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Bergen County Audubon Society's
Conservation News On Sunday, March 30, 2008, members of Bergen County Audubon Society came to the Overpeck Preserve to erect nesting boxes. Although the BCUA is in the midst of laying the big sewer line from Ridgefield Park to Englewood, and has just completed the part which goes through the Overpeck Preserve, the volunteers from BCAS were still able to install 12 nesting boxes. By concentrating their efforts along Lake Overpeck, the boxes were able to be installed away from the major construction areas. It happened just in time. As soon as the first house was in place, a Tree Swallow moved right in. Many thanks to Gil Hawkins, Director of the Preserve, and to Harry Byrne, Dick Engsberg, Beth Goldberg, Brenda McIntyre, Anne Murphy and Don and Michael Torino for all their help. Gerry Byrne – Conservation Chair
Bird house installation
team.
NATIONAL AUDUBON RELEASES "STATE OF THE BIRDS" On Tuesday October 9, 2004, The National Audubon Society released the "The State of the Birds", a report documenting the health and abundance of North America's birds. Appearing in the October issue of Audubon magazine, "The State of the Birds" paints a disturbing picture. Almost 30% of America's bird species are in "significant decline", a situation that signals seriously degraded environmental conditions in the habitats these birds call home. The bottom line: the state of the birds in 2004 is not sound. In particular, a disturbing 70% of the grassland species; 36% of the shrub-land species; 25% of the forest species; 13% of the wetland species; and 23% of the bird species in urban areas are showing "statistically significant declines". A digest of the report was published in the October issue of Audubon magazine and a further analysis is available on the Audubon website, www.audubon.org/bird/stateofthebirds.
IMPORTANT BIRD AREA UPDATE Over the summer,
the Important Bird Area committee met a number of times and we are currently
preparing to nominate several sites in the Hackensack River Watershed as
important Bird and Birding Areas. The list of sites that we will be
nominating include Lake Tappan, Oradell Reservoir and Woods, Losen Slote
Creek Park and Mehrhof Pond, and the Kingsland Impoundments at DeKorte Park.
These sites provide critical stopover habitat for thousands of migrating and
wintering water fowl and shorebirds as well as supporting small numbers of
the federally listed Bald Eagle. Once the site is nominated, the IBBA
technical committee will review the submission and determine if the site
should be designated an Important Bird and/or Birding Area. We will keep you
updated when a determination has been made for each site. IMPORTANT BIRD AREA PROGRAM
In 2002, The National Audubon Society joined Birdlife International Partnership, which is a global alliance of bird conservation organizations, as the U.S. partner for the Important Bird Area program. Birdlife International has evolved to become the global authority on threatened birds, and the Partnership undertakes an enormous range of activities from field research, advocacy, and education, to targeted action on the ground for birds in particularly urgent peril. This is done by combining sound science with people’s enduring passion for birds and wider nature conservation. So, what is an Important Bird Area? IBAs are sites that provide essential habitat for one or more species of bird. IBAs include sites for breeding, wintering, and/or migrating birds. IBAs may be a few acres or thousands of acres, but usually are discrete sites that stand out from the surrounding landscape. They may include public or private lands, or both, and they may be protected or unprotected. To qualify as an IBA, sites must satisfy at least one of the following criteria. The site must support: · Species of conservation concern (e.g. threatened and endangered species) · Restricted range species ( species that are vulnerable because they are not widely distributed) · Species that are vulnerable because their populations are concentrated in one general habitat type or biome. · Species or groups of similar species (such as waterfowl or shorebirds), that are vulnerable because they occur at high densities due to their congregatory behavior.
This will be important to bird conservation because IBA inventories will provide a scientifically defensible method for prioritizing conservation activities and allocating limited conservation dollars to ensure the maximum benefit to birds. This will also offer opportunities for participation by volunteer citizen scientists in projects such as monitoring programs which provide much needed data. Such participation promotes local stewardship and advocacy. This is where we come in. Our club will be actively participating in this project. Once the specific criteria are established for New Jersey, we will be doing the field research as well as analyzing already gathered data from our Christmas and Spring Bird Counts to determine what sites in our area may qualify for designation as an IBA. In New Jersey, this program will be coordinated by the New Jersey Audubon Society but much of the ground work will be performed by groups such as ours. As soon as at least one site has been nominated for inclusion in this program we will begin gathering the appropriate data. If you are interested in participating in this exciting project, please contact Ken Witkowski (973) 208-9808 to sign up.
Ken Witkowski
Easy way to communicate on Environmental Issues. The following organizations received funding from Bergen County
Audubon Society The Nature Conservancy American Bird Conservancy Friends of Wallkill National Wildlife Refuge The Raptor Trust National Wildlife Refuge Association Hackensack River Keeper
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