Audubon New Mexico Winter 2005
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
From the Director
GAIN Access into Nature
The Magdalena Mountains -- Threats Increase
Guia de Campo a las Ayes de Norteamérica
A Fond Farewell
Windows: A Human Hazard for Birds
Hurricane Impacts along the Gulf
Coast
The Ryan Beaulieu Memorial Youth
Scholarship Fund
Learning Look-Alikes: Sandhill Crane &
Great Blue Heron
Southwestern New Mexico Audubon Society Launches Brand New Web Page!
Southwestern New Mexico Audubon Society Online Bird Sightings Report Gains Popularity
Citizen Science Proves Out In
Ornithology
From the Director's Desk The Next 100 Years By David Henderson
The Centennial Year of Audubon’s commitment to environmental
protection, especially the protection of birds, other wildlife and their
habitats, is drawing to a close.
But that only means it is time to look forward. I believe
this next century provides enormous possibilities, possibilities that will
require us to continue to work together and to be even more creative than we
were in the first 100 years. The challenges to come will be more than
identifying and protecting important nesting areas for birds like Pelican
Island, our first National Wildlife Refuge, in Florida, and the Bosque del
Apache National Wildlife Refuge in our own state. We will have to be much more
global in our commitment. As we commit to protecting critical areas through our
Important Bird Areas Program we must also think about how greenhouse gases and
global warming are affecting our lives and the lives of the wildlife we care for
so much.
Two events occurred recently that caused me to think about
just how small and fragile our world really is. Though resilient, it is also
vulnerable. The first event was hurricane Katrina. I predict that the Louisiana
and Mississippi coastline will never be the same again. But the one thing that
struck me as I watched newscasts of this event was that, for perhaps the first
time, the nation began to hear that in part this disaster was caused by our own
ignorance and neglect of natural systems that had evolved to provide a buffer in
such natural situations. Where were Louisiana’s coastal wetlands when we needed
them? If this storm told us anything it is that levees are not the total answer
and perhaps we need to again look at the workings of nature to remind us of the
limitations of human involvement. We must partner with nature in our effort to
strike an appropriate balance.
The other event is the current concern over the spread of
avian flu. Though birds have always held the capacity to influence change
throughout the world as a result of their ability to migrate, this flu again
serves to highlight that we humans are a big player in the shaping of the future
of our planet, but we ale still just a player. And while playing the game, and
being the best player we can possibly be, we cannot determine nor predict the
outcome. That is why it is so important that we play as responsible a role as we
can, and that we maintain our playing field, Earth, in as healthy a condition
as we possibly can.
We are fortunate in New Mexico that we still have wonderful
wildlife resources to enjoy and protect and we have the time to plan for their
and our future. let’s work to make sure that the future benefits us all and that
Ihe next ioo years will be defined by the flourishing of our natural heritage, a
heritage to be appreciated by generations to come.
GAIN Access into Nature By Dan Williams
The Gaining Access Into Nature program, approved by the 2005 Legislature and
signed into law by Governor Bill Richardson, opens new year-round
wildlife-related recreational opportunities not normally associated with
traditional hunting and angling. By providing greater access to state-owned
lands, the Department of Game and Fish hopes to stimulate local economies and
promote more diverse appreciation for the state’s wildlife. Activities vary from
bird watching to tours of the state’s best areas to see elk, deer and bighorn
sheep. To ensure quality experiences in GAIN’s first year, the Department of
Game and Fish biologists and other experts will guide all activities. Program
participants will be selected by public drawings, and reasonable fees will be
charged for habitat maintenance and to help recover some of the program costs.
Initial GAIN activities began early in summer 2005 on the
state’s Wildlife Management Areas. Applications for fall and winter activities
are underway on the Department web site, www.wildlife.state.nm.us. More
opportunities will be added in wildlife areas statewide depending upon seasons
and viewing opportunities. Fall is expected to be one of the most popular GAIN
seasons, when participants can join wildlife biologists and other experts to
listen to the elk bugling in the Sargent Wildlife Area near Chama in northern
New Mexico.
“Enjoying New Mexico’s wildlife is something that can be
done year-round in all regions of the state,” Director Bruce Thompson said.
“GAIN allows us to open more public lands and help people enjoy and perhaps
better appreciate them.
