Audubon Wyoming: Making A Difference for Birds

Every year as it warms up the sage grouse gather at the breeding grounds called Lexx where male grouse strut displaying their showy plumage in hopes of attracting a female. It's one of the unique are events we get the opportunity to see in Wyoming. You mean. We have an extraordinary range of bird like trumpeter Swans Sandhill Cranes. Buffalo heads. Hummingbirds and hawks. Birds are everywhere. In your backyard. City parks national forests in the sagebrush sea. Everywhere you look birds are telling you about the health of your surroundings. Oh I think that's a hearing with a.. Yes yes look at Bell. And Audubon Wyoming is working to conserve Wyoming's natural habitats for birds and other wildlife while enriching experience of people who enjoy them.

The first Audubon Society was the idea of magazine editor George bird Grinnell in 1886 who named it after the famed artist and naturalist John James Audubon. Audubon organizations formed all around the country dedicated to protecting birds and their habitats. Through their efforts Pelican Island in Florida became the first National Wildlife Refuge in 1903. Since then numerous chapters have formed around the country. State offices have opened in 26 states and Audubon sanctuaries and nature centers have proliferated. Audubon Wyoming was opened in Casper in 1998 as a state office of the

National Audubon Society Audubon Wyoming's mission is to be a strong unified voice for an ethic of conservation in Wyoming focusing on birds other wildlife and their habitats for the benefit of present and future generations. We carry out this mission through programs focused on education and conservation with assistance from citizen scientists and volunteers from local chapters. There is so much to know about birds their travels their food how they raise their young. One of the things you discover when you began watching birds is how busy they are how

intensely they live. One of the ways that Audubon Wyoming works to conserve birds other animals and their habitat is through education. The Audubon Center at Garden Creek in Casper was established in 1909 as an outdoor learning lab designed to provide opportunities for the local community to engage in discovery through outdoor experiences. On center garden Creek provides educational opportunities for schools. Other organizations in the general public. Where people can come up and view the birds the animals and the habitats generally found in the Casper area with the lemon water also will be a little water. These programs are designed to be hands on activities based on accurate relevant information you know. The goal of these activities is to connect people with nature in a safe educationally sound environment. It is our hope that these lessons develop the conservation ethic and appreciation of the natural

world that the visitors from the center can carry over into their everyday life. Bruce Dudley came to our school and talked to us about some of the different programs that he can do with the kids that will meet our particular 3rd grade objective and that's when we said Sign us up. But we'd love to have the kids back up in the spring to maybe do something something's in the creek or some of the other native wildlife. Other than just birds and birds have appeared. You can tell them why they're. There. They're really they're kind of. They're not. Going to pick up something really big like. An eagle would look like a fish. Pretty cool. And. I forgot what the birds are right. You can even without the binoculars. Watching.

What you. Do to the success of the Audubon Center at Garden creek. Audubon Wyoming is currently investigating the feasibility of providing nature education programs in the area that would follow the same model. With education. Our future generations will begin to understand the importance of conservation and the threats that birds face in Wyoming as well as throughout the world. The number one reason for loss of bird species is loss of habitat. That's the bottom line. We're taking their homes and we're not giving them anything any shelter any food to go to. But what Habitat does Wyoming have to offer. Many people think of most of Wyoming is a dry inhospitable sea of sagebrush with extreme weather conditions.

But without the habitats found here many birds would be looking at a grim future. The large expanses of sagebrush support many bird species during the breeding season. One of the most notable birds that can be found in Wyoming sagebrush country is the northern sage grows which makes a living in Wyoming year round. A lot of people think of Wyoming as this great untouched habitat. In reality Wyoming is losing habitat maybe not as quickly as other states but we're still losing habitat we have a lot of industrial development going on some urban development. If you look in Wyoming all the major towns are centered around a river that is our major migratory habitat and is being destroyed. Maybe not as quickly as say Colorado and other states where the urban development is going on at a rampant pace. But. We're we're suffering the effects as well.

