WILLISTOWN CONSERVATION TRUST

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  • Rushton Conservation Center

VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT: Joan Swirsky

March 30, 2021 By Mike Cranney

Since the Willistown Conservation Trust (WCT) stewardship team began our weekly volunteer days last year, Joan has been our most dedicated participant. Week in and week out, she is ready and willing to come out to the preserves and lend a hand in any way she can. “WCT has greatly enhanced my life, especially during COVID isolation, providing outdoor distanced activities virtually year round,” Joan says.

Joan moved to the Willistown area with her husband in 2017. She became involved with the Trust soon after when she started attending bird banding at Rushton. Upon learning about the various preserves and their need for maintenance, Joan jumped at the chance to help. “I am so impressed with how much property you maintain, with such a small staff, so I am glad to help.” Joan has assisted us with trail repairs, cleared invasive plants alongside Crum and Ridley creeks, and helped blaze paths at our new preserve. Recently, she has begun lending her time to Rushton farm as well. “Whenever I visit, I’m learning about birds, land preservation, or organic farming – besides meeting nice people, enjoying the outdoors, and being active. The WCT properties are a gem in my backyard.”

If you want to get involved, email our Preserve Manager, Mike Cranney (mjc@wctrust.org)

Filed Under: Bird Banding, Bird Conservation, Stewardship, Volunteers

Nature at Night: Ornithology 101 (Part 1&2)

March 19, 2021 By Communications Team

Join Blake Goll, Education Programs Manager, for a virtual two-part session that introduces the study of birds. We will begin with some basics of ornithology like where birds came from and what makes a bird a bird.  Then we will delve into exciting topics like bird song and nesting as well as migration. 

From their beauty and song that inspires and uplifts us to their incredible migratory feats and daily dramas that leave us awestruck, birds are the perfect gateway to conservation.  They have the power to awaken us to the natural world; what we do for them, we do for the planet and ourselves.

We will wrap the course up with a discussion of the state of birds today and the importance of bird conservation. We will delve into the latest technologies for studying birds as well as other tools like bird banding.

Leave the course with a better understanding of your avian neighbors and the resources to keep learning more and doing everything you can to help birds!

Nature at Night: Ornithology 101 (Part 1)

Nature at Night: Ornithology 101 (Part 2)

Filed Under: Bird Banding, Bird Conservation, Bird Events, Nature at Night

For the Love of Birds

February 26, 2021 By Blake Goll

Join Blake Goll, Education Programs Manager, for a virtual session (video below) that introduced birds through the lens of why we love them.  From their beauty and song that inspires and uplifts us to their incredible migratory feats and daily dramas that leave us awestruck, birds are the perfect gateway to conservation.  They have the power to awaken us to the natural world; what we do for them, we do for the planet and ourselves.

Bluebird feeding on Winterberry by Greg Schneider, Mount Joy, PA Nov 2014 (permission granted)

Blake began the talk discussing why we love birds. First, they come in a dazzling array of diversity found on every continent (10,000 species)! No other life form is this widespread besides microscopic organisms. Birds give us hope with their ultimate freedom of movement and life lived in the present. They represent resiliency having been around for 150 million years longer than we have. Birds are beautifully adapted living dinosaurs!

Birds help us engage with nature. In fact, bird-watching has soared since the pandemic. “It’s quite meditative to watch another life form go about its day,” said Ms. Adanero, 23. “It’s like another way of practicing mindfulness.” (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/29/science/bird-watching-coronavirus.html).  Jonathen Franzen opined, “They are our last, best connection to a natural world that is otherwise receding.”

Blake went on to say that birds are intelligent and emotional. For example, you might assume Mourning Doves are dull and dumb, but according to wildlife rehabilitator Julie Zickefoose, they are incredibly intelligent and communal. In her book, “Baby Birds”, Julie describes a tender moment in her garden when one of her doves that she raised and released came back to sit right by her in the dirt while she went about her garden chores. The young bird even occupied itself in her company by building itself a “play nest” on the ground.