Deer viewing: Six applicants will be selected to tour the Sargent,
Humphries or Rio Chama wildlife areas to see some of New Mexico’s largest mule
deer. One tour is planned. Check the website for dates. The fee is $74 per
person.
Desert bighorn sheep viewing: The public rarely gets to venture inside
the Red Rock Wildlife Area, the Department’s breeding facility for desert
bighorn sheep. That’s why three separate GAIN activities are so special. Rugged
hiking will put participants very close to some very large sheep on these three
guided tours. Six applicants will be selected for each tour, scheduled Dec. 3,
Jan. 3 and Feb 4. The fee is $56 per person.
The Magdalena Mountains -- Threats Increase By Bernard Foy
Water Canyon in the beautiful Magdalena Mountains, west of Socorro, is one of
the best known birding spots in New Mexico. It was one of the first places I
visited when I moved here fifteen years ago. After hours of driving, I got out
to stretch late on a warm January afternoon, looked up, and saw a Bridled
Titmouse in its northernmost breeding spot. (Since then, I have gotten that bird
only in a different canyon.) Accompanying this striking bird are Red-faced
Warblers, Olive Warblers, Gray Flycatchers, Zone-tailed Hawks, Golden Eagles,
Montezuma Quail, and a prodigious number of owl species (W. Screech,
Flammulated, Great-horned, Spotted, Pygmy, and Saw-whet) in various parts of
this isolated sky-island configuration of steep slopes clad with Alligator
Juniper, Ponderosa, and mixed conifer. It is one of our state’s ornithological
treasures.
Judging from recent Forest Service decisions, however, they
do not share our passion for this place. A new telescope project is being built
high up in the subalpine grassland meadow areas near the peak, to be called the
Magdalena Ridge Observatory (www.mro.nmt.edu). Compared to other mountain-top
telescope facilities, this will be large, with up to eleven separate telescopes
connected by a central building. Nesting and foraging areas in the grasslands
along the ridge will likely be emptied of birdlife. Audubon conservationists
submitted comments in the Environmental Assessment process in 2003 to try to
minimize damage to habitat and to prevent usurpation of surface water supplies
by the astronomers. Our comments were sadly ignored.
This year, the Forest Service unveiled more development
plans for Water Canyon in the form of a greatly expanded campground area. While
we applauded the parallel effort to remove old campsites from the cottonwood
riparian area, Audubon conservationists wrote to the Forest Service with
concerns about disruption of habitat for owls and Gray Flycatcher, and
questioned whether facility expansion was in the best interest of wildlife
conservation in this sensitive area. Once again, the Forest Service ignored our
concerns completely and approved their original plan.
Audubon’s appeal was overruled by Cibola Forest Supervisor
Nancy Rose. In a meeting with us in August, Ms. Rose admitted that the
environmental assessment was unsatisfactory, but she approved it nonetheless.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: write to Forest Supervisor Nancy Rose
(2113 Osuna Rd. NE, Suite A, Albuquerque, 87113) and ask her to minimize
campground expansion in Water Canyon and to include wildlife conservation as a
key element in future planning For the Magdalena Mountains. Tell her you travel
to Water Canyon to enjoy the unique birdlife.
SPOTLIGHT Guia de Campo a las Ayes de Norteamérica
When the Focus Guide to Birds of North America (2000, Houghton Mifflin)
became an instant success, author and birder extraordinaire Kenn Kaufman asked
his publishers if they would consider a Spanish language version. After all,
over 28 million people in this country speak Spanish in the home and he wanted
to give those folks more access to birding and to nature. When the publishers
showed little interest, Kaufman set about to publish his own version at his
expense!
Guia de Campo a las Aves de Norteamérica covers birds
likely to be seen in the U.S., Baja California and in Mexico within
approximately 200 miles of its northern border. The translation done by an
ornithologist friend in Mexico and page layouts took three years to complete.
Kaufman also insisted that the Spanish version be a few dollars less in price to
make it more accessible. He hopes to inspire even more birders and
conservationists.
The Guia is available at the Randall Davey Center Nature
Store for $18.95 and multiple copies may be ordered through the store. We salute
Kenn, who spoke to members of the Randall Davey Roundtable in Summer 2003, for
this magnanimous effort to bring birding to more people.
