The Hermit Thrush Newsletter
The year 2022 has been a mixed one for Audubon Vermont’s priorities at the Vermont General Assembly, with the story not quite yet over. As of the date of writing this article, I can report that the legislature passed some priority bills signed into law by the Governor, and passed some that have already been vetoed or face the threat of a Governor’s veto.
This report has been updated for 2021-2022.
As winter approaches the migratory birds-warblers, vireos, blackbirds, and hawks-depart. Resident birds, chickadees, titmice, cardinals and the like persist, but we dearly miss the departed. Fear not. Our winter migrants, the winter finches, and their allies will arrive shortly. Or not. The birds are known collectively as winter finches are irruptive species, appearing in Vermont in some years, but not others. Predicting their movements has become a cottage industry of sorts and forecasts put out by Tyler Hoar of the Finch Research Network.
Calibrations and Recognitions
Robert Frost's poem, “The Oven Bird,” is a poem of calibration. The poem is built on several easily recognizable literary tropes: the bird is personified, so that its song is given human meaning and human resonance. Then an analogy is extended between the bird and our human realm. Finally, another analogy is drawn between the passage of time as one season replaces another – as spring moves into summer – and the maturation of the human psyche.
The Haidee Antram Award was created 25 years ago by John and Elizabeth Newberry in honor of their daughter Haidee, who was an enthusiastic volunteer at the Green Mountain Audubon Center. This award is a scholarship given to an exceptional intern or volunteer at the GMAC and is intended to further the recipient’s education and experience in the natural world. This year the GMAS is pleased to announce that Gus Lunde is the 2019 Haidee Antram Award recipient.
The Green Mountain Audubon Society has been surveying birds at the Catamount Community Forest since 1996. With variable habitats which include forests, grasslands, edges, power line ROWs, and wetlands, we have identified 140 bird species with evidence for breeding at Catamount for 53 species. One bird we have been watching closely is the Bobolink, a grassland species which has been in serious decline in the U.S. This wonderful member of the blackbird family is a long-distance traveler. It winters in Argentina, Bolivia, and Uruguay and travels all the way to the northern U.S. and southern Canada to breed. With such a long distance to travel, Bobolinks get a single shot each year to successfully nest and raise their young. If the first attempt at nesting is unsuccessful, it’s back to South America.
The 71st Burlington circle CBC went off without a hitch. With our new organizer, Elizabeth Spinney, firmly in control 68 observers set out into the field at dawn (or in the case of Allan Strong’s owling team before dawn) on December 16 to do the count. The weather was as good as could be expected with temperatures in the 30’s and no snow cover to speak of. The 15 teams plus the nocturnal team and the crow counters recorded 73 species, just short of our record of 77, and counted 13, 246 individual birds, well short of the 2014 record of 24, 306.
Banded Bobolink photo by Marc Faucher
The Bobolink population is in decline. By one estimate half of the Bobolink population has disappeared since 1970. In Vermont the most recent Breeding Bird Atlas recorded a modest 6% decrease in block occupancy between the first and second atlases. Breeding bird survey data in Vermont revealed an annual decrease of of 2.1% between 1982 and 2007. Thus, Bobolinks are listed as a species of special conservation concern in Vermont.
The explanations for this decline are multifactorial, but loss of habitat is a major factor. As Vermont's grasslands have reverted to mature forest or succumbed to development, suitable nesting conditions for Bobolinks have disappeared. More recently, intensification of agricultural practices, specifically hay mowing during the breeding season, has devastated Bobolink reproduction success. Studies by Allan Strong from UVM and Noah Perlut now at the University of New England demonstrated that fields cut in mid-June resulted in virtually 100% mortality among fledglings. Delayed mowing resulted in improved survival of fledged chicks.
Enter the Bobolink Project. Organized by Allan Strong at UVM and colleagues at Mass Audubon, Connecticut Audubon, and the University of Connecticut, the Bobolink Project solicits private donations the proceeds of which are distributed to farmers willing to delay hay cutting until after the breeding season in June and July. In a process known as a reverse auction farmers submit bids to compensate them for the loss of value for hay that is harvested late in the growing season. Since its inception in 2013 the Bobolink Project has raised over $150,000.
This project has been a resounding success. In 2017, for example, over 600 acres of prime grasslands in Vermont were protected. An estimated 229 breeding pairs occupied this territory, producing 639 chicks that otherwise might have been sacrificed to the blade. Overall in 2018 the project was able to fund two-thirds of the applications that were received, which protected 932 acres of grassland habitat on 20 farms (16 farms in Vermont). It is estimated that 368 pairs of Bobolinks were protected and that over 1000 Bobolink chicks fledged as a result. For the past two years Audubon Vermont has assumed administrative responsibility for this project in Vermont, while Strong and his colleagues continue to refine the process of protecting habitat while encouraging farmers to enroll in the program.
