The Power of a Connected Network

In 2022, the Migratory Bird Initiative started touring round North America supporting the rising community of Motus stations put in by Audubon and its companions. We helped construct stations within the panther-inhabited backcountry of Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary,  up north in polar bear nation alongside the shores of Hudson Bay dwelling to the Weenusk First Nation, and lots of locations in between. Throughout these adventures, one factor turned abundantly clear, not solely does Audubon love migratory birds, however we perceive that monitoring their seasonal actions is an important step to full annual cycle, hemispheric conservation, a goal of Audubon’s Flight Plan. 

A really distinctive power of Audubon is our deep, in depth community of Facilities, Sanctuaries, State and Regional Places of work, and Neighborhood and Campus Chapters throughout america in addition to our partnerships with native communities and conservation organizations in Canada, Latin America, and throughout the hemisphere. These all intersect to contribute to a very astounding community enthusiastic about migratory fowl conservation.  

As investments in fowl monitoring know-how expanded over the previous a number of years, Audubon discovered itself at an inflection level. We have been rising past Audubon teams specializing in their very own necessary questions to deal with native conservation issues, and prepared for a extra coordinated effort, harnessing the facility of Audubon’s in depth community to reply hemispheric-scale questions utilizing a holistic, built-in strategy. 

Enter the Migratory Chook Monitoring Program, which is able to coordinate and assist monitoring efforts throughout the group to make sure alignment with Flight Plan. The Monitoring Program will interact folks to determine and tackle the elements inflicting fowl inhabitants declines, crucial info mandatory to assist bend the bird curve. The Monitoring Program will even present sources and steering to make sure that monitoring efforts throughout Audubon are scalable to deal with broad conservation challenges. Over the following a number of months hold an eye fixed out for these sources to turn into out there to the Audubon community. 

There may be nonetheless a lot to study migratory birds utilizing monitoring units. A latest evaluation of monitoring knowledge performed by Audubon, Georgetown College and the Smithsonian Establishment demonstrated that over half of migratory birds that breed in North America have not been tracked utilizing monitoring units. Some examples of necessary insights  delivered to gentle by monitoring research  embrace an ongoing study performed by Audubon South Carolina, Audubon Delta, and others utilizing barometric strain geolocators on Prothonotary Warblers to raised perceive their stopover wants and vulnerability to offshore wind throughout migration; Audubon Nice Lakes has been tracking Black Terns with Motus and recognized that extreme climate occasions, similar to storms and flooding, disrupt nesting websites, and eventually, Audubon Americas and native companions are utilizing Motus to trace Lesser Yellowlegs to assist farmers handle their land in Colombia’s Cauca Valley whereas supporting nonbreeding habitat.  

As migratory birds embark on their journeys throughout the hemisphere, they encounter countless obstacles earlier than reaching their locations. Solely with coordinated monitoring research can we unravel the mysteries of which conservation challenges are inflicting migratory fowl inhabitants declines and what seasons are most necessary for fixing these conservation dilemmas. As Audubon’s Migratory Chook Monitoring Program matures, we are going to be sure that native conservation efforts scale up throughout Audubon to contribute to the success of our Flight Plan, making certain that our hemispheric perspectives translate to local conservation actions on the bottom.

The success of the Monitoring Program relies on the participation of the complete Audubon community. Audubon Facilities, Sanctuaries, Chapters, State and Regional Places of work in addition to Audubon Americas and our companions throughout the hemisphere all have a job to play. This new Migratory Chook Monitoring Program would be the newest instance of Audubon’s actually hemispheric conservation agenda to safe a future for migratory birds. For extra info on the Migratory Chook Monitoring Program, please attain out to Alicia Brunner, Program Supervisor of Migratory Chook Monitoring.