A Fond Farewell By Deanna Einspahr
After perhaps the longest notice in history, I resigned from ANM in
September to spend some quality time with my husband Rick and the dogs, and to
pursue other interests. I remain involved in Audubon in many other ways, such as
volunteering in the IBA program and coordinating a couple of Christmas Bird
Counts.
I look back fondly at my years at Audubon. When I walked
into the old barn and assumed duties as part of a 3-person staff, I knew next to
nothing about the natural world. So many stories and adventures come to mind.
Soon after I started, two neighborhood boys rode up to the Center on their
bikes, with a plastic bag full of something. Plop. They set it on the desk in
the bookstore, and said their mom wanted us to identify it. I peeked inside, and
it was a pile of, well, poop, a.k.a. scat. I gratefully noticed it didn’t smell.
I had no idea what animal had produced it, but offered to find out. When David
(Henderson) came back from lunch, he looked in the bag, pronounced it “bear,”
and went off to his desk. I think the kids’ mother wanted it to be raccoon, but
it most certainly wasn’t.
Besides learning about scat, I learned birding skills at
the hands of many wonderful, patient Audubon chapter volunteers and staff, on
field trips, CBCs and Birdathons. There are way too many of you to thank
personally. The Center provided a wonderful environment in which to hone those
skills. Who can forget the nesting Cooper’s Hawks while the new buildings were
being constructed, or the Bohemian Waxwing phenomenon last spring? I still have
so much to learn, and now have time to do more of the birding outings we all
love to do.
I will also never forget the pre-dawn field trip to see the
Lesser Prairie Chickens on their leks near Roswell. I’ve deserved the fair
amount of teasing I’ve received over the years about not being a morning person,
but I always seemed to be able to get out of bed for those chances to see
nature’s spectacles. I grew up in Nebraska near the Platte River, but never
experienced the Sandhill Crane migration until my tenure at Audubon. In my view,
that is the strength and the gift of Audubon: to bring children and adults into
a greater understanding and appreciation of the natural world in which we live.
Audubon has the tools to help citizens learn about protecting our environment,
and to help all of us learn about being part of a complex natural system filled
with intelligence and grace. As a species and as individuals, we have much to
learn about our place in this environment. I am grateful that Audubon New Mexico
is vibrantly working for and with us to achieve this understanding. Let’s all
keep up the good work of conservation, keep a hopeful outlook and get out there
birding. Thanks again to all Auduboners who helped make my 11 years a wonderful
experience!
Windows: A Human Hazard for Birds
The problem: Clear and reflective window panes in homes or commercial
buildings are a passive killer of wild birds worldwide. Fatal or harmful
collisions occur when birds do not see the window, or see sky or habitat
reflected in the glass. Collisions also occur when a bird sees its own
reflection, mistaking it for a territorial threat from another bird.
Intensive studies at single-family homes reveal that-one
out of every two strikes results in a ‘fatality. Birds may be killed instantly,
are injured and die subsequently, or are taken by predators while recovering
from the collision. Many people are unaware that birds are being killed at their
windows because the victims are small, frequently fall behind shrubbery, and
more often than not are eaten by predators or scavengers.
Among the dead are rare, threatened, and endangered species
as well as the abundant, Investigators have gathered extensive evidence
documenting window glass as a growing source of avian mortality, and a suspected
contributor to overall bird population declines.
The Facts: Approximately 225 species of birds in the United
-States and Canada have been documented striking windows. Strikes occur at
windows of various sizes, heights, and orientation in urban, suburban, and rural
environments. Strikes are more frequent during winter when large groups of birds
are attracted to feeders than at any other time of the year, including the
spring and fall migratory periods, when casualties may attract more human
attention because the birds are often more visible on sidewalks or around
workplaces.
Researchers differ in their evaluations of the magnitude
that glass exacts on individual species and bird populations overall. In the
197os, before studies were conducted, annual deaths attributable to windows were
hypothesized to be 3. million individuals. Since then, with extensive studies
over the past two decades the estimate of the annual toll has been increased to
between 97 million to 97 million birds in the U.S. alone.
This estimated toll is based on the assumption that between
one and ten birds are killed at each building in the U.S. each year. Another
independent study produced similar results, examining data collected by 5,500
volunteers who recorded bird strikes at windows while they counted visitors to
feeding stations at their homes.