Wyoming provides critical migration stopover points for hundreds of species literally thousands of water fowl shore birds and new tropical migrants those are birds that migrate to the southern United States Mexico Central and South America for the winter make their way through Wyoming some time during the year as a huge migratory corridor. It's extremely important many people think they just fly right through and never stop. They need the stopover sites to hang out to refuel to to kind of reenergize and push north to breathe and the river systems such as the Green River the Bear River and the North Platte serve as major migratory routes and rest areas for birds migrating through Wyoming. It is a huge migratory corridor for a lot of your Raptors like your golden eagles and bald eagles. Winter there as well but they may come through as well. You're waterfowl your shore birds and your smaller tropical

migrants. Another example is one we have right here in Laramie and that is called the Laramie Lakes and it's the prairie pothole complex so you have little dots of water and these birds are flying over just looking. For the water. The small potholes of water that are scattered around the state service rest areas for birds on their long journeys north in the spring and south in the fall. The birds spot these waterholes from high above and swoop in for some shut eye or a bite to eat. Without these rest areas many birds would not survive migration. Another example are National Wildlife Refuge. Again puddles in the middle of it. And the birds are really counting on it. For migration we get upwards of a thousand migration. A huge diversity of water. There. Are thousands of American Valor of. The migratory that we have in Wyoming populations will be.

And. Now you can begin to see why Audubon Wyoming feels it is so important to help conserve Wyoming habitat. Together through partnerships with landowners agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Wyoming Game and Fish Department of Land Management. U.S. Forest Service local Audubon chapters in concerned individuals. We are reaching our goals of conserving and restoring the last great places in Wyoming through a variety of on the ground conservation programs. Audubon's largest conservation program is the important bird areas program which identifies crucial areas in Wyoming for nesting migratory birds and wintering grounds from Wolf Creek Ranch near Sheridan to seeds Gide national wildlife refuge near Green River to the grove on right here in complex near Yellowstone and the Wyoming Herford ranch outside Cheyenne.

Citizens like you are helping monitor bird species and populations Audubon Wyoming has its important bird areas program and its main goal is to identify the most essential areas for birds in Wyoming and then do monitoring in conservation work which includes restoration and a kind of conservation work. For example he worked with the National Wildlife Refuge at U.S. Fish and Wildlife and did an entire wetland unit restoration to make the habitat comebacks for sure birds and nesting waterfowl. There's another area further up on the green that we're working on doing about the same thing making the habitat more inviting for your small Mia tropical migrants increasing the willows cutting down on the grazing a bit of proper fencing and water structures. I think the important bird area programme is instrumental and really targeting where we need the work done and what type of work we need done. Not every single site needs wetland restoration some just need some monitoring to figure out what

birds are there when they're there and then we can go forward from there and and really work to conserve that species whether it be you know some type of wetland restoration to store sedges and rushes for nasty or the elimination of said it and rushes for say you know American assets that need some bare bare shoreline. The IDEA program really pinpoints that and that's our biggest goal once we get those areas identified is to get on the ground conservation work in motion. Thank you. And this Kimball Wilkins is one of our smaller ideas is a state park and a lot of people would look at that area and say what is so special about it. And this Kimball Wilkin State Park. It's the habitat. He has a very unique habitat there and that's the old growth cottonwoods and that is a very rare becoming a very rare habitat in Wyoming as well as other Western states.

We don't have the flooding that we used to have due to water control structures you know the whole dam process. So we don't have this kind of braided river fact we have straight rivers and that really hinders the cottonwood regeneration when we grow enough but it was can we look and still has it has the old cotton has attracted a huge abundance diversity of species during migration as well as for nesting. So the concept of the important bird areas as pioneered by the National Audubon Society is critical. These areas are ideally public win or land conserved in perpetuity by these winds. One of my greatest achievements has been the enhancement of the riparian communities for the creation of ponds and modifying habitat to help increase the biodiversity on the ranch.

I'm also a cattle rancher and I believe strongly in the benefits of controlled grazing. Because basically it allows for the recreate of the food chain and the birds benefit from this. This re creation. Recapped brand new bands using Audubon Wyoming also participates in bird banding. This conservation program known as maps helps track the survival and productivity of birds letting us know where we have to focus our conservation efforts. Map stands for monitoring avian productivity and survivorship and what this means is we catch the birds and we put these little metal bands on the bird. Each band has a number and each number is unique. Every bird gets a different band. There's over I think five to six hundred banding stations within the U.S.. So what that tells us is if those birds are recaptured the next year that they actually made it through

winter they made it through migration. So it tells us where things might be going wrong are they not making it back and being recaptured. Are they dying in winter grounds. Are they having trouble breeding grounds are we finding dead birds. If you find a dead bird with a band they're reported. And so you can tell that was a Northern Water thrush and it was banned in 2002 and it was a female and so on and so forth to vote for look you are hollow. So it really pinpoints of where things are going wrong and maybe where things are going right you know where where the birds are actually the populations are increasing and doing well. So that's the that's the big point of maps is to really pinpoint in tell us where we can. Focus our efforts and help these birds. So the first thing that you want to do when you approach a net. Is a conduit of the net. And that's exactly what Sam did. She looked at what bird is

