THE NEWSLETTER OF NEW YORK CITY AUDUBON SPRING WINTER 2018 2014 / VOLUME / VOLUME XXXIX XXXV NO. NO. 1 4 THE URBAN AUDUBON The Art of Mentorship: Nurturing a Young Birder The Audubon Urban Collaborative Network 2018: Year of the Bird Spring 2018 1 NYC AUDUBON MISSION & STATEMENT Mission: NYC Audubon is a grassroots community that works for the protection of PRESIDENT’S PERCH Jeffrey Kimball wild birds and habitat in the five boroughs, improving the quality of life for all New Yorkers. s we make our way through a punishing winter, everyone is eager to welcome Vision: NYC Audubon envisions a day when the spring. For many of us nature-lovers, this season is an especially glorious birds and people in the five boroughs enjoy a healthy, livable habitat. Atime of year. The snow fades away, blossoms emerge, and, of course, migrating birds return. As the most conspicuous of wild animals, birds are often our gateway into THE URBAN AUDUBON Editors Lauren Klingsberg & Marcia T. Fowle nature. The majority of mammals are nocturnal and secretive, while most birds are Managing Editor Andrew Maas diurnally active, and being so colorful and noisy they command our attention, inviting us Newsletter Committee Ellen Azorin; Lucienne Bloch; Ned Boyajian; to appreciate the totality of the natural world. Suzanne Charlé; Diane Darrow; In this, the Year of the Bird—so named as it marks the 100th anniversary of Meryl Greenblatt; Catherine Schragis Heller; Congress’s passing the Migratory Bird Treaty Act—it serves us to refl ect on the unique Mary Jane Kaplan; Abby McBride; Hillarie O’Toole; Don Riepe; place birds occupy in our world. As Jonathan Franzen points out in his excellent “Why Carol Peace Robins Birds Matter” cover story for the January issue of National Geographic, birds inhabit every Printing & Mailing Kase Printing, Inc. corner of the planet, more widespread than any lifeform beyond the microscopic. Yet Design Whitehouse & Company for all their remarkably diverse behavior and adaptability, they cannot master their envi- Art Director Andrew Maas Publisher NYC Audubon ronment. As Franzen puts it, they “can’t protect wetlands” or “manage a fi shery.” And, he adds “our cats and our windows and our pesticides kill billions of them every year.” BOARD OF DIRECTORS Only we can protect their habitat, eliminate lethal pesticides, and advocate for President Jeffrey Kimball Executive Vice President Robert Bate keeping cats indoors and for bird-friendly window treatments. NYC Audubon, which was Vice President Catherine Schragis Heller born from awareness and concern about our urban birds, has a vital role to play. Formed Vice President Lawrence Levine Treasurer Fredric Spar almost 40 years ago to protect the birds of our city, we have made a difference thanks to Secretary Alexander Ewing fi nancial support and volunteering efforts of fellow bird conservationists. Immediate Past President Harrison D. Maas Directors Seth Ausubel; Karen Benfield; Audubon chapters all over the country embrace the infl uence we wield in educating Drianne Benner; Christian Cooper; the public about the wonders and benefi ts of birds. In short, being a birder means caring Richard H. Fried, VMD; Sarah Jeffords; Lauren Klingsberg; Deborah Laurel; about the environment. Just going out to see birds and being seen watching birds by Jenny Maritz; Rachel Quiñones; passersby can inspire others to be aware—and perhaps be more appreciative—of the John Shemilt; David Speiser; Alan Steel; natural world that surrounds us. On any given day in spring, hundreds of people eating Tom Stephenson; Michael Tannen; Richard Veit, PhD lunch in Bryant Park share that urban space with groups of binocular-clad observers. Right in the midst of Midtown, surrounded by tall buildings and concrete, there’s ADVISORY COUNCIL: Co-Chair Marcia T. Fowle*; something wild to ooh and aah about. Somebody is noticing, and somebody is walking Co-Chair James R. Sheffield; back to an offi ce desk thinking about birds. Oakes Ames*; Richard T. Andrias; Sarah Grimké Aucoin; Claude Bloch, MD; Birding offers many ways to get involved in bird conservation. Just entering your Marsilia A. Boyle; David Burg*; fi ndings into eBird contributes to the overall data set of bird distribution and numbers. Albert K. Butzel; Clifford Case; And make use of NYC Audubon’s own D-bird database, where you can enter data right Rebekah Creshkoff; Andrew Darrell; Joseph H. Ellis; Andrew Farnsworth, PhD; through your phone about a dead bird found on a sidewalk. The Christmas Bird Count, Lynne Hertzog; Mary Jane Kaplan; which began in 1900 in Central Park (and about two dozen locations throughout the Robert J. Kimtis; Kimberly Kriger; Janice Laneve; Pamela Manice; continent), has been collecting useful data for well over a century. The Great Backyard Peter Rhoades Mott*; Dorothy Peteet, PhD; Bird Count, the joint project between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Don Riepe; Lewis Rosenberg Audubon that is held every February