Bobolink fall migration (red=male; white=female). Perlut,The Auk, Oct. 2018
Bobolink survival and dispersal are at the heart of Noah Perlut's long-term interest in protecting grassland birds. Starting as a graduate student at UVM 17 years ago, Noah has banded over 7000 Bobolinks and Savannah Sparrows at Shelburne Farms, then attempted to recapture them when they returned from their wintering grounds in South America. More recently he and his team of enthusiastic students have placed geolocators on some of these birds to identify their migration pattern and their wintering location in South America. Amazingly, these studies have documented that these small birds make a 6000 km journey from Vermont to South America and back every year, generally returning to within 1500 meters of their natal site in Vermont. The map on the right illustrates the migration of 13 Bobolinks sporting geolocators that Noah had placed on their backs in Vermont. Later these birds were recaptured and the data were analyzed. Many of these Bobolinks took the transoceanic route, flying non-stop hundreds of miles over open ocean to reach their final destination.
Noah has presented the results of his continuing work in programs at Shelburne Farms and for the GMAS. His stories of Bobolink survival document the travels of the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of the birds that he originally banded in Shelburne. For the past few years the GMAS has been pleased to participate in this work, surveying fields in Shelburne and Charlotte searching for banded birds, which Noah and his team later recapture.
What about Bobolinks on their wintering grounds? The research group at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies has promoted the concept of "full life cycle conservation", emphasizing the importance of protecting birds on their wintering grounds and migration stopovers as well as at their breeding sites. Roz Renfrew from VCE has focused her studies on Bobolinks in Bolivia, Argentina, and elsewhere in South America (see previous HT blog entry, 4/29/2011). Here rice farmers regard Bobolinks as pests (the Latin name for Bobolinks Dolichonyx oryzivorous means long-clawed rice eater after all) and use active methods, including shooting them, to drive them from their fields. Once again balancing the needs of farmers with those of the birds is the key to successful conservation efforts.
Bobolink populations are in decline, true, but sustained efforts in Vermont by conservation biologists at UVM, VCE, Audubon Vermont, and the University of New England have successfully mitigated some of the factors leading to this decline. Currently, the Bobolink population is estimated at 8 million birds. Thus, the mantra "Keep common birds common" is especially applicable to the plight of the Bobolink.
The GMAS completed another successful CBC on Sunday, December 17, 2017 under the able leadership of Shirley Johnson. This was Shirley's twentieth year organizing this event-a record in itself-and the 70th CBC conducted in the Burlington circle.
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Photo by Marc Faucher
We were not disappointed. The weather was acceptable by CBC standards and birds were plentiful, though somewhat lower than recent years. We counted 17,516 birds (the 2014 record was 24,306) and recorded 70 species. During count week three additional species were added to our count-Snowy Owl, Northern Mockingbird, and Red-winged Blackbird. Woodpeckers were especially common this year. Twenty-eight Red-bellied Woodpeckers were counted, more than double our previous record. Also, ten Northern Flickers represented a new record for our count. Likewise, 835 Dark-eyed Juncos and 26 White-throated Sparrows smashed previous records for our circle. Individual observations of note included a Golden Eagle seen at Macrae Park, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker present at a feeder, and two Turkey Vultures, an unusual species at this time of year.
On the downside, there were no irruptive species reported in our count this year. In general, the number of duck and goose species recorded was lower than usual, possibly due to mild weather preceding the count. In fact, there were no Wood Ducks, Northern Pintails, or American Wigeon reported this year and significantly lower numbers of Snow Geese, Canada Geese, Mallards, Black Ducks, and Common and Hooded Mergansers were counted. Only Greater and Lesser Scaup and Common Goldeneyes were frequent, though well below record-breaking numbers.
Among the songbirds Black-capped Chickadees, while common (642) were far from our record set in 2006 of 1072, an observation in keeping with state-wide findings in the VT eBird database. Likewise, Red-breasted Nuthatch numbers were very low (14), especially when compared to our record of 95 set in 1997.
This year we had 14 teams plus feeder and Crow counters consisting of 63 participants. Fifty years ago in 1967 only 6 observers participated in the CBC. In 1967 this small group reported 3528 birds and 42 species. We have grown over the years, but the enthusiasm for birds never wanes. Already we are looking forward to the 71st Burlington circle CBC in 2018. Hope to see you there.
