Sandhills Birding

NEWS ITEMS

Rusty Blackbird Blitz (Feb 09)
The Rusty Blackbird Technical Working Group is organizing a new citizen-science project to aid in research and conservation efforts. The main purpose of the effort is to discover previously unknown sites that reliably host concentrations of wintering Rusty Blackbirds. Researchers then plan to follow up with site visits to find areas with the most Rusties and best characteristics for field research.

With partners at Cornell's Project eBird, the team willl be gathering data gleaned by field parties across Rusty Blackbirds' primary wintering range. Field parties will search for and record information about Rusty Blackbirds in likely habitat over a 9-day period. The search takes place in early February, when male Rusty Blackbirds are prone to singing and are thus easier to detect than late December or January (when the birds may also still be migrating).

Project participants are free to participate in the Blitz in either of the following 2 ways:

A) select their own locations to search for Rusty Blackbirds completely on their own or
B) each state will have a Coordinator who: (if needed) suggests likely habitat for people to search for Rusties, provides advice on search techniques, helps arrange access to restricted portions of refuges + private lands for field teams, and so forth.

But the team feels it is best for field teams to pick their own search locations without central coordination, in order to best find significant wintering sites that are currently unknown to the research / conservation community.

South Carolina's Coordinator is: Nathan Dias - offshorebirder@yahoo.com
North Carolina's Coordinator is: Joe Poston - jpposton@catawba.edu

The Rusty Blackbird Blitz protocol and printable data forms to carry afield are now available on the following web page:

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ConservationAndScience/MigratoryBirds/Research/Rusty_Blackbird/

Please remember to submit reports of zero birds found at your search sites - null results are still quite useful.

You can also help by submitting any and all Rusty Blackbird sightings to: Project eBird. Please include as much information as you are willing to give (time, exact location, number of birds, habitat, ratio of males-to-females, behavior, and so forth). You can use the "comments" section on the normal eBird submission form to capture this information.

Eurasian Collared Dove Locations (Feb 09)
The Migratory Game Bird Coordinator for the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, Joe Fuller, has been tracking Eurasian Collared Dove locations and has asked for help locating known populations in NC.  These birds are non-native, invasives and the WRC would like to keep track of their spread to help determine if they are of biological concern to native species.  If you know of any sites where they have been seen, send an e-mail indicating how long you have known about the birds in that location and a description of the location (e.g. US Hwy 1, Hoffman, NC).  Send email to Brady Beck at beck.kb at gmail.com

How to report bird bands or marked birds
When you encounter a dead, stunned or injured bird check if the bird has a leg band. Note any specifics of the bird that you can (for example, adult female cardinal), location and date. Log on to this web site (http://www.reportband.gov/) and provide the information to the USGS Bird Banding Laboratory.

For a color marked bird or tagged bird use this web site (http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbl/homepage/recwobnd.cfm). Do not use this site if you could read a metal band on the bird. Just report the metal band number.

Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC)
The GBBC took place February 15-18. The event's website shows where species are reported and where observers reported from. Here is the participation from our region.

Table current as of February 21, 2008

Chimney watch is a partnership of federal, state, and non-profit agencies that seek to understand and reverse the recent declines in Chimney Swift populations throughout North America. We have selected the research triangle of North Carolina as one of our focus regions to test a new protocol for monitoring breeding chimney swifts. The protocol consists of three 15-minute visits to a route of 3-6 chimneys from mid-June to mid-July to determine whether the chimneys are occupied by breeding pairs. We are now looking for volunteers to run routes in Person, Orange, Durham, Chatham, Wake, Harnett, Johnston, and Franklin counties. For more information contact Rua Mordecai at: rua.mordecai@gmail.com