Other examples of bird intelligence and emotion include crows giving gifts to humans who feed them regularly, or crows entertaining themselves by “sledding” down a roof on a plastic lid! Another example Blake gave was the Barn Owl, known to be monogamous and devoted to their mates. The book “Wesley the Owl” goes into great detail of the intimate relationship an owl developed with his human caretaker over the years.

Another reason people love birds is that they are clever and resourceful. Take the House Wren for example. This little brown bird has deliberate reasons for all its fussing about our yards during the breeding season. Even the little white spider egg sacs that they love to weave into their stick nests has a purpose: these sacs contain the baby spiders of a predatory jumping spider! The spiderlings feast on mites in the nest that could otherwise kill the wren chicks if left unchecked.

Watch the rest of the recording to learn more about why we love birds, why birds are important, what is happening to birds today, and how we can all help birds thrive. This talk was a private event for Radnor Hunt Club on February 10th, 2021. The attendees’ questions follow the presentation.

(Note: The recording begins with music and PowerPoint slides until Blake’s audio comes in around 1 minute 13 seconds.)

Filed Under: Bird Banding, Bird Conservation, Bird ecology, Bird Events, Nature Tagged With: Bird Conservation, Birds

Celebrating 11 Years of Bird Banding at Rushton Woods Preserve

December 16, 2020 By Blake Goll

Blue-winged Warbler banded at Rushton on September 21, 2020. Photo by Blake Goll/Staff

Although we did not venture out to track spring songbird migration at the onset of the pandemic this year, we safely resumed our efforts this fall and were handsomely rewarded. The total number of new songbirds banded from the end of August through October came to 939, even though we only operated the banding station twice a week.  This brings our total number of songbirds across 11 years of banding at Rushton to over 15,000 individuals of 100 species!

The beginning of this fall produced copious warblers including elusive Connecticut Warblers, stunning Black-throated Green Warblers, and Black-throated Blue Warblers. September also brought us two new species for the station (never before caught) including a Cooper’s Hawk and Blue Grosbeak. The grosbeak’s presence at Rushton is another nod to the diverse habitat structure that Rushton Farm offers with its wild farmland borders, forest edges, and shrubby hedgerow habitat. To view more photos from the early part of migration see September’s blog post: https://wctrust.org/the-wings-of-change/

Black-throated Green Warbler banded at Rushton in September. Photo by Jennifer Mathes

October reliably brought the sparrows —White-throated, Lincoln’s, Swamp, Field, Chipping, and Song—along with other winter treasures like a few Winter Wrens, a Dark-eyed Junco, and a handful of Purple Finches (an irruptive species that appears in our region in greater numbers some years than others). Slender Gray-cheeked Thrushes and long-winged Blackpoll Warblers are always exciting to band in late fall as they are some of our longest distance migrants breeding as far north as the taiga in Canada and overwintering in Central and South America. Missing from our usual October catch were Golden-crowned Kinglets, Brown Creepers, and the ever pined for Fox Sparrow.

Purple Finch banded at Rushton this October. Photo by Blake Goll/Staff
Winter Wren banded at Rushton this October. Photo by Blake Goll/Staff
Blackpoll Warbler banded at Rushton this October. Photo by Blake Goll/Staff
Gray-cheeked Thrush banded at Rushton this October. Photo by Jennifer Mathes

Established in 2009 with a grant from the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club (DVOC), our banding station has been a huge success over the years, attracting many exceptional volunteers who help us run the station smoothly during spring and fall migration as well as during the summer breeding season.

Our federally licensed bird banders operate up to 16 nets at a time, placing a unique aluminum band on each songbird. Tagging birds in this way allows us to: learn about presence or absence of species that are using our conservation farm and nature preserve; understand migratory behavior (like how long birds stopover in our habitat to refuel); reveal longevity and examples of site fidelity as individual breeding birds return to Rushton and are recaptured year after year; and explore other important population dynamics as well as habitat quality.

