Delaware Nature Society Program Guide and Newsletter September - December 2017 | Page 6

Bird Conservation
By Ian Stewart, Ornithologist and
Joe Sebastiani, Ashland Nature Center Manager
These are exciting times for our Bird Conservation
Program! Thanks to generous support from a host of
donors and help from a dedicated team of volunteers,
we are continuing our public bird banding sessions on
Mondays at Ashland and Wednesdays at Bucktoe Creek
Preserve. Many people of all ages have come by to see
birds up close and observe the banding process.
We are also continuing to color-band Eastern Bluebirds
at several of our sites as part of a study of nest box
faithfulness and overwintering status. This is a Citizen
Science initiative in which members of the public let us
know when they have seen a color-banded Bluebird and,
in some cases, send us the color-band combination of
their bird or even a photograph!
Birds of conservation such as the Wood Thrush will benefit
from our exciting new study. Last winter, we cleared
Multiflora Rose, an invasive exotic plant, from five half-acre
plots at Bucktoe Creek Preserve, and we are currently
comparing which birds feed and nest in the cleared plots
compared to plots where the invasive rose bushes were
left in place. We will be continuing this study into the fall
and winter to focus on habitat use by both migrating and
overwintering birds. Our short-term aim is to see whether
this simple habitat management benefits birds, but our
long-term vision is to replace all of these alien plants with a
diversity of native plants to provide better homes and food
for birds.
Thanks to your support, we are better able to understand the
habitat needs of our birds and help them as much as possible!
Visit DelNature.org/BirdBanding to learn more.
Our notable achievements
Showed that several species live in the same area year-round...
by banding birds during the summer then recapturing the same individuals in the winter.
Birds we caught during both the summer and winter in the same location include
17 Tufted Titmice, 10 Carolina Chickadees, 7 Song Sparrows,
6 Cardinals, and 5 Downy Woodpeckers.
Recaptured several migrants
in successive years in the same location.
The summer visitors we have recaptured include a Wood Thrush, Red-eyed Vireo
and several Gray Catbirds, and the winter visitors include both White-crowned and
White-throated Sparrows. It never ceases to amaze us that these small birds
(some less than 20 grams) may spend their summer or winter over a thousand miles
away and yet still come back to the same relatively tiny piece of land!
Observed 10 of our 178
color-banded Bluebirds during the colder months,
confirming that at least some of them spend the whole year in the Red Clay Valley.
Published articles about the presence of ticks on banded birds...
and documented the capture of a Black-capped Chickadee, the northern counterpart to
our common Carolina Chickadee which only comes south when food is in short supply.
Incorporated bird banding into
the popular Young Ornithologists camp.
This is one of the most important things we do – encouraging an interest in birds among
young people who may end up being their future conservation champions!
Conducted surveys of wintering
birds at Coverdale Farm Preserve...
to see how our current land management practices are affecting bird populations.
Coverdale Farm Preserve Photography by Joe Sebastiani
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NATURE EXPLORER
Sep – Dec 2017