Watershed Conservation Plan - Destination Erie

Figure 6.9. Percentage breakdown of habitats for breeding birds of conservation
concern documented in the study area.
Available authoritative records were analyzed to determine which major parts of the watershed have
likely supported breeding populations of these 26 species (see Table 6.4). The eastern portion of the study
area had the lowest number of species of "breeding birds of conservation concern," while the
southwestern part of the watershed (i.e., the Conneaut Creek watershed south of Albion) had the highest
number of species. This result may have been biased by more intense inventory effort in the southwestern
part of the watershed—that is, the 10-year (1989–1998) record of bird species counts collected by the
USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (2006) as part of the North American Breeding Bird Survey.
Otherwise, most of the records identified in Table 6.4 came from the first edition of the Pennsylvania
Breeding Bird Atlas (Brauning 1992), which is currently being updated for the second edition
(2004–2009).
A total of 394 species of wild birds are known for Pennsylvania (Gross 2002), including 186 species
that regularly nest in the state. More than 325 species of birds have been identified at Presque Isle State
Park (Tautin 2004), which is recognized by the National Audubon Society as one of several Important
Bird Areas (IBAs) (Audubon Pennsylvania 2005). Impressive records of bird species richness have been
demonstrated for a few areas in the western part of the Pennsylvania Lake Erie watershed. The USGS
(2006) Harmonsburg breeding bird survey route (mostly within the Pennsylvania portion of the Conneaut
Creek watershed) has produced a total of 118 different species, including 16 species on the "breeding
birds of concern" list (see Table 6.4). A five-month survey of the former Coho site (now Erie Bluffs State
Park) in 1974 produced a list of 103 different species (AEA 1974).
The Roderick Preserve (Game Land 314) in the extreme northwestern corner of the study area, like
Presque Isle, is also designated as an IBA (Audubon Pennsylvania 2005). A total of 76 different species
of breeding birds have been identified at this IBA (records available through Audubon Pennsylvania
2005), including six species identified on the "breeding birds of concern" list compiled by Campbell
(Table 6.4). Game Land 314 has been managed by the Pennsylvania Game Commission for several years
using techniques that maintain "early successional" shrub/scrub openings. Early successional
management benefits American woodcock and several other species of "breeding birds of concern" at
Game Land 314. This habitat stewardship tool might be judiciously applied to enhance recovery of
populations of several breeding birds of concern (see Table 6.4) in other selected portions of the study
area, where abandoned agricultural lands on private property could present opportunities for the
restoration of previously drained/cultivated emergent and shrub/scrub wetlands.
J. M. Campbell has observed bald eagles at Game Land 314 on numerous occasions since 2004, and
the Conneaut Creek watershed near Albion, beginning in 2002, is one of two known sites in Erie County
where bald eagles have nested (Brauning 2003). Bald eagles require large-scale riparian (stream/river
associated habitats) or wetland areas with tree cover for nesting (Gross 2002). Myers and Bishop (2000)
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