throughout the country, or NYC Audubon’s Spring *Past President Shorebird Blitz in May, are opportunities for engagement in citizen science. Other NYC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Audubon volunteer opportunities, such as horseshoe crab monitoring or surveying the Kathryn Heintz herons of New York harbor, are all ways that birders can do what they love—look at birds—while also making a contribution to bird conservation. Here’s to spring! DIRECTOR OF CONSERVATION AND SCIENCE Susan Elbin, PhD RECYCLED 2 www.nycaudubon.org Supporting responsible use of forest resources IN THIS ISSUE SPRING 2018 © Kristen Mauzy/Audubon Photography Awards NYC AUDUBON 71 West 23rd Street Suite 1523 New York, NY 10010 Tel: 212-691-7483 Fax: 646-606-3301 www.nycaudubon.org Cover Photograph: Great Egret in Breeding Plumage © Dan Irizarry* Small Banner Photographs: Susan Elbin, Steve Nanz, and Don Riepe *This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. 7 © Don Riepe FEATURES 6 The Art of Mentorship: Nurturing a Young Birder by Hillarie O’Toole 7 The Case for Switching to Title Case for Bird Names by Andrew Maas 7 2018: Year of the Bird 8 Restoring Jamaica Bay’s West Pond 8 9 Birding with Hearing Aids by Ned Boyajian © Laura Meyers 9 Second Annual Horseshoe Crab Festival at Jamaica Bay 14 Kingsland Wildflowers Events 16 Study Measures Light’s Dramatic Impact on Bird Migration by Kellye Rosenheim 17 Safe Flight IPA Takes Off by Andrew Maas 18 Take a Guided Tour of the Audubon Mural Project 10 18 Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) by Carol Peace Robins 19 The Audubon Urban Collaborative Network © Mike Fernandez/Audubon by Meryl Greenblatt 21 What to Do When You Find a Young or Injured Bird 24 Spring NYC Shorebird Blitz DEPARTMENTS 20 Book Reviews 4 Conservation Notes 21 Spring 2018 Lecture Series 5 Volunteer! 22 News & Notes 18 10 Events & Adventures 22 Support NYC Audubon’s Mission 19 Remember the Birds 23 Acknowledgments 23 Annual Report 2017 Spring 2018 3 CONSERVATION NOTES © David Speiser RAPTORS AND RODENTICIDE from the Bird-Safe Glass Foundation, Amer- This winter has seen an irruption of ican Bird Conservancy, American Institute of Snowy Owls across the United States. Within Architecture, Green Build, Fordham Univer- our region Snowy Owls have been seen at sity, and others will be meeting to help craft Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Liberty State specifi c language to improve the likelihood of Park, Governors Island, Breezy Point Tip, the bill’s success. and Jones Beach. The infl ux of these char- ismatic raptors is a reminder of the threat GREEN HABITAT Snowy Owls and other birds of prey face in NYC Audubon is assisting with a soil our city—namely, secondary poisoning from remediation and native planting project by the rodenticide. The second-generation anticoag- Department of Environmental Protection ulant rodenticides that are so commonly used that will restore Libra Triangle Park, a small to manage rat infestations are dangerous to Snowy Owl park (35 x 76 x 76 m) located in an urban inter- wildlife, especially birds of prey. These roden- and Rusty Blackbird in New Jersey, Eastern section on Justice Avenue in Queens. As part ticides take several days to work, during which Screech-Owl at Inwood Hill Park, and Euro- of the project, we are monitoring the inver- time the poison builds up in the rat’s body, pean Goldfi nch on Governors Island. You can tebrate and bird populations within the park making it lethargic and an easy catch for a fi nd results from all Christmas Bird Counts at before and after restoration. Pre-restoration hungry raptor. Large doses of the poison will netapp.audubon.org/cbcobservation. surveys completed in 2017 indicate that the kill the feeding raptor, but even small doses park is used by common urban-dwelling birds can have negative effects on the bird’s health. PROJECT SAFE FLIGHT such as House Sparrows and at least 16 taxa The New York State Department of Since Project Safe Flight’s inception in of invertebrates. The pre-restoration inver- Environmental Conservation’s Wildlife Health 1997, over 6,800 dead and injured birds have tebrates found included springtails, snails Unit and the New York City Department been collected by volunteers monitoring and slugs, pavement ants, sap beetles, and of Health have been consulting with NYC building sites throughout New York City. It is wood louse. We look forward to reporting on Audubon on recommendations for improved a staggering number, and we wondered how changes in the park following the completion rodent control methods. Keep an eye out for many more collision victims might actually of this restoration. a rodenticide update about alternatives to anti- be at these sites during monitoring season, Thanks to the support of the New York coagulants and integrated pest management only to disappear—either carried away by Community Trust and Greenpoint Commu- in the summer issue of The Urban Audubon.