Re: [cayugabirds-l] Fields being mowed.

[Geo Kloppel]

I’ve been musing along a different line, wondering if a preemptive approach is 
possible. 

It takes time to mow the big fields that grassland nesters favor, and the hay 
farmer can’t mow all of them simultaneously. The work of haying season has to 
begin somewhere, and start early enough that the farmer can get through it all. 
So each year some field will be selected to go first, and another second, and 
the rest must wait their turns. 

Clearly some fields that are later in the queue can produce a crop of 
fledglings before it’s their turn to be mowed; otherwise we wouldn’t be having 
this conversation. So, suppose for the moment that the decision about which 
fields to mow early could be made before nesting had even begun. If there was 
then some way to discourage the birds from selecting those particular fields to 
nest in, the effect would be to direct them to the fields slated for later 
mowing...

-Geo
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Re: [cayugabirds-l] Fields being mowed.

[Suan Hsi Yong]

On Sun, Jun 20, 2021 at 6:38 PM Nancy Cusumano 
wrote:

> I have been thinking about this too. And to me the issue is, what is in it
> for the farmer? If we are going to ask them to cut their fields up to go
> around nesting sites, is the bird conservation issue enough for them? What
> is the carrot, I guess is my question. I don't know the answer.
>

The carrot question is a challenging one, and not one I'm prepared to
address, but I think of it as an independent problem.

I'm working on the assumption that some farmers, either via some form of
persuasion or just from their own love of nature, would be interested in
not killing nestlings. We've heard allusion to at least two such farmers in
recent posts. But as of today, these farmers do not have any workable
solution other than a loosy-goosy guideline of "wait til July to mow"
which, as others have explained, is often not compatible with their harvest
constraints. The volunteer surveyor's corps, if it can be successfully
materialized, would be an option for those farmers to try something
different. The idea would not be for the corps to go around trying to
convince farmers to do this or that, but to be available as a resource for
those who desire it.

Suan

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Re: [cayugabirds-l] Fields being mowed.

[Nancy Cusumano]

I have been thinking about this too. And to me the issue is, what is in it
for the farmer? If we are going to ask them to cut their fields up to go
around nesting sites, is the bird conservation issue enough for them? What
is the carrot, I guess is my question. I don't know the answer.
Also, if fields are cut down around nesting birds, does that leave them
enough grassland to continue? Will they abandon?

I think a trial at CU fields is a great idea if we can float it to them.

Nancy


On Sun, Jun 20, 2021 at 6:05 PM Suan Hsi Yong  wrote:

> Thanks, Dave.
>
> As Cayuga Bird Club I've been wondering what, if anything, we could do
> about the situation. One dimension would be outreach and education and
> increasing general awareness, for which CAC chair Jody has stepped up to
> solicit volunteers, thanks! But I'd also toyed with a pipedream idea of
> whether the club could establish a corps of volunteer surveyors who, upon
> request by any interested farmer, would go to a field and try to map out
> nest sites and mark off sub-sections of the field that the farmer may be
> willing to leave alone for the sake of the birds.
>
> I've never tried finding nest sites of field birds before; I suspect it
> can be hard. I'd be interested to hear of any work or techniques that can
> be workable to "an average volunteer". Perhaps Reuben has some hints or
> suggestions. I know that Reuben is a very acute observer of birds, and
> would place his skills at above average; ideally, we would like to
> establish some methodology that can be effectively applied by one of
> "average" observational skills.
>
> Just spitballing, I imagine a workable technique would involve first
> installing flags to establish a grid over the field, then having at least
> two observers situated on orthogonal axes communicating with walkie-talkies
> to triangulate the grid location of an observed bird flying into or out of
> a likely nest. Flag installation should probably happen a day or two in
> advance, and could conceivably be done by the farmer ahead of time. Flag
> installation may also flush birds from potential nest sites, and notes on
> such observations should be taken as well. The flags will need to be marked
> such that they can be read from both axes, and be easy to interpolate.
> Using letters and numbers is the obvious choice, but the markings would
> have to be on stiff cards facing both axes. Another option is to use color
> coded flags, but interpolation may be tricky, as one needs to be able to
> quickly locate the grid "between the green and blue flags", say. Something
> involving two digits of rainbow colors could be workable, but it gets
> complicated fast with two axes to label.
>
> If anyone is interested in volunteering for such a survey, please email
> me. I don't know if this idea will go anywhere, but having a sense of
> potential interest could be a starting point. Also, if any farmers are
> willing to let us test out techniques, email me as well. I suspect we won't
> be able to do anything this season, but if the stars align (enough
> volunteers sign up and a farmer offers a field to test) we could
> potentially try doing something within the next week or two of peak
> nesting. More likely is to think about possibly doing something next
> season, perhaps on one of Cornell's agricultural fields that started this
> thread?
>
> Curious to hear people's thoughts.
>
> Suan
>
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Re: [cayugabirds-l] Fields being mowed.