in the worst state in the Met. This bird she's getting out now is kind of hanging by a leg. So she wanted to get that one out first. And what you want to do every Vandar has is different technique of how to get a bird out of the net. What Sam is doing is getting that leg out first because they have a tendency to grab with the leg and then you work from the butt back. Basically you pull them out of the net. You want to look and see what. Side the bird came in on. Because you're never ever going to be able to pull a bird through the net. It's impossible and you'll really end up hurting the bird quite a bit. So I have the bird by its feet I got its feet out. It's a recapture that already has a band on its leg. It's a little upset with me at this point. So what I do is I work legs but wings ahead for me is usually the last to come out. So I got both its wings out. Its butts out and. Its head out and the bird is out. OK I got the bird out of the natural yellow

and just put it in the bag. Nice you can. Keep them all quiet and are ready to process them. When you're handling a bird and putting the bands on and getting other data you always want to keep it in the banders grip and that's exactly what I'm doing here. The truth fingers around its neck. They have a really skinny neck so you're not going to choke him. And the rest of your hand kind of wrapped around the body it keeps so nice and still and quiet. And they are less likely to injure themselves. But if it's really hot you want to keep them out of the sun because they can really. Get overheated and then that stresses them as well. You want to speak softly and move in slow emotions and calmly. You don't want to put any more unnecessary stress on the bird than you have to. This is a pretty big stressful situation for them if you think about a big hand coming in a jewel in your crown Annette. They think they're going to be eaten. So you want to work quickly and quietly and let them go as soon as

possible. OK so after we catch the birds fandom get all this information we release a bird and there's a certain way you want to release him as well. You don't want to release him up high because if the bird happens to be injured then they have far to fall. So you always want to just open your hands up release them out of banders get close to the ground. And that's your 300 release it release well and successfully and it's on its way back to you. It's. The. Golden Hour bald among the most important Audubon Wyoming conservation activities or the annual bird count at adult gold and I saw the golden color on the back of his head. Bird Counts track bird populations giving managers and conservationists critical information needed to help conserve and protect birds in their habitat. That's pretty neat.

There are several counts that you can participate in throughout the year. The Great Backyard Bird Count the Thanksgiving Day count for the feeder watch program. But the most popular count by far is the Christmas Bird Count which takes place in the middle of winter. This is one of the only counts that is done this time of year. And whereas most counts are during the breeding season which gives us an idea of the breeding condition of individuals and of populations the Christmas Bird Count gives us a snapshot in time of the both the distribution of species across North America and elsewhere and also how populations are doing this time of year. So it gives us good information during a completely different season then those in which we normally do. For example breeding for surveys or other counts that involve the breeding population of birds. You know you're. It's a 15 mile diameter circle within 7 1/2 miles all the way around and that's how the area's is chosen so all of the sites the

religion site and the rest of them in Wyoming and so forth are going to do the same thing. And these bird counts are done all over the nation all over Canada. Parts of Mexico parts of the Pacific Islands and in the Caribbean area with that wide of a range have people looking at birds all the same time periods. They're going to get some results and they can tell if generally a population of birds is. Decreasing or disappearing in the wintertime than where they used to be. It's an. Issue. The Christmas Bird Count represents citizen science in action. Dating back to 1900 these counts provide more than 100 years of information to give us a clearer picture of changes in bird populations information collected from all the Count circles in the nation is kept and maintained in a database by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. There are more than 20 counts in Wyoming and everyone is welcome to participate in account.

If it's done every year and the counts are the same every year the same area the same distance. It gives us an idea. Year after year of the population status of these different species of birds. And this we can compare over time because these counts have been going on for a long time so it gives us an indication of population trends. Our numbers going up are they going down. Are they remaining stable which again gives us an idea of issues that we should be looking at. We walk around Rica record the birds that we see. And count the end the different species I mean and the individual birds. So we don't just say all there's a robin So we got Robin on our list. We count how many robins we see so that we can get an accurate count of. Yes we saw this many rums this many. Pigeons. And then we just record all that stuff we also record the time we're walking in the time we're driving

and how many miles of beach and the temperature the weather conditions and weather whether the water's frozen or open so that when we send this information in they can calculate that into their statistics you know you can't count every single bird in the in the state of Wyoming obviously. But if you take enough of these counts from all over the state you get an idea of pretty much of what's here in the state of Wyoming. What's in the eastern part of the state the western part of state or whatever. And then when you take a nationwide count every state is doing exactly the same thing. But one more year I think. Yeah yeah we got one of these for birders love to get together sharing their knowledge and more. And it is this love of birding that leads people to get involved in Audubon Wyoming programs and local chapter activities. There