Keep birding local during migration

A couple years ago when I got my list of spring field trips hosted by my local Audubon Society, I started thinking about which ones would give me the best chances of a good species total for the season.  The spring prior was my first in the north after four years of living in Texas, and I didn’t see as much as I had hoped.  I was looking forward to hitting it pretty hard that year.

As I got to thinking more about it, I realized that unless I visited the significant landscape features that influenced migration patterns and concentrated migrating birds (the Mississippi River, Lake Michigan), on any given day my chances of seeing migrants was as much, if not more, a function of weather as it was location.  If I picked a day to visit a given site, it would be based more on my days off work than anything else.  But if the weather wasn’t in my favor I could be driving a long way for little reward.  On the other hand, if my theory is correct, a good weather day was as likely to produce good birds on the west side of Madison as it was on the east side or in Columbia County.  Come breeding season, the right habitat is critical to find the birds we seek, but during migration, “when” may be more important than “where.”   Why then should I spend the money on the gas to drive 30 miles to see birds when I had the potential to see a similar number of similar species close to home?  It struck me as somewhat counterproductive, or in conflict with the idea of pursing nature, to be burning gas and spewing emissions doing so.  I decided if I couldn’t get there on foot or on my bicycle, I wasn’t going to go. 

I’m fortunate to have some good sites within easy reach of my house.  I can get on my bicycle and be watching orioles, grosbeaks, warblers, vireos and more within ten minutes, tops.  There are other sites I can hit with a little more effort, but still within an easy trip.  I realize that everyone doesn’t have such easy access to good sites within walking or biking distance of home.  And not everyone is capable of riding even a few miles.  We can’t all completely divorce ourselves from our cars and I’m not suggesting we should.  It was a test and to my measure it worked.  One weekend in mid-May I saw 16 species of warblers, including such gems as blackburnian, Canada, and golden-winged, and I didn’t bird past 11:00 am that Saturday or Sunday.  Not a remarkable number by some standards, but very satisfying knowing that I did so without lining the pockets of the oil companies and pumping out greenhouse gases.    

Another advantage of sticking close to home is that it provides an opportunity to establish a more intimate relationship with one or a few sites.  Regular visits to the same sites give us a greater opportunity to track the progress of the migration – who’s early, who’s late, who’s coming through in bigger or smaller numbers.  Consistency and frequency brings these things to light.  Besides, the more time we spend in any one site the better we get to know the rhythms and patterns and microhabitats of that site.  We can then carry the experience gained into the breeding season.  That’s when the connections really take hold.  We’re likely to develop an emotional attachment to the site and we may even get a little more protective. 

I do think that as a member of the Audubon Society I have the responsibility of setting a higher standard.  I believe the Audubon Society isn’t just a bunch of folks who like to watch birds.  We’re a conservation organization.  And that carries the responsibility of making deliberate choices.  As spring migration begins to kick in this year, I commit to local birding again.

Grasslands activism

As my first challenge and act(?) of activism, I’m going to make what I’m calling my Prairie Pilgrimage

 I’m going to use my vacation to visit some of the biggest and best examples of prairies left.  I realize that biggest doesn’t not necessarily equal best, but I have a particular motivation.  Living and working in the Midwest, I spend a lot of time looking around at the rolling landscape now dominated by row crop agriculture and wondering what it must have looked like before the plow.  I want to know what it was like to look to the horizon and see nothing but prairie.  I want to stand in the middle of grassland dominated landscape.  There are a few places where I believe I can do that.  Now.  I’m not convinced I’ll be able to do that forever.  We’re still losing prairie.  I want to see grassland birds within the expanse of the prairie while they’re still there.  The research is unanimous – we’re losing our grassland birds.  I find that unacceptable.  I need to do something. 

