18 Wood Thrush Indicate a Healthy Forest

Eighteen completely different Wooden Thrush pinged the Bent of the River Heart’s Motus tower in the course of the summer time of 2025. Actually, this species has pinged their tower greater than another chook.

One Wooden Thrush, #55198, was dubbed the middle’s “frequent flyer” because it pinged the tower nearly each day till migration. One month after its final ping it reappeared, pinging a tower simply outdoors of Tallahassee, Florida.

Bent of the River employees knew their woodlands have been in style with Wooden Thrush even earlier than the Motus tower began pinging profusely.

Within the 2024 and 2025 breeding seasons, Connecticut Division of Vitality and Environmental Safety biologists nano-tagged six Wooden Thrush on web site.

It is the proper location for such a mission. The middle’s ~700 acres of western Connecticut forest presents preferrred habitat for these birds. This isn’t by likelihood – Land Supervisor Glen Somogie actively manages the property so it has all the proper components to profit forest-dependent birds, like a wholesome mid-story, patchy cover cowl, and leaf litter on the bottom. 

Since Wooden Thrush numbers have declined severely in latest many years, employees knew that they had a singular and pressing alternative to do extra.

A imaginative and prescient rapidly shaped: Bent of the River may create demonstration websites for different forest landowners to go to and study wholesome habitats first-hand. Audubon had already done this successfully at Rheinstrom Hill in New York.

First, like all good scientists, they determined to gather extra knowledge.

Bent of the River’s Junior Forest Technicians (JFTs) grew to become important to the trouble. Glen, Eric Hansen, an Audubon endorsed forester, and Rosa Goldman, senior affiliate for Audubon’s forest program, labored with the JFTs to stock the forest through a way referred to as “variable radius plot sampling.” 

To start out, the JFTs would stand in a particular space the place Wooden Thrush nesting territories had been recognized and the place Wooden Thrush had been efficiently captured and nano-tagged by the CT DEEP biologists.

In that particular spot, the JFT would maintain up a forestry software referred to as a wedge prism, serving to them estimate the density of timber in that space, and the way a lot shade or gentle is reaching the forest flooring. The JFTs and their mentors additionally performed vegetation plot surveys to establish tree and plant species in the identical areas.

With Eric’s plan and the JFTs’ further knowledge, they decided that some plots are able to develop into demonstration websites now – whereas others would require further administration. 

Audubon employees are thrilled to be bringing this Wooden Thrush mission to life by internet hosting academic walks via the primary demonstration websites! Keep an eye out for future events here.