Some researchers suggest that, given the number of windows,
the overall avian mortality attributable to glass could be even greater than
that caused by cats.
Making Homes and Workplaces Safe for Birds: Currently there
are many solutions that effectively reduce or eliminate bird strikes, but none
is universally applicable or readily acceptable for all human structures.
Protective measures range from physical barriers that keep birds from striking
the glass to making a window more visible.
1. Placement of bird feeders within three feet of a window eliminates the hazard
for birds visiting a feeder.
2. Decals, including cut-outs of raptors, and leaded glass decorations are only
moderately successful.
3. Vertical exterior tape strips not more than 4 inches apart are a good
deterrent.
4. Interior vertical blinds with the slats half open can cut down on some
casualties.
5. Windows can be “soaped” to cut down on reflection.
6. Shade trees planted outside the window can aid in breaking up or completely
eliminating reflection of large areas of open sky.
7. Mesh window screens are a great deterrent though sometimes not practical for
large picture windows.
8. Feathers strung on fishing line and hung in front of windows visually breakup
the glass area and provide a moving distraction.
In the Eye of the Storm: Hurricane
Impacts along the Gulf Coast By Nancy Stotz
As I write this, Hurricane Wilma is churning in the western Caribbean. The
latest entry in this year’s record-setting hurricane season, Wilma is expected
to slam the Yucatan Peninsula before turning her aim toward southern Florida.
Still dazed from Katrina and Rita, I brace myself for the upcoming assault of
non-stop news coverage, replete with dramatic film footage of destruction and
human misery. As I struggle to comprehend the impact of these storms from the
safety of my New Mexico home. I can’t help but wonder about the stories I don’t
see among the deluge of coverage on CNN or The Weather Channel—we know of
immense losses to many human communities along the Gulf Coast hut how have the
natural communities fared?
I know that over millennia, natural communities have
evolved a resiliency that should allow them to adapt and recover from
catastrophic storms. But over the last several decades, human impacts have been
accelerating along the Gulf Coast—population growth, coastal development. and
alterations of the natural sedimentation and flooding patterns of rivers in the
area have destroyed vast swaths of natural habitats, forcing the remaining
natural communities into smaller and smaller areas. Do those remnant patches of
habitat offer native plants and animals enough refuge from the storms to allow
them to recover?
What follows is a compilation of information from a handful
of websites and email list serves that describe some of the impacts of
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and how the conservation community has responded.
Hummingbirds. Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast close to
the peak of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird’s southward fall migration. Judy Toups,
a Gulfport MS resident who helped found the Mississippi Coast Audubon Society,
reported 2 dozen hummingbirds feeding frantically in her yard the morning after
the storm. Because the hurricane-devastated Gulf Coast habitats are a critical
refueling station along the hummingbird’s migration route, she helped organize a
campaign to collect and distribute hummingbird feeders. More than 500 feeders
were donated and shipped to volunteers for distribution along the Gulf Coast.
Kathy Ross, owner of the Wild Birds store in Jackson MS, coordinated the
shipments, which also included 100 seed-tube feeders for other species of birds.
Sandhill Cranes. The Mississippi Sandhill Crane National
Wildlife Refuge, in Gautier MS (east of Biloxi), is home to the only wild
population of the endangered Mississippi Sandhill Crane, a non-migratory
subspecies. Although observation blinds and other structures sustained
significant damage from Katrina’s 100 mph winds and record storm surge, a
wildlife biologist at the refuge reported that most of the birds are believed to
have survived the storm. About 3 weeks after the storm, only 2 mortalities had
been confirmed among the 32 radio-tagged cranes on the refuge. A complementary
captive breeding and release program for the cranes reported 2 deaths among
captive birds, but their transfer and release schedule remains on track.
Varaiats. Hurricane Katrina pushed many marine birds
inland. In the days following the storm, the following coastal and pelagic
species were reported in southern Tennessee, roughly 300 miles from the Gulf
Coast (as the seabird flies): Black Skimmer, Sooty Tern, Band-rumped Storm
Petrel, Skua, and Royal Tern.
