State’s 2nd Breeding Bird Atlas survey needs volunteers
Rural Pennsylvanians are being asked to help in historic bird survey

(Images can be found at www.carnegieMNH.org.cmnh/news)

The Pennsylvania Game Commission and Carnegie Museum of Natural History are looking for both casual and avid birdwatchers to help monitor nesting wild birds in the 2nd Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas.

"Since about one in four Pennsylvanians are interested in birds, we anticipate that this call for assistance will be answered in short order with an overflow of interested individuals," said Dan Brauning, PGC Wildlife Diversity Program supervisor. "But that's not a problem, because a great deal of help is needed statewide, particularly in the more rural areas.

"If you're interested in helping in a rural area — one that you live in or are willing to travel to — we'd like to hear from you. Even if you haven't watched birds much before now, there is still plenty of time to learn how to observe and identify them and to help in this important survey."

The 2nd Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas is the most extensive survey of the state’s nesting birds ever attempted. Started this spring, the grid-based survey will continue for the next five years and aims to track the changes that have occurred in bird populations since the first atlas was completed. Since that time, eagles, ospreys and peregrine falcons have expanded their breeding numbers substantially. Also of interest will be charting whether the long-term declines of many of songbirds reported in the first atlas continues.

"The new survey incorporates new methods to document secretive and rare species, as well provide a new look at distribution patterns as they relate to species abundance," Brauning explained. "The second atlas also will provide new information that will aid in the management of all bird species, and will include a special focus to update the historic locations of species of special concern statewide."

Although it follows and largely replicates the first atlas, which was conducted in Pennsylvania from 1983 to 1989, the second atlas project will provide new levels of understanding for the state’s bird populations that will help to ensure their conservation now and in the future. It is funded largely with federal State Wildlife Grant monies through the Game Commission and organized and coordinated by Carnegie Museum of Natural History through offices at the museum's Powdermill Nature Reserve.

State Wildlife Grants are considered to be one of America's best hopes for reversing fish and wildlife declines. Investing federal dollars at the State level — before a species declines to the point of being federally endangered — is far more effective than waiting until the populations need expensive "emergency room care" through the Endangered Species Act. Ultimately, State Wildlife Grants can save both our wildlife resources and limited conservation dollars.

"Right now, the second Atlas is looking for as much help as it can muster from Pennsylvania's estimated 2.7 million birdwatchers," noted Bob Mulvihill, a field ornithologist at Carnegie Museum's Powdermill Nature Reserve, who is serving as the Atlas project coordinator. "This project's success depends on the participation of thousands of volunteer bird watchers."

"A single record of a robin nesting on your porch post, or a long list of nesting species you've compiled after having spent dozens of hours watching birds in various habitats throughout one of the thousands of Atlas blocks across the state will contribute measurably to the Atlas project. Every single participant and every single record adds value and importance to the Atlas."

The original Atlas was done with help from more than 2,000 volunteers. But when you consider that there are more than 4,900 blocks to cover Pennsylvania's about 45,000 square miles, it quickly becomes apparent that more volunteer help would surely help this critically important effort.

Field work for the Atlas began in January by a core group of knowledgeable and hard-working regional coordinators who are responsible for recruiting and organizing volunteer birdwatchers in each of Atlas' 57 rectangular regions across the state. Most coordinators have 75 to 100 survey blocks that must be monitored by volunteer birdwatchers over the next five years.

When it's finished in 2008, the second Atlas will show changes in the occurrence and distribution of the state's nearly 200 species of nesting birds, and promises to provide much additional information about the state’s breeding birds. The use of technologies, such as global positioning satellites and geographic information systems — unavailable when data for the first Atlas was collected — are expected to improve the survey. But success in getting to the finish line, and the quantity and quality of data collected, will be directly influenced by the number of volunteers who participate, especially covering blocks in rural Pennsylvania.

Individuals interested in volunteering for Atlas survey work are asked to register on the Atlas Website at www.pabirdatlas.org, or call Atlas project coordinators at 724-593-6022. On the Website, volunteers will be able to find out which region they're in and which regional coordinator to contact for help, print instructions, block maps, field cards and other forms needed for the doing the Atlas, get birdwatching and bird identification tips, view complete results from the first Atlas, follow the progress of the second Atlas, and enter their observations of breeding birds. To date, about 750 volunteers have registered and begun helping in more than 1,400 blocks in the second Atlas survey. But many more are needed so organizers hope that thousands more will recognize the 2nd Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas as an enjoyable way to increase their interest and knowledge of birds.

Additional funding for the Atlas has been provided by the Wild Resource Conservation Fund, and in-kind and other assistance is being provided by state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' bureaus of Forestry and State Parks, Pennsylvania Audubon, Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology, Penn State Cooperative Wetlands Center, Penn State Institutes of the Environment, Penn State School of Forest Resources, Powdermill Nature Reserve and Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.