[Suan Hsi Yong]

Thanks, Dave.

As Cayuga Bird Club I've been wondering what, if anything, we could do
about the situation. One dimension would be outreach and education and
increasing general awareness, for which CAC chair Jody has stepped up to
solicit volunteers, thanks! But I'd also toyed with a pipedream idea of
whether the club could establish a corps of volunteer surveyors who, upon
request by any interested farmer, would go to a field and try to map out
nest sites and mark off sub-sections of the field that the farmer may be
willing to leave alone for the sake of the birds.

I've never tried finding nest sites of field birds before; I suspect it can
be hard. I'd be interested to hear of any work or techniques that can be
workable to "an average volunteer". Perhaps Reuben has some hints or
suggestions. I know that Reuben is a very acute observer of birds, and
would place his skills at above average; ideally, we would like to
establish some methodology that can be effectively applied by one of
"average" observational skills.

Just spitballing, I imagine a workable technique would involve first
installing flags to establish a grid over the field, then having at least
two observers situated on orthogonal axes communicating with walkie-talkies
to triangulate the grid location of an observed bird flying into or out of
a likely nest. Flag installation should probably happen a day or two in
advance, and could conceivably be done by the farmer ahead of time. Flag
installation may also flush birds from potential nest sites, and notes on
such observations should be taken as well. The flags will need to be marked
such that they can be read from both axes, and be easy to interpolate.
Using letters and numbers is the obvious choice, but the markings would
have to be on stiff cards facing both axes. Another option is to use color
coded flags, but interpolation may be tricky, as one needs to be able to
quickly locate the grid "between the green and blue flags", say. Something
involving two digits of rainbow colors could be workable, but it gets
complicated fast with two axes to label.

If anyone is interested in volunteering for such a survey, please email me.
I don't know if this idea will go anywhere, but having a sense of potential
interest could be a starting point. Also, if any farmers are willing to let
us test out techniques, email me as well. I suspect we won't be able to do
anything this season, but if the stars align (enough volunteers sign up and
a farmer offers a field to test) we could potentially try doing something
within the next week or two of peak nesting. More likely is to think about
possibly doing something next season, perhaps on one of Cornell's
agricultural fields that started this thread?

Curious to hear people's thoughts.

Suan

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[cayugabirds-l] Taughannock Peregrines

[Suan Hsi Yong]

Two Thursdays ago (June 10) I happened to be up in T'burg, so stopped by to
check out the Taughannock Peregrines. I found three nestlings in their
eyrie playing with their food and flapping their wings as if ready to
fledge. Two days later, on Saturday June 12, I ran across Mark Chao and
Miyoku in T'burg, and together we went looking only to find the ledge
empty. After some waiting we saw one then several peregrines soaring around
the gorge, including the fledglings. Two of them eventually perched on a
snag on the same side of the gorge as we were, and through a window in the
foliage we were afforded some fantastic naked-eye views as they sat and
preened. Below are two videos I took, first of the nestlings on Thursday,
then of a fledgling on Saturday:

  https://youtu.be/YvQaS-PHFbo
  https://youtu.be/8RAOCeBO49I

Suan

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