Coastal Forests. High Island.. .Sabine Woods.. .Peveto
Woods. The very names evoke images of beautiful old oak trees draped with
Spanish moss and covered with colorful, exhausted neotropical migrants during
one of the spring migration’s remarkable fall-outs. Wind damage to trees was
extensive, and most sites remain closed to the public as assessment and clean-up
efforts get underway. As many of these sites are owned and managed by local
Audubon chapters or other private conservation groups, much of the work will be
done by volunteers (many of whom have had their own lives disrupted by the
storms), and fund-raising efforts are underway. Damage to trails, boardwalks,
and other public facilities will need to be repaired, and various habitat
restoration prof ects may be required. For instance, the Houston Audubon Society
is looking for funds to build nesting platforms to replace numerous nesting
trees that were lost in a large heron rookery at one of the High Island
sanctuaries.
Operation Backyard Recovery. Audubon Mississippi is
organizing restoration efforts through this public education and civic
engagement campaign. Although the scope of this project is expected to grow
through time, at the moment it has two primary thrusts. One focuses on building
and distributing bird houses to replace the huge number of nesting and roosting
sites lost when dead branches and old trees were knocked down. Volunteers will
be soliciting the donation of building materials (including salvageable storm
debris) and engaging schools and civic organizations in the construction and
distribution of the nest boxes. The second project focuses on the planting of
native trees and shrubs to replace those lost to the storm. As families and
communities rebuild, this program will provide education and donated materials
to encourage restoration and landscaping with native plants.
Adopt-a-birder. A number of birdwatchers along the Gulf
Coast lost their homes or suffered significant damage to their homes’ contents.
Members of the Mississippi Ornithological Society are organizing an
adopt-a-birder campaign to help these individuals begin to rebuild their lives
through the donation of birding equipment such as optics and books. Houghton
Mifflin Publishing Company is donating copies of Kaufman’s Focus Guide.
The websites I visited and emails I read tell a remarkable
tale. Many of the earliest entries focus on the most basic questions of
survival—who’s missing. . .who’s OK.. .where do we go from here? Many display
great compassion, with calls to support the American Red Cross and other
organizations responding to the human tragedy created by the storms. What most
surprised me was how quickly themes of hope and recovery appeared. Though I read
many passionate paragraphs about how recovery of the human and natural
communities would go hand-in- hand, perhaps the simplest illustration is this
notice from Mississippi Audubon just days after Katrina made landfall: ‘The
Hummingbird Migration Celebration is still scheduled for Sept. 9-11 at
Strawberry Plains Audubon Center. It will be an opportunity for all of us to
come together and support each other. Nature is powerful; but it can also be a
healing force.”
The Ryan Beaulieu Memorial Youth Scholarship Fund
Everyone who knew him, our blue-eyed, bright-smiled friend Ryan Beaulieu, is
still telling their story of him. Like any hero (and he was to many of us), his
stories get brighter, funnier, livelier, and more meaningful the more we tell
them. Here’s one to share:
Ryan was among a group of hirders who went down to see the
Lesser Prairie-Chickens in April this year at their lek booming grounds. So was
Pat Franklin, who recently was at the bird banding site at Rio Grande Nature
Center. Steve and Nancy Cox were there, of course, and so was Ryan’s “little”
brother, Dylan. Pat was telling everybody the story of how she was in the same
van with Ryan an two other lucky folks traveling to the lek site and said she
had never laughed so much in her life. They found and observed Lesser Prairie-
Chickens, and Ryan did his customary ecstasy dance and vocals.
Dylan chirped up and said that the Lesser Prairie-Chicken
was Ryan’s favorite bird; he even wanted a tattoo of one. Dylan then told his
own story: How funny it was when Ryan tried asking the guy in Italy (where the
family went in August) if he had a tattoo of a Lesser Prairie-Chicken!
Learning Look-Alikes: Sandhill Crane & Great Blue Heron by Art Arenholz
From October through February, we can easily find Sandhill Crane and Great Blue
Heron in the middle Rio Grande valley. Both are very large (4 feet tall) gray
birds, with long necks, long legs and dagger-like bills. Each walks in a slow,
stately -manner and the flight of each is strong and deliberate. So how can we
tell these look-alikes apart?
Let’s look first at some
important differences in their appearance. The adult Sandhill Crane shows red
and white markings on the head, while the Great Blue Heron’s head shows black
and white markings. The Sandhill has prominent “bustle” of feathers that droops
over the tail when the bird is standing, but the Heron lacks this “bustle”. Look
carefully for this feature once, and you will find it helpful from then on.
