Recently, New York State experienced the harsh effects of raging wildfires in the Canadian Province of Ontario. For several days, air quality indexes spiked to concerning and unhealthy levels, as noticeable smoke covered most of the state in a haze. Here in New York, multiple smaller wildland fires have burned in locations across the state due to dry spring conditions. In addition to causing potential human health and safety concerns, wildfires also may affect local bird and wildlife populations.
Posts Tagged ‘birds’
It’s National Pollinator Week: Importance of butterflies, bees, and more
National Pollinator Week is June 19-23. Pollinator Week is all about spreading awareness for the importance of butterflies, bats, birds, bees, and beetles.
Lights Out Initiative set for peak bird migrations in Spring & Fall
Looking for an easy way to take care of your bird friends this migration season? Did you know each year during spring migration many birds that are navigating the night sky become disoriented from artificial building lighting? Not only does city lighting deter the navigational abilities of migrating birds, but it also leads to an increase in fatal building collisions, killing an estimated 1 billion birds annually.
DIY Forest Management Projects to Try In Winter
You may not see as many birds in your woods in winter, but that doesn’t mean you can’t plan ahead. If you’d like to hear the sound of an Ovenbird calling “pizza! pizza! pizza!” while you hike your trails, or catch a glimpse of a Scarlet Tanager high in a tree canopy, there are actions you can take – for free or cheap, and mostly on your own – to increase the diversity of bird species in your forest.
Winter is a particularly great time to try these management activities, since it’s outside the nesting season.
Five forest birds that make their way back in spring
As we enter spring and welcome the warm weather, we are seeing more birds come back from their wintering grounds. Many forest birds migrate long distances to their breeding locations in the spring. It is crucial that these birds have quality habitat so they can nest, feed, and raise their young to ensure the next generation of the species.
Most neotropical migrants leave the northeast in September and return in April and May. Each bird species has different habitat requirements, so it is key to have a healthy and diverse forest to fulfill all their needs. A healthy forest is composed of multiple age classes and species of trees, provides ecosystem services, and supports forest birds and other wildlife.
Bird Migration FAQs
Below, we’ve compiled some of the most frequently asked questions having to do with bird migration, their journeys, and ways we can welcome them back.
(At left, a tree swallow, illustration by David Allen Sibley, courtesy of Audubon New York)
Found an injured bird? Here’s how to help
Few things are more heartbreaking than encountering an injured, sick, or orphaned bird (adult or chick) or other wild animal. It is in our human nature to want to help, but how do we make sure we do more good than harm? Follow these important guidelines.
Helping Birds Survive the Winter
As winter sets in across the North Country, devoted bird-enthusiasts resume feeding overwintering birds. They take both pleasure and pride in helping their feathered friends survive the harsh winter months, by dutifully providing them with food, water, and shelter.
Feeding birds during the winter can be a never-ending source of entertainment and enjoyment. And an easy, rewarding, and sometimes surprising way to connect with nature. No matter where you live, you can invite birds into your yard and help to ensure their survival by simply putting food out for them to find.
Birdwatching in the Adirondacks
By Hicham Aboutaam
Anyone who is a bird lover and an avid birdwatcher undoubtedly already has the Adirondacks on their bucket list. There are over 100 species of birds in the Adirondacks and the chance to enjoy everything from boreal birds and birds of prey to perching birds and waterfowl. The area is a feast for the eyes and the other senses. For the uninitiated, or the person who has not yet had the chance to enjoy birdwatching in the area, here is a quick guide to experiences I have had and advice I’ve garnered over time.
NNY Audubon funds bird projects across the region
Northern New York Audubon (NNYA) is pleased to announce that funds will be awarded to several regional organizations as part of the annual Joseph & Joan Cullman Conservation Grants.
The projects approved by NNYA were submitted by the following non-profits, local environmental organizations, and higher education institutions: Adirondack Interpretive Center at Newcomb, Ausable River Association, Wildlife Conservation Society, Adirondack Watershed Institute, St. Lawrence Land Trust, SUNY ESF Adirondack Ecological Center, Dr. Alyssa Gleichsner of SUNY Plattsburgh, and Jesse Rock of Paul Smith’s College master’s program.
It’s Just Coffee. Right?
It’s Just Coffee. Right?
Coffee may very well be the world’s most widely traded tropical agricultural commodity. It’s certainly one of them. Twenty to twenty-five million families around the world make their living growing coffee. And, by most estimates, more than 2.25-billion cups of coffee are consumed worldwide every day.
If you’re like me, you start your day; every day; with a couple of cups of coffee. (I’m addicted.) I often enjoy my early morning joe seated at the table reading emails and online news, while observing the birds at my feeder station as they come and go. When the weather permits, I like to enjoy my coffee sitting outside, where I often just close my eyes and listen.
Helping the snow birds that stick around
When we hear the term “Snow Birds,” we naturally think of a person who migrates from the colder northern parts of North America to warmer southern locales but birds here in the Adirondacks also claim this title and fittingly so.
As winter approaches the mountains, an entire orchestra of song birds migrates to a warmer, southern winter territory. The morning music of feathered chirpers throughout the spring and summer months have flown away not to return until April-May next year.
These flying migrators range from 29 species of warblers to various populations for thrushes, sparrows, flickers, bluebirds, buntings, sapsuckers, wrens and hummingbirds. This does not leave winter void of the sound of winged music, there are songbirds that remain and brave the cold.
Plover population reaches record high in 2019
Piping plovers are creating nests on Atlantic Coast beaches on the heels of a successful 2019 season. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the population climbed from 1,879 pairs in 2018 to record high of 2,008 pairs breeding last summer from eastern Canada south to North Carolina.
This marks a conservation milestone 35 years in the making from the cooperation of several organizations and many public beachgoers. The record high numbers are due in part to a widespread implementation of “management practices” such as installing symbolic fencing around nests, leashing dogs, posting caution signs, reducing predation, and trusting beachgoers to be conscious of their behavior near the fenced areas around nests.
Snowy Owls Are Tundra Terminators
Thirty thousand years before Harry Potter immortalized the Snowy Owl in popular culture, our European ancestors were drawing them on cave walls. Snowy owls breed on the treeless northern tundra of Alaska, Canada and Eurasia, using scrapes on snow free boulders, hummocks or rises as nests. Males select and defend their territory, while females choose the nesting site.
In a typical year, when adult snowies consume an average of 1,600 lemmings each, half of their clutch of four to eight eggs will survive to adulthood. In a banner year, when the constantly fluctuating lemming populations explode, the female may lay a larger clutch, up to 12 eggs, and all the chicks may survive, and many head south in what are called “Irruptions,” in search of territory or prey, which is why we may see some in the Adirondacks in Winter.
Keeping track of birds
Some people open Christmas gifts with relish. But it is with an equal amount of anticipation that we bird nerds open the annual PDF emailed by Gordon Howard highlighting the previous year’s count at the Crown Point Banding Station — a document that arrived in the mailbox this week. Volunteers at the station, located at the Crown Point Historic Site, net, count and band dozens of species each spring at one of the nation’s more significant avian highways. Prior to Covid, it had become a popular attraction for tourists, birders and school classes, but it’s been closed to the public for the past two years due to the pandemic. This year it will be open again, from May 6 to May 21 for the station’s 47th consecutive year of banding birds.
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