[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

PIF and Spring



Gosh!! What a difference a day makes. Yesterday was VERY WINDY and cold
in Raleigh, so we weren't able to go birding as planned. There wasn't
much bird activity around our yard, but today is another day. Two
Carolina Wrens sang for a few hours this morning, Mourning Doves were
cooing, bluebirds were talking, a towhee sang it's "drink your tea"
song, and a chickadee flew into the nest box with something (it's too
early!). A pair of bluebirds were checking out another box over the
weekend, so I do believe spring is in the air, as other birders have
mentioned!

Below you'll find an email from Mark Johns, coordinator of the NC
Partners In Flight Program, talking about the upcoming PIF meeting on
March 25 at Howell Woods.

Maybe I'll see some of you there, or tonight at the Chapel Hill Bird
Club program!

Happy birding! Karen Bearden
Raleigh, NC
chickadeebirders@earthlink.net


FYI: Join us if you can for all or part of the day. Please pass this
announcement on to others you feel would be interested. Thanks!

NC PARTNERS IN FLIGHT 2003 ANNUAL MEETING:  March 25, 2003
Johnston County, NC: at the 'Howell Woods Environmental Learning Center'
of
Johnston Community College

Management for Landbirds:  'Turning PIF Conservation Bird Plans into
Action'

Mark your calendars now for Tuesday, March 25th, 2003. Join us for a day
of
presentations and field demonstrations at this unique site in Johnston
County managed to benefit a variety of birds and other wildlife.  The
morning session will begin at 9:30am and include presentations from
North
Carolina researchers about on the ground monitoring, research and
management
that benefit a variety of birds and their habitats.  Morning
presentations
will include:

Recognition of Howell Woods as an Important Bird Area by Audubon North
Carolina

10:00am "Monitoring, research and management for birds at Howell Woods":
James Sasser, Johnston Community College, Howell Woods Environmental
Learning Center

Intensive bird monitoring programs operate throughout the year in a
variety
of habitats at Howell Woods site along the Neuse River in Johnston
County.
Activities include year-round bird banding (including a MAPS banding
station), breeding season and migration monitoring, a nest box program,
grassland and wetland restoration work and a prescribed burning program.
Silvicultural activities are planned to benefit over 160 species and
many
PIF species of conservation concern, and ongoing research highlights the
effects of management.

10:30am "The Cooperative Upland habitat Restoration and Enhancement
(CURE)
program- "Finding a CURE for grassland bird declines":  Jeff Marcus, NC
Wildlife Resources Commission

The NC Wildlife Resources Commission has launched a new initiative to
restore grassland and shrub land habitats on a landscape scale.
Cooperatives of at least 5000 acres have been established for intensive
habitat management on 3 private and 4 public areas across North
Carolina.
Baseline bird surveys have documented a number of birds of conservation
concern that are likely to benefit from the CURE program.

11:15am "A Grassland Bird Habitat Project in Mecklenburg County": Jeff
Esely, Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Dept., Division of Natural
Resources

A grassland expansion project is currently being conducted at McDowell
Nature Preserve in Mecklenburg County.  Prior to August 2002, this
preserve
contained several small (<30 acre), closely spaced fields, separated by
a 55
acre patch of forest.  The expansion project essentially involves the
conversion of much of this forest patch into field habitat, thus
creating
one large (~140 acre), continuous grassland with greater interior area,
and
reduced edge density.  This site should serve as a local refuge for
grassland birds, and it is predicted that both species richness and
avian
nesting success should be improved on the larger grassland.  In an
effort to
document the effects and progress of the project, a breeding bird
monitoring
study was initiated in 2001.  This study incorporates both avian point
counts and songbird nest monitoring to track changes in the breeding
bird
community and reproductive success on the site.  The pretreatment phase
of
the study is now complete, and over 230 nests have been monitored.
While
results vary among species, preliminary data suggest that the primary
factor
influencing reproductive success on this site is nest predation.

Noon: LUNCH! Bring your own lunch, or there are lunch options nearby

1:30pm "NC Partners in Flight Steering Committee and State Working Group
will meet and committee reports will be given, as well as discussion on
various issues related to bird conservation in the state and region. In
addition, there will be more presentations on bird conservation efforts
from
NC researchers.

2:30pm "Greenways for wildlife" Jamie Hull and Kristen Novotny, NC State
University

If wildlife and landscape planners are to successfully incorporate the
needs
of wildlife into greenway planning and design, they must have some idea
of
which characteristics of greenways contribute to their wildlife habitat
value.  Our project seeks to address this need by establishing design
guidelines for greenways in the language of landscape and urban planners
via
information gained studying how birds, small mammals and exotic
vegetation
are affected by forest corridor width, adjacent development intensity
and
other factors.

3:15pm "Analysis of six years of banding data from an intensively
managed
pine plantation" by: Jon Klimstra, NC State University

A long-going study has evaluated how neotropical migrants use 100-meter
wide
forested corridors in a managed pine landscape. Focus will be explaining
on
banding data collected over the duration of the project and examine
overall
catch based on effort, community structure, age ratio of HY to AHY and
correlation between vegetation and bird species occurrence.

Directions: Howell Woods is located in southeastern Johnston County near
the
Bentonville Battlefield.  It is easily accessible from I-95 at the US
701
Interchange (at Exit 90). Turn onto Devil's Racetrack Road at the Citgo
Station (SR 1009) and proceed about 8 miles until you see a continuous
wooden fence on the left. Look for the sign for Rudolf Howell and Son's
Environmental Learning Center on the left and turn into the gravel
driveway.
The classroom is a large building with a green tin roof easily seen from
the
road. For further directional information call James Sasser at (919)
938-0115.

Mark E. Johns
NC Wildlife Resources Commission
Partners in Flight Biologist
PO Box 564
Cary, NC 27512
(919) 852-5124
johnsme@mindspring
http://www.faculty.ncwc.edu/mbrooks/pif/