Next, let’s consider some useful
differences in their behavior. First, the Crane flies with its neck straight
(i.e. fully extended), while the Heron’s neck is folded in flight, (i.e. the
head is pulled back to the shoulders and the neck is crooked, not straight). A
second useful difference: in winter, the crane is rarely atone and the heron is
almost always alone. Third, the crane usually feeds in marshes or dry fields
(with other cranes). while the heron usually stands (alone) on a ditch bank or
wades slowly in shallow, quiet water. Fourth, the crane is very wary (except
when eating our corn!), but some herons will stand within a few feet of a
fishing human, waiting for a handout, Fifth, the crane is mostly a vegetarian
during winter, eating corn, seeds, tubers and berries, while the heron is a
strict carnivore. You can safely call any very large gray bird that is trying to
swallow a fish a heron. Last, the voice of the crane is a rolling bugle, while
the heron utters a hoarse croak when it is startled.
A single behavioral clue is
rarely diagnostic, so it is best to use several clues before deciding on your
identification. A single large gray bird standing on a ditch bank might fool you
and be a lonesome crane, so look for several clues before calling out your
identification. Great Blue Herons are often
incorrectly called “cranes” as are other large egrets and herons.
Southwestern New Mexico Audubon Society Launches Brand New
Web Page! (www.swnmaudubon.com)
Our old site was out of date and we also
wanted more information to be available to members and visitors.
The new site offers descriptions
of regional more will be habitats and a few maps—to which added.
We keep current with
Chairpersons and their activities. Annual events are listed so folks can plan
ahead, especially visitors to the area.
There are links to many bird and
nature related web pages, including the Gila National Forest, Bird- Source
FeederWatch, National and State Audubon and the Chamber of Commerce. The picture
above shows many of the links.
By running a membership coupon
we are making an effort to gain new members. The new web site has received many
compliments.
Southwestern New Mexico Audubon Society Online Bird Sightings Report Gains Popularity
Twice-monthly reports of interesting or
unusual birds in yards and parklands are distributed via email to those who wish
to receive it. Sightings are included from all four counties of our membership
area; Grant, Luna, Hidalgo and Catron. Compiler David Beatty can be reached at
djb38@olypen.com
Citizen Science Proves Out In
Ornithology
On a sunny April morning, Kaycee Lichter has driven 32 kilometers to the
Virginia State Arboretum here in the Shenandoah Valley to meet her friend Greg
Baruffi. Walking to the edge of a meadow, the two open a box containing a
bluebird nest and place an electronic device no larger than a coat button under
the five eggs inside. The button will record the fluctuating temperature inside
the nest as the female bluebird departs and returns periodically in search of
food. In 3 days, Lichter and Baruffi will download the data to a computer and
reset the button.
Lichter, 46, is a medical
transcriptionist at a nearby mental health clinic and Baruffi, 50, is a
carpenter. They are not scientists, but their work is crucial to a study by
researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, of whether
birds lay fewer eggs in cooler climates because of the energy costs of
incubation. The results could provide insights into how environmental factors
affect the number of hatchlings in a brood.
Over the past decade, Cornell
has harnessed the enthusiasm of such volunteers--or citizen scientists, as they
are known--to explore questions such as the dynamics of infectious disease in
bird populations and the impact of acid rain on their reproductive success.
Those efforts have resulted in a long list of peer-reviewed publications,
demonstrating the value of citizen science as a research tool. “Having an army
of assistants on the ground allows you to ask questions that require
simultaneous observation across large spatial and temporal scales,” says Andre
Dhondt, an ecologist at Cornell. “It opens up a world of scientific
possibilities.”
Nobody has pursued those
possibilities as seriously and successfully as Dhondt and his colleagues at
Cornell. “There are i million citizens in the U.S. alone who spend untold
amounts of time and money on bird watching. The Lab of Ornithology has
capitalized on this public interest to produce some very good science,’ says
Peter Narra, an ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in
Edgewater, Maryland. Cornell has even created an endowed professorship dedicated
to citizen science--the first position of its kind in the country--that it hopes
to fill this year.
