Spring 2014 from Rusty Blackbirds to Big
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Vol. 7, Issue 1 Field Notes Spring 2014 Uniting People and Science for Conservation Migratory Snapshots: Blitzing for Blackbirds female Rusty Blackbird Clark © Daniel W. to the boreal forests of A huddles on a Minnesota Canada, Alaska, and far rooftop during a blizzard, northern New England. fluffing herself into a ball Rusty Blackbirds pose to keep warm. A male flips both a conservation chal- leaves in a roadside ditch lenge and an environmental in Maryland, navigating mystery. This species has partially frozen mud to hunt experienced one of the most for spring’s first inverte- precipitous declines of any brates. A noisy, mixed flock once-common landbird, los- of Red-winged Blackbirds, ing up to 95% of its popu- Brown-headed Cowbirds, lation over a 40-year span. and the occasional Rusty lifts Until the late 1990s, no one off from an Ohio cornfield, noticed this decline, much seeking safety in nearby Rusty Blackbirds migrate northwards from their southeastern U.S. less understood it. Today, trees. breeding grounds to the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska, arriving although some of the bird’s from the end of April to the beginning of June. habits remain unstudied, our These snapshots highlight new understanding of Rusty the adventures and challenges of Rusty Blackbird spring Blackbird breeding and wintering ecology enables scientists migration, a journey that takes this species from its flooded to formulate conservation strategies for this species on both forest wintering grounds in the southeastern U.S. northward ends of its migratory range. However, we know little about Continued on page 6 VCE: Growing “A New Kind of People” ack in the 1930s, Aldo Leopold, one of the coun- © Mikael Wiman Btry’s greatest and earliest ecological masterminds, lamented that in order to conserve our natural re- sources we needed to grow “a new kind of people.” We think of Leopold today as the architect of The Land Ethic, author of A Sand County Almanac, as the wildlife ecologist who urged us to “think like a mountain.” But back in the ‘30s, the Dust Bowl years, he was obsessed with soil loss. In the Desert Southwest where Leopold worked, fragile watersheds had gullied out and washed away, thanks to several generations of European farm- ers who had no idea how to farm sustainably in arid environments. The “new people” Leopold called for would understand ecological relationships and instinc- tively know that how they behaved on the land had broad ecological and social consequences. Leopold The transformative power of community-based participatory research constantly reminded the foresters who worked for him helps cultivate compassionate, well-informed citizen scientists. that their most important job was not growing trees, but growing that new type of person. Continued on page 7 www.vtecostudies.org Field Notes Spring 2014 • Volume 7, No. 1 VCE View ow does VCE’s work lead to on-the-ground conservation? That is a question we Executive Director Hregularly demand of ourselves, and which many of you, our constituents, have Chris Rimmer posed over the years. It’s a fair and crucially important query. As much as all of us here are driven by scientific curiosity and inspired by ecological intrigue, our mission is driven Associate Director by conservation outcomes. In an increasingly uncertain world, the metrics for gauging our Susan Hindinger impact can be elusive, but linking science and conservation is what propels us at VCE. Conservation Biologists Steve Faccio Simply put, VCE delivers the science needed Eric Hanson to make good decisions for wildlife and Kent McFarland their habitats. From loons to salamanders, Juan Carlos Martínez-Sanchez Bobolinks to bumblebees, our research and Rosalind Renfrew monitoring detect early warning signs, identify Judith Scarl threats, and translate findings into science- Sara Zahendra based actions. Citizen engagement and profes- Business Manager sional collaborations across the hemisphere Melissa MacKenzie are our primary tools. The former creates advocates for sound policy, while the latter Board of Directors puts good policy into practice. It’s a winning Peter Brooke, Chair formula. Margaret Cheney Brian Dade What we don’t do at VCE is conservation Jared Keyes Chris Rimmer advocacy. We don’t take positions on regula- Elizabeth Ruml tory issues, and you won’t see VCE advo- cating for one side or the other in a policy The Vermont Center for debate. Our approach uses rigorous, objective science to inform and guide conservation Ecostudies (VCE) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is policy. We apply ecological facts and principles to conservation problems. To us biologists, to advance the conservation there couldn’t be a clearer mandate. To our partners—federal and state agencies, natural of wildlife across the Americas resource managers, other non-profits, and you, our citizen scientists—it’s