Calling All Bird Watchers: Audubon’s Bird-a-thon Wants You

by Mary J Metzger

            It starts innocently enough with a few bread crusts tossed out on the snow to attract some colorful jays or redbirds. Then come the feeders, the bird books and the field glasses. It’s an easy slide to pricey scopes, journeys to remote viewing sites and finally the life list, which must be filled.

            No matter what the level of interest, Cape Cod birders have opportunities to channel this hobby to collective good, starting with Mass Audubon’s 25^th annual Bird-a-Thon at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 16. Teams from Mass Audubon sanctuaries will vie to find the greatest number of bird species in 24 hours.

            “The winner has bragging rights among the sanctuaries,” says Mark Faherty, science coordinator and bird specialist with the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. “But it’s also fun and funds. We’re looking for the birder with monied friends.”

            Pledges per species found, or a fixed amount, will go to support the Sanctuary’s educational and conservation efforts. Enthusiastic birders of all skill levels may be matched with a team by calling Wellfleet Bay’s Volunteer Coordinator, Cynthia Franklin, by May 10 at 508-349-2615, or emailing cfranklin@massaudubon.org. Or birders can register their own team and collect sponsors in their own backyard or favorite birding spot. Those who just want to want to watch out the window can also pledge by calling the Sanctuary.

            Wellfleet Bay has a chance to win the competition, because of the Cape’s varied wetland and upland habitats and its geographical position in the middle of the spring coastal migrations. Past years have counted more than 200 different species statewide.

            When asked about the possibility of cheating, Faherty said, “We’re on the honor system. To dispel ‘murmurs,’ the competition does need two people to sign off on seeing the rarer species.”

            Citizen scientist birders can also help with Mass Audubon’s Breeding Bird Atlas 2, which counts the number of species breeding in Massachusetts. In its second year, this survey will be compared to Breeding Bird Atlas 1, taken between 1974 and 1979, the first effort in North America to map the distribution of breeding birds in any state or province. Scientists want to understand how changes in the state’s landscape in the past 30 years may have affected breeding birds.

            Volunteers with the Cape Cod Bird Club help with this survey. They look for evidence of breeding, like nest building, feeding of young and recently fledged birds.

            “We do still have some areas that need coverage on the outer Cape, including Chatham, for someone who is willing to sign up as a 20 hour Primary Atlaser,” says coordinator Mary Keleher. Information on the Breeding Bird Atlas 2 can be found at the Cape Cod Bird Club website www.massbird.org/ccbc or by contacting Keleher at 508-477-1473, maryeak@yahoo.com.   Another coordinator is Blair Nikula, 508-432-6348, odenews@odenews.org

            Mass Audubon is the oldest conservation society in the United States. It was started in 1896 by two Boston Brahmin women, Mrs. Harriet Lawrence Hemenway and her cousin, Minna B. Hall. They became disturbed by accounts of the widespread slaughter of coastal birds to supply the millinery trade. Paris fashion at that time dictated that women’s hats be ornamented with feathers and plumes, the more the better. It was estimated that some five million American birds of about 50 species were being killed annually for fashion.

            Henry David Thoreau earlier described coastal birds as one continuous unbroken line of coots offshore along the whole back side of the Cape. Birds began to be decimated by market gunning after the Civil War, when the newly built railroads provided a fast way to supply the Boston market.

            With the help of Boston Brahmin men, Harriet Hemenway and Minna Hall were able to get the commercial hunting of coastal water birds stopped by Massachusetts law in 1897. This controversial law came two decades before any Federal protection. Sport hunting was outlawed in 1926, but not before several species went extinct. The last Eskimo curlew taken in New England was shot in East Orleans in 1913.

            Minna and Harriet might be surprised to know that their organization has grown to 45 wildlife sanctuaries in Massachusetts, totaling over 30,000 acres. They would probably be even more amazed at the online tools available for this conservation work.

            Mass Audubon has started a “Birds to Watch” program. These birds, like the American kestrel, eastern meadowlark and eastern towhee, are not endangered, but have populations which are declining. Two birds, the oriole and the whip-poor-will, are designated with special projects to identify their numbers. Mass Audubon would like to know if one of these birds visits your yard. More information on these projects can be found at www.massaudubon.org. Click on Birds and Birding.

            Finally, Mass Audubon has teamed with Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology to provide a Massachusetts-oriented portal to eBird, a free, user-friendly way for birders across North America to share their observations at any hour of the day, found at www.massaudubon.org/ebird/

            In a survey in 2001, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service indicated that more than one million people in Massachusetts feed birds. If those people share their observations, avian science benefits.

            “It’s citizen science,” says Faherty. “It’s not scientific data. But when we see trends we can send the experts out to investigate. It helps to have those observations coming in.”

5/8/07