Cornell’s tradition of engaging
citizens in bird studies dates to the 1930s, when lab founder Arthur Allen
conducted informal Monday evening seminars to raise public awareness about
ornithology. At those sessions, Allen would read out a list of birds and ask for
a show of hands indicating how many people in the audience had sighted each
species. He logged the results of the weekly poll in a register, providing a
rough picture of the relative abundance of different birds over time.
Decades later, lab researchers
thumbing through those registers wondered if they could get volunteers to be
more scientific. That idea led to Project Tanager, a large-scale experiment
begun in 1994 to study the impact of forest fragmentation on tanager populations
and their nesting success. Over 3 years, nearly 1500 volunteers around the
country took a census of four tanager species--often by playing taped calls
supplied by the lab--and recorded signs of predation in their nests. Researchers
found that tanagers in fragmented habitats were more likely to thrive in regions
that had a high percentage of forest cover.
Volunteers also played a key
role in helping scientists understand an epidemic of conjunctivitis among house
finches in the mid-199os. Following up on sightings in Maryland of finches with
red, crusty eyes, Dhondt printed and distributed 6o,ooo computer-scanable forms
to 9000 volunteers to record daily sightings of both healthy and sick birds.
Within months, researchers had documented the spread of the disease across the
Northeast and Midwest.
“The speed at which we were able
to track the epidemic was simply amazing; we couldn’t have dreamed of doing it
without a volunteer network,” says Dhondt. Over the next years, more data
revealed patterns showing seasonal and geographical variations in the spread of
the disease. In 2000, Dhondt and his colleagues used those data to win a $2.4
million grant from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science
Foundation (NSF) under a joint program on the ecology of infectious diseases.
The team developed predictive models of the spread of aerially transmitted
bacterial diseases.
The grant marked a coming of age
for Cornell’s citizen science efforts, which had previously been supported
through NSF’s informal science education program. Dhondt says NSF reviewers had
rejected earlier proposals because of doubts that volunteer-generated data could
be trusted. But the publications from the house finch survey “countered that
skepticism effectively,” says NSF program director Samuel Schemer.
Cornell researchers have also
studied the reliability of citizen scientists. During the pilot phase of Project
Tanager, for example, ornithologist Ken Rosenberg and his colleagues compared
observations made by volunteers to data collected by researchers themselves. At
17 of the 19 sites where this comparison was made, the data were identical.
“Volunteers are extra-careful because they aren’t professionally trained,” says
Rosenberg. “They doubt themselves.”
By using statistical tools to
look at broad patterns, the Cornell researchers are able to detect and discard
individual data points that appear suspect. And although there are differences
between volunteers in their ability to see and hear birds, “the variation tends
to be random,” says ecologist Wesley Hochachka. “The larger the data set, the
greater the chances of detecting a signal.”
Even so, Cornell researchers
face constant reminders that volunteers are not trained scientists. Dhondt
remembers a lament from one despondent volunteer in Quebec, who wrote him that
“I’ve been reporting for 48 months, and I’ve yet to see a sick house finch.”
Dhondt used his reply as an instructional tool. “Your data are so valuable,”
Dhondt wrote back. “As soon as you have seen your feeder and recorded your
observation, you’ve made your contribution. Not seeing sick birds is
biologically important information.”
The lab thinks citizen
scientists are capable of even more sophisticated observations. For example,
Stefan Hames is using volunteers to investigate the mechanism by which acid rain
affects wood thrush populations. The protocol asks them to soak a square piece
of cardboard in unchlorinated water and place it on a patch of earth covered
with twigs and fallen leaves. The next day they record the number of snails and
other invertebrates found under the cardboard. Eating these calcium-rich animals
helps the birds lay eggs with secure shells. Knowing that acid rain takes a toll
on these invertebrates, Hames and his colleagues hope to find out whether the
scarcity of calcium- rich prey explains the decline of wood thrushes at sites
with high levels of acid rain.
The lab also hopes to expand its
network of volunteers. “Right now, the northeastern seaboard is well covered,”
says lab director John Fitzpatrick. “We’d like more observers on the ground in
states like Arizona and Nevada. Eventually, we’d like to test hypotheses and
conduct experiments on a continental scale.”
You can visit the Cornell Lab or
Ornithology and sign-up for some of these programs at “www.birds.cornell.edu”.
1/3/06