a mandate on through research, monitoring, which VCE reliably delivers. and citizen engagement. With a reach extending from Canada and northern New England through the What have been the tangible conservation outcomes of our research and monitoring over Caribbean and South America, our the past seven years? These pages and our forthcoming 2013 annual report (available soon work unites people and science on our website) offer a few highlights. Ultimately, I believe that VCE’s enduring measure for conservation. of impact and success is the community of people—fellow conservationists, Aldo Leop- old’s “New Kind of People”—whom we’ve managed to engage and inspire. That number continues to gain strength, telling me we’re on the right track. —Chris Rimmer Field Notes is VCE’s biannual newsletter and is free to our constituents. Susan Hindinger Joins VCE Staff e couldn’t be more pleased to welcome Susan Hindinger Vermont Center for Ecostudies as our Associate Director. Many of us have known Su- PO Box 420 W Norwich, VT 05055 san for years, through her past work at the Vermont Institute (802) 649-1431 of Natural Science and more recently at the Riverledge Foun- dation. She brings a passion for natural history (in particular, a fascination with spiders), a strong grounding in conservation Printed on recycled paper biology, a broad network of partnerships, and a keen apti- tude for management. Susan will wear many hats at VCE, but Field Notes is made possible foremost among them is helping to steer the institutional ship by a generous gift from via oversight of our scientific programs, communications, and Jeff and Terry Marshall. operations. It’s a tall order, but Susan is clearly up to the task. © Todd Hindinger 2 — Spring 2014 www.vtecostudies.org A Vermont eBird Decade ach spring, millions of birds embark on an epic journey lenge and then some. To date, we’ve documented 380 bird Enorth from their wintering grounds to Vermont’s thaw- species and tallied nearly 123,000 checklists across the state, ing and greening landscape. And each year, hundreds of bird- representing over 10.6 million individual birds (that’s two ers throughout the state and beyond observe this spectacular birds counted every minute for ten years!). Together, we’ve phenomenon, carefully noting which species they saw, when amassed what is arguably Vermont’s single largest biodiversity and where, and in what numbers. database ever. Beginning in 1974 and continuing for more than 30 years, From the cacophony of 44,000 migrating Snow Geese rest- Vermont birdwatchers summarized and submitted their ing on an Alburgh field along Lake Champlain, to the dawn seasonal tallies to the Records chorus of Bicknell’s Thrush of Vermont Birds project, © just before sunrise in the Allen Gathman sponsored by the Vermont Green Mountains, or simply Institute of Natural Science. the pair of Northern Cardi- With the help of a corps of nals nesting in a backyard, dedicated volunteers, quarterly each birdwatcher’s observa- reports were assembled into tions constitute a piece of the a statewide summary that was puzzle. And just like puzzle printed and mailed to birders. pieces, these observations Paper forms were archived are far less valuable alone in boxes, making retrieval of than fully interconnected. these data for science and The sightings tucked away in conservation laborious. This your memory, scribbled in a all changed in 2002 with the notebook, crammed into an launch of eBird, a real-time old shoebox, or even dutifully online checklist program that recorded on a spreadsheet, was about to revolutionize leave gaps in the grand puzzle how the birding community of avian knowledge. For bird reports and accesses informa- records—both current and tion about birds. archived—to most effectively advance our understanding of Vermont was quick to seize nature, they must be assembled on this opportunity. Working and organized into a central closely with the Cornell Lab database. Now, a full decade of Ornithology, architects of and nearly 11 million records the fledgling eBird, Kent Mc- after Vermont eBird’s launch, Farland helped to develop the Since 2003, dedicated birders have submitted over 10 million records to Vermont eBird. we’re fitting together a remark- first state-specific eBird portal. able puzzle whose interlock- In 2003, Vermont eBird was ing pieces are providing more hatched, and Vermont birders, with years of experience re- clarity, checklist by checklist, on our state’s avifauna. Across cording data on paper, were primed for electronic action. Vermont and the entire globe, eBird provides a powerhouse of information for science and bird conservation. Fast-forward a decade later. From a first-ever Band-rumped Storm-Petrel tossed into the state by tropical storm Irene to the ubiquitous Black-capped Chickadee, with over 62,000 —Kent McFarland records reported, Vermont eBirders have risen to the chal- Drink Coffee for the Birds! Support sustainability and help VCE at the same time.