My plan is to start in at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in NE Oklahoma, an area often recognized as the largest remaining tract of tallgrass prairie.  From there I’ll head north through the Flint Hills of Kansas.  The next major landscape will be the mixed grass prairies of the Sandhills in Nebraska.  It’s just a short trip from there to the Badlands.  I’ll stick to the western side of South Dakota as I head north into the Prairie Pothole Region in North Dakota, where my target site will be Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge.  I’ll visit other sites, good prairies, etc, but within these focus areas.  I’ll be making a sort of transect, very roughly following the 100^th Meridian.  In addition to different types of prairies, this should also provide a range of ownerships and management objectives.  I’ve only got two weeks to work with; I can’t see everything, but I think this will provide a good cross-section.

The challenge is for you to visit grasslands this summer, too.  Go see grassland birds where you can.  Visit prairies.  One of the cool things about grasslands is their distribution and diversity.  There are coastal grasslands, hay fields in New England, and pine savannas in southeast.  Find them.  Encourage others to go with you.  Meet the land managers and ask what threats they face and ask what you can do to help.  I’ll be making my trip the middle two weeks of June; meet me.  When it gets closer to June, I’ll publish a better schedule. 

And when you go, wherever you go, SPEND MONEY IN THE LOCAL COMMUNITY!  We need to give monetary value to grassland birds and the grasslands they depend upon.  Eat in the local café.  Fill your tank at the local gas station.  Stay in the mom-and-pop motel.  Tell people you’re there to see grassland birds.  Express your opinion with your checkbook!  It’s the loudest most unequivocal voice we have.

Some references about the state of grassland birds:http://www.yourlandsyourwildlife.org/documents/grassland_birds_fact_sheet_ylyw.pdf

http://my.nature.org/birds/about/grassland.html

http://www.stateofthebirds.org/

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/guild09.pl

http://www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/special_reports/habitatreport.pdf

http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Birds/Archives/2010/Grasslands-Birds-Disappearing.aspx

http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/PIF/cont_plan/PIF3_Part2WEB.pdf

Welcome!

Welcome to the Deliberate Birder.  My goal is to encourage birders to consider the impacts of their choices on birds and their essential habitats.  The title was inspired by Walden where Thoreau said he went to the woods because he “wished to live deliberately.”  Only by making deliberate choices can we expect to reach our goals.  As birders, preservation of native ecosystems needs to be a goal.  Without healthy ecosystems we can’t maintain healthy populations of birds.

I’m a nearly life-long birder; I started when I was ten (although in the interest of full disclosure I should admit that snakes were my first love).  I‘m fortunate to have had parents who encouraged my interest in birds.  When I was 11 or 12, my father took me to visit Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.  I remember marveling at the seemingly continuous incoming flocks of Canada geese. 

I now make my living as a biologist in the public sector.  My current position is in fire management in southern Wisconsin where our focus is on grasslands, both wetland and upland.  I’ve also worked in the grasslands of Minnesota, Iowa, and Texas.  Unfortunately, the grasslands in all of those areas are fragmented and degraded.  We have amazingly dedicated people throughout the Midwest making nearly heroic efforts to protect and restore prairies and their accomplishments are significant, but the needs are even greater, so the challenge will continue to be a long uphill climb.

I consider myself to be an activist – that’s why I’m here.  I hope to increase awareness and challenge birders to continue to go further.  Birds need us all to be activists.  If we want to continue to enjoy birds we have to act.  If we want to see birds, how can we not assume responsibility to preserve what we want love?  Who else is going to?  I’m a member of my local Audubon Society chapter and a member of the American Birding Association.  The Audubon Society has a history of activism; the ABA lists conservation as part of their mission, but I think we can make conservation an even larger part of our mission.  I think we need to.  I hope to be the prod that instigates change.

I want to challenge birders to make the full range of their decisions based on what supports birds.  And not just for birds’ sake, but for the need for preservation of the biodiversity.  Our focus may be birds, but the ultimate goal is the conservation of native ecosystems and all the components there of.  We can’t preserve birds without preserving their habitats.  Birds may be the best focal point for environmental awareness as they are almost universally appreciated and celebrated.  They’re visible and appreciated.  We need to utilize (exploit?) those characteristics to increase awareness of the threats to the health of the land.  What happens to birds and other animals will in turn happen to us.  We need to be deliberate in our actions.  We need to consider our choices. 

My areas of interest include grasslands and grassland birds, shade coffee, energy, and ecotourism.