The Important Bird Areas Program

Protecting Habitat for Birds: The Important Bird Areas Program

By Corrie Folsom-O’Keefe Audubon Connecticut • One of Connecticut’s Most Influential Bird Conservation Organizations • A Partner Addressing a Wide Range of Environmental and Human Health Concerns • A Leader in Setting a Course for Environmental Sustainability in Connecticut National Audubon Society Flyway Conservation Strategy National Audubon Society Strategies

Coasts

Working Lands

Water

Climate Change Important Bird Areas Bird-Friendly Communities direct Audubon’s conservation work What is an Important Bird Area?

• IBAs provide essential habitat for one or more species of bird of conservation concern. • Include sites for breeding, wintering, and/or migrating birds. • IBAs may be a few acres or thousands of acres, but usually they are discrete sites that stand out from the surrounding landscape. • IBAs may include public or private lands, or both, and they may be protected or unprotected. Important Bird Areas in the USA

Flyway #IBAs Million Acres Atlantic 1017 ~82 Mississippi 718 ~60 Central 514 ~55 Pacific 600 ~240

> 2,800 IBAs, 400 million acres IDENTIFY and PRIORITIZE Select State IBA Coordinator Establish IBA Committees Identify State-level IBAs Identify Global & Continental IBAs

PROMOTE, PLAN, ENGAGE Community Engagement Raise Awareness - Advocate, educate Volunteers & Individual Action IBA Assessment & Conservation Planning Engage volunteers and communities in conservation

Reduce Threats Improve conditions

Conserve Important Bird Areas The Benefits of IBAs

• A complete inventory of IBAs allows prioritization of habitats and more efficient conservation of birds. Connecticut Breeding Grounds

Grand Bahama Island Wintering Grounds Important Bird Areas

We will focus our Forest Bird Habitat Assessments efforts on landowners in our Forest Focal Areas, many of which are IBAs The Benefits of IBAs

• A complete inventory of IBAs allows prioritization of habitats and more efficient conservation of birds. • IBAs can: • Be focus areas for education, outreach, advocacy. • Build and strengthen community pride and awareness. Work by West Have Watershed Restoration Committee The Benefits of IBAs

• A complete inventory of IBAs allows prioritization of habitats and more efficient conservation of birds. • IBAs can: • be focus areas for education, outreach, advocacy, and forest stewardship efforts. • Build and strengthen community pride and awareness • Designation can provide leverage in attaining funding for monitoring, habitat management, and protection of IBAs. • Conservation planning is a critical component of the IBA program, providing stakeholders with a strategic, science-based approach for future conservation and habitat management activities. IBAs with Conservation Plans (or plans in the works) Barn Island WMA land acquisition expansion The Benefits of IBAs

• A complete inventory of IBAs allows prioritization of habitats and more efficient conservation of birds. • IBAs can: • be focus areas for education, outreach, advocacy, and forest stewardship efforts. • Build and strengthen community pride and awareness • Designation can provide leverage in attaining funding for monitoring, habitat management, and protection of IBAs. • Conservation planning is a critical component of the IBA program, providing stakeholders with a strategic, science-based approach for future conservation and habitat management activities. • IBAs have the support of the Audubon network Opportunities to work together towards common goals Habitat Creating Urban Oases management and Bird monitoring And Schoolyard Habitats restoration

Land conservation

Inspiring the next generation of Wildlife rehabilitation Shorebird stewardship conservation leaders IBA Criteria

1) IBAs are sites important to globally threatened species (IUCN list):

• Saltmarsh Sparrow • Buff-breasted Sandpiper • Piping Plover • Semipalmated Sandpiper • Cerulean Warbler • Chimney Swift • Long-tailed Duck • Golden-winged Warbler • Rusty Blackbird • Black Rail • Black Scoter • Rusty Blackbird 2) Sites important to species of Conservation Concern on the National Audubon Society Watchlist or identified as Continental or Regional Priorities by Partners in Flight.

3) Sites important to endangered, threatened, or special concern species in Connecticut. 4) Sites that contain rare habitat within the state and hold important species largely restricted to a distinctive habitat type. 5) Sites where significant numbers of birds concentrate for breeding, during migration, or in winter.

