Surveying Bobolinks to prevent future mortality

Written by Hailey Faurot, Student Conservation Association (SCA) intern with the Constitution Marsh Audubon Center and Sanctuary, including Buttercup Farm, Rheinstrom Hill, and Ramshorn-Livingston Hudson Valley sanctuaries.

In rural northern Dutchess County, NY, the fields are buzzing with the sounds of “pink, pink, pink!” Looking down into a trough of one of the rolling hills, a gathering is taking place. Bobolinks, most of them juveniles, are flocking together at Buttercup Farm Audubon Sanctuary. This youthful gathering is an excellent sign of population health.

Interestingly, we don’t observe any adult females in the flock itself but we do see a few perching on trees at the edges of the fields. “This is sort of like Bobolink summer camp,” I chime in. The rest of the team laughs as we note that the female Bobolinks are probably just catching a much-needed break from the hard work of successfully rearing their broods. 

My name is Hailey Faurot, and I serve with Audubon as an Educator Naturalist Intern, learning and practicing different field surveys and research techniques, as well as leading public education programs. One such field survey is the grassland bird survey that we conduct at Buttercup Farm. 

Staff, volunteers, and I search for Bobolinks, American Kestrels, and Eastern Meadowlarks-all of which are birds of high conservation priority for Audubon. We have yet to observe an Eastern Meadowlark at Buttercup Farms this year and believe that the grass fields are not continuous enough to support them. An occasional kestrel is spotted, but the focus of the surveys is Bobolinks. 

We’ve been tracking these birds from late May to August, noting the different phases of their life cycle. Bobolinks are a beautiful species with two distinct plumages, the males are black with a white patch on their backs and a yellow patch on their heads while the females sport a pale-yellow coloration. They construct their nests on the ground within grasslands, making them vulnerable to human disturbance. Nestlings are often under threat from large haying mowers, our research seeks to find out when most nestlings have fledged, preventing mortality.

To conduct our bird survey, Buttercup preserve is divided into groups of fields. I was part of a group of staff and volunteers monitoring three fields, with five distinct survey points. We sit in silence for two minutes to acclimate the birds to our presence and then begin to listen and search through binoculars at the third minute, for five additional minutes. 

At each survey location, we write down every individual bird we see, noting its sex, approximate age, and any other information we think will be useful. Our land steward Dave Decker analyzes and compiles our survey sheet data at the end of the season. These results directly inform how habitat is managed at Buttercup and how Audubon can advise farmers and grassland landowners to manage their land. 

In conducting these surveys, we learn when the Bobolinks have completed their rearing and when fledglings are able to fly. After this time, it is much safer to mow the fields without causing bird stress and mortality. This knowledge is communicated to nearby landowners through publications and workshops. On one of our last days of the survey, we saw many juvenile Bobolinks perched together on blades of tall grass which let us know that many had successfully fledged and their breeding cycle was complete.

At Buttercup, we also monitor vegetation, which is equally important to looking for the birds themselves. Bobolinks prefer to nest and live in fields that are dominated by grasses. In the vegetation survey, we specifically looked at the composition of grasses to forbs (non-grass plants such as milkweed, hedge bedstraw, goldenrod, among others). We recorded observations within 12-inch square plots of field along a tape which transected the field. This allowed us to get a strong sample of the field conditions. In addition to performing this survey ourselves, we hosted a group of high school students from the organization No Child Left Inside (NCLI) to teach them about the research we perform at Buttercup. This really added to the element of science communication and community outreach.

I don’t know where I’ll be working after my season ends with Audubon, but I know that from this experience I will be making bird conservation a part of my life for many years to come. The unfortunate reality is that Bobolinks, like so many of our grassland bird species, are facing steep declines. Considering this reality and the plight of other species and ecosystems can often feel sobering. However, serving in my role has taught me that although it's very easy to focus on the negative, there’s an equal, if not greater, number of positive actions that people are taking, oftentimes in our nearby communities. In monitoring bird populations, we’re directly contributing to their conservation.