Bird Conservation Associate Alison Fetterman aging a Black-and-white Warbler, and volunteer Victoria Sindlinger documenting the molt. Photo by Blake Goll/Staff

What follows here are some interesting highlights translated from the 10-year report that was compiled from our data by Alison Fetterman, Bird Conservation Associate.

Top 6 Most Abundant Species

Although we have banded 100 species at Rushton Woods Preserve, a few species dominate the landscape. These include: Gray Catbird, White-throated Sparrow, Common Yellowthroat, Wood Thrush, Ovenbird, and Song Sparrow. Catbirds take the cake numbering over 3,500 individuals through the years!

Top 6 most abundant species banded at Rushton Woods Preserve in order of highest abundance from top left: Gray Catbird, White-throated Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Common Yellowthroat, Ovenbird, Wood Thrush. Photos by Celeste Sheehan

Rare Species

Over 10 years, there are 8 species that have only been captured once. While they are not necessarily rare migrants, their species-specific behavior (e.g., foraging in the tops of trees above our nets) may in some cases account for why these species rarely encountered our nets.

Bay-breasted Warbler
Clay-colored Sparrow
Cape May Warbler
Eastern Kingbird
Hooded Warbler
Louisiana Waterthrush
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Yellow-throated Vireo

Cape May Warbler, Yellow-throated Vireo, and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker: species banded only once at Rushton. Photos by Blake Goll/Staff

Interesting Recaptures

Of the over 3,200 recaptures—birds captured that already had a band—only two of those birds were not originally banded by us. (This is a typical phenomenon for passive songbird banding.) These migrants included an American Redstart and an American Goldfinch. In addition, one White-throated Sparrow that was originally banded by us was subsequently recaptured at another station. Since all data for each bird is stored in a centralized database called the Bird Banding Lab, banders are able to acquire the birds’ stories from their band numbers:

On September 3, 2015, we captured an adult female American Redstart at Rushton Woods Preserve (RWP). The bird was originally banded at Kiawah Island Banding Station (KIBS) in South Carolina in the fall of 2014 http://kiawahislandbanding.blogspot.com/. These banding stations are 570 miles apart and the bird was presumably on its fall migration when it was encountered in both years. These banding encounters contribute to our understanding of the migratory pattern of this small songbird.

  • American Redstart

On May 1, 2019, tucked within a large flock of American Goldfinches we discovered a second year (SY) male American Goldfinch that had been banded originally at Foreman’s Branch Bird Observatory (FBBO) in Maryland on November 25, 2018. The young bird must have hatched in Maryland in the summer of 2018 and dispersed the 58 miles to Rushton the following spring!

  • American Goldfinch

On October 16, 2016, we banded a White-throated Sparrow at Rushton. The following spring, on March 13, 2017, it was captured at Cape May Bird Observatory—75 miles to the southeast of Rushton Woods Preserve! One can only imagine that the bird continued south in the fall of 2016 after stopping at Rushton, and may have been picked up in Cape May during the north-bound spring migration. Alternatively, the bird may have used Rushton as an important stopover site on its way to its overwintering destination of Cape May, a hot spot for many birds.

  • White-throated Sparrow

Notable Weight Gains

Our data show that 75% of our birds are only captured by us once. Among the other 25% of recaptures, we have noted a few birds that stick around taking advantage of the habitat. When we recapture our birds we are able to record that they are gaining weight and using Rushton to fuel up for their next migratory flight. Songbirds only gain weight during migration in order to make long overnight flights.

As part of the banding process we look at subcutaneous fat stores, visible under the skin on a scale from 0-6, with 6 being the most fat. We also weigh the birds in grams. Through recapture data we can see how long birds may be staying at the preserve and their rate of weight gain for migration. Here are a few examples!

Subcutaneous fat is visible under the skin of birds, and during migration stored fat is commonly seen in the furcular hollow of a bird, just below the throat. Pictured left is a bird with an empty furcular hollow and no fat stores. On the right, the furcular hollow is overfull with fat, stored for a long overnight flight. Subcutaneous fat is visible as an orange fleshy glow under the skin.