6) Sites important for long term research or monitoring that contribute substantially to ornithology, bird conservation or education. IBA Technical Committee

IBAs are identified by a 15 member technical committee consisting ornithologists; representatives from the DEEP Wildlife Division, USFWS, and bird conservation organizations; and well respected birders. Connecticut Important Bird Areas 1. Audubon Center at Bent of the River, Southbury 2. Audubon Greenwich , Greenwich 3. Bafflin Sanctuary Complex, Pomfret 4. Barn Island Wildlife Management Area, Stonington 5. Connecticut College Arboretum, Waterford and New London 6. Cove Island Park, Stamford 7. East Rock Park, New Haven 8. Falkner Island Unit of McKinney NWR, Guilford 9. Good Hill Farm Sanctuary, Woodbury and Roxbury 10. Great Captain's Island, Greenwich 11. Greenwich Point Park, Greenwich 12. Hammonasset Beach State Park, Madison * 13. Lighthouse Point Park, New Haven 17. Naugatuck State Forest, Naugatuck and Beacon Falls 14. Mamacoke Island, Waterford 18. Northwest Park, Windsor 15. Menunketesuck and Duck Islands, Westbrook 19. Quinnipiac River Tidal Marsh, North Haven, New Haven, Hamden 16. Milford Point/Wheeler Marsh, Milford 20. Salt Meadow Unit of McKinney NWR, Westbrook 21. Sandy Point, West Haven 22. Silver Sands State Park and Charles Island, Milford 23. Station 43, South Windsor 24. Stratford Great Meadows Area, Stratford and Bridgeport 25. TNC's Devil's Den, Weston, Redding 26. Topsmead State Forest, Litchfield 27. White Memorial Foundation, Litchfield, Morris 28.Mitchell Elementary School/Woodbury Middle School, Woodbury 29.West River Memorial Park/Edgewood Park, New Haven 30.Wimisink Marsh, Sherman 31.Aton Forest, Norfolk 32.District of Willimantic, Windham 33.Couch Hill Preserve, Redding

East Hartford

Glastonbury Wethersfield

Rocky Hill What makes Great Meadows special?

Farming and annuals floods have kept the area from being developed.

It is an oasis of open habitat within a urban/suburban and forested landscape. Location, location, location.

The CT River is a major migratory corridor Variety of habitats Turf fields

Temporary puddles and open ground

Floodplain forest Marshes

Brushy edges

Croplands Grassland birds that depend on Great Meadows - Bobolink

Animated Migration Map for Bobolink Grassland birds that depend on Great Meadows - Buff-breasted Sandpiper Agricultural areas are light green, forests are dark green. You can see that there are limited agricultural areas in CT and other states in the Northeast.

An exception…Great Meadows

Additional Grassland Associated Birds

Horned Lark Savannah Sparrow

Northern Harrier

Mary Jo Adams American Kestrel

Melissa Baston

Art Gingert Wildlands Photography Great Meadows agricultural lands during early spring flooding (04/10)

Art Gingert Wildlands Photography Flooded Fields & Floodplain Forest = stop over habitat for waterfowl Flooded Fields & Floodplain Forest = stop over habitat for waterfowl

Common Merganser American Black Duck

Sandra C. Hawkins

Canada Geese Jeff Bleam Green-winged Teal

Wood Ducks

David Allen Darlene Luckins Puddles & muddy fields = good stopover habitat for shorebirds Puddles & muddy fields = good stopover habitat for shorebirds

Killdeer and Least Sandpiper

Wilson’s Snipe

Laura Frazier

Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs

Spotted Sandpiper

Migratory Songbirds Yellow-rumped Warblers

Tree Swallows

Laura Frazier Sparrows Northern Flicker

Blue Jay

Jenny Ragland

Susan Bryant Louise Zeitlin Red-winged Blackbirds Bald Eagles Recommendations • Tell people about the Great Meadows. • Continue to preserve open space. • Allow for small puddles to persist in some areas after spring floods. • Allow for weedy edges or plant feed plots that are beneficial to migratory as well as game birds (www.pheasantsforever.org). • Best management practices for use of fertilizers & pesticides on farmland. Questions?

Thank you!