Spring 2010 - Braddock Bay Bird Observatory

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BBBO Updates Media Highlights BBBO was prominently featured on National Public Radio’s Science Friday show in an hour-long segment on bird migration on October 8, 2009. The weekly radio news magazine highlights scientific research and is carried by more than 100 radio stations across the United States. BBBO’s Mark Deutschlander and David Bonter were both guests on the special live show that was broadcast from Cornell University. Prior to the broadcast, a Science Friday film crew visited the banding station to record audio that was featured on the show as well as video that was made into two video podcasts that are available on the show’s website. You can view the videos and listen to a recording of the broadcast by searching for “bird banding” on the Science Friday website: www.sciencefriday.com. BBBO was featured on the cover of the September 2009 issue of Rochester’s City magazine. The article included interviews about bird migration and banding with BBBO Board members John Waud, Betsy Brooks, and David Bonter, and friends of BBBO including Bob Spahn and David Klein. The story also highlighted a large-scale study examining the habitat needs of migratory birds during transit through the Lake Ontario basin. The project, led by The Central & Western New York Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, involves the collaboration of numerous universities and organizations including BBBO. The article was written by nature writer and BBBO member Laura Kammermeier. Native Plants for Birds BBBO Board members David Mathiason and John Waud pioneered a banding project on the campus of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) starting in 2003. More than 100 species of birds have been banded at the RIT station, including some species yet to be captured at the BBBO station. The RIT site is operated for the benefit of students, on whom the project heavily depends. This spring there will be at least 12 RIT students helping to run the RIT banding station. Three of them are graduate students and two of them are writing theses in the field of ornithology. At least half of the undergraduates are also working on research projects. Last fall, with financial support from RIT Senior Vice President Dr. James Watters, 100 fruit-bearing native shrubs were planted in the area around the banding station. The labor for this effort was provided by about 45 students who volunteered their time and energy over two Saturdays in October. Joseph McMullen of Terrestrial Environmental Specialists, Inc., helped select plants that should tolerate the wet conditions including gray dogwood (Cornus racemosa), cockspur hawthorn (Crataegus crus-galli), black haw (Viburnum prunifolium), and northern Cover photos of a Black-throated Blue Warbler and flowers at the banding station by Ryan Kayhart. Top: A Giant Swallowtail in the field at BBBO. Photo by Ryan Kayhart. Left: RIT students plant shrubs for the birds. Photo by David Mathiason.
arrowwood (Viburnum dentatum). Cages were built around each planting in an effort to deter the deer. Pussy willow (Salix discolor) will be planted in the wettest areas this spring. Boardwalks were also built along some of the muddier trails in order to provide better access to the net lanes. This effort is important for the safety of our banders, as well as the safety of the birds being carried back to our processing station. Additional boardwalk construction is planned for this summer, some directly related to the banding effort and others to provide access to areas for use by students and faculty in other environmental science courses. Research Published Betsy Brooks’ remarkable efforts in studying breeding bird communities in Allegany County over the past 35-years are being featured in the June 2010 issue of the Wilson Journal of Ornithology, a scientific journal published by the Wilson Ornithological Society. Beginning in the late 1960s, Betsy tirelessly documented the breeding birds at three study sites near her home in Alfred, New York. Much has changed in the landscape surrouding Betsy’s study area in the past few decades, and her study provides a very rare long-term view on changes in breeding bird communities. The article will be available at the banding station this spring. Congratulations, Betsy! E. W. Brooks and D. N. Bonter. 2010. Longterm changes in avian community structure in a successional, forested, and managed plot in a reforesting landscape. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 122:288-295. Former Intern Writes Book Fo r m e r B B B O f i e l d assistant Charley Eiseman has recently published a wonderful book, Tracks & Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates. The book is a field guide to egg cases, cocoons, webs, nests, leaf mines, galls, burrows, wood borings, and other curiosities left behind by insects, spiders, snails, worms, and other critters as they go about their lives. After working at BBBO, Charley earned a Master’s degree from the University of Vermont’s Field Naturalist program in Natural Resources. You can order the book and learn more about Charley’s recent exploits at this website: www.charleyeiseman.com/book.html Conference & Workshop The Wilson Ornithological Society will hold its 2010 conference at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York from May 20-23. On May 23, a tour from the conference will visit the banding station. Following the conference, Peter Pyle, author of the Identification Guide to North American Birds, will lead an advanced bird banding workshop at BBBO. Which species is it? Can you identify this unusual catch at BBBO (right)? The answer will appear in the next issue of The Marsh Wren. Photos: Grasshopper Sparrow by Ryan Kayhart, quiz bird by Greg Lawrence. The relatively long bill and flat head shape are key to identifying this Grasshopper Sparrow (left) from the last issue of The Marsh Wren.
Page 1: Spring 2010 www.bbbo.org The Marsh
Page 5 and 6: Top 10 species banded during autumn
Page 7 and 8: Volunteer Spotlight Tom Verhulst To

Spring 2010 - Braddock Bay Bird Observatory

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