Veery : In early September 2017, we captured a Veery twice and discovered that the bird gained 14.9 grams in only eight days! This means the bird gained 47% of its body weight from the first time it was weighed, in only about a week’s time. A true athlete, this small thrush could easily have flown a couple hundred miles in one night following its final capture at Rushton Woods Preserve. It also means the bird was finding everything it needed at Rushton to fuel such a long journey.

A Veery banded at Rushton. Photo by Jennifer Mathes

Worm-eating Warbler: In the fall of 2015 we captured this bird three times between September 3 and October 1. (That’s 27 days!) However, this is a different example of an indication of good habitat quality. This bird did not gain weight between those catches like a typical migrant, but it was a young bird that most likely hatched that summer in a nearby dry wooded hillside—the preferred breeding habitat of this species.

After leaving the nest and its parents, it likely dispersed from the open woodland to the denser hedgerow and meadow habitat where we were capturing the warbler. The long length of stay rather, indicates that Rushton was providing important post-fledging habitat for this young bird and others—a shrubby early successional safe zone full of easy food, hiding places, and fewer predators for young birds learning how to make it in the world.

The Worm-eating Warbler that was captured three times in the fall of 2015. Photo by Blake Goll/Staff

Longevity Records

After banding with a constant effort at Rushton Woods Preserve over the years, we can start to get a better idea of how long birds live and if they are returning from year to year. The Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) keeps records of the oldest birds through over a million band records. However, after 10 years, we have a few records of our own.

Veery – At least 11 years old! This male Veery was first captured at Rushton on June 30, 2011, aged After Second Year (ASY), meaning it was at least two years old. We have since recaptured this bird breeding at Rushton in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2020! We may not have seen the last of this old Veery! This is incredible when you consider that the Veery migrates to the tropics each winter. The BBL record for Veery is 13 years old.

Our old Veery was featured on social media this summer by the Institute for Bird Populations.

Ovenbird – At least 11 years old! This female Ovenbird—another neotropical migrant—was first captured on May 27, 2011, aged ASY, meaning it was at least two years old just like the Veery. We have since encountered this bird breeding at Rushton in 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2020. The BBL record for Ovenbird is 11 years old, so we’re tied!

Our old Ovenbird was featured on social media this summer by the Institute for Bird Populations.

If you’d like to view the 10-year songbird banding report in its entirety, please contact us at bhg@wctrust.org. It will also eventually be available for public view on our website.

Wishing you the health and prosperity of our old birds and happy owl-idays!

As always, there’s a lot going on in the woods,

Blake

One of the 84 new Northern Saw-whet Owls banded this fall at Rushton during our nocturnal owl banding program. Photo by Blake Goll/Staff

Filed Under: Bird Banding, Bird Conservation Tagged With: Bird banding, bird banding data, bird migration

Nature at Night: Flappy Hour, Using Motus to Track the Flight Path of an Avian Biologist

October 9, 2020 By Communications Team

Meet Shelly Eshleman, our newest Motus team member and bird conservation biologist as she describes her path to working for Willistown Conservation Trust. She will give an inside view of what life as a Motus technician is like and describe the Bobolink project she’s been working on with Zoe Warner.

Recent Article by Zoë Warner | Article published by Brandywine Conservancy

PRESERVED LANDS IN KING RANCH AREA OF CHESTER COUNTY OFFER HOPE AND SUMMER HOME FOR BOBOLINKS
By: Zoë Warner, Ph.D., Avian Research

Filed Under: Bird Banding, Bird Conservation, Bird Events, Flappy Hour, Motus, Nature at Night, Uncategorized

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Our nature preserves are open to the public 365 days per year from sunrise to sunset, providing natural places that offer peace and respite for all. Willistown Conservation Trust owns and manages three nature preserves in the Willistown area - Ashbridge, Kirkwood and Rushton Woods Preserve. We maintain these lands for the … Learn more about our nature preserves.

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