Tam Tran

Tam Tran, a senior majoring in wildlife and minoring in aquatic sciences, spent the summer as a...

Read More
Dr. John Kershaw conducting terrestrial laser scanning in Newfoundland with students in 2017; Dr. Kershaw with the first UNB-MAHE nursing cohort in July 2023.
Dr. John Kershaw Receives 2024 FNR Lifetime Achievement Award

When Dr. John Kershaw grew up in southern Indiana between Mooresville and Martinsville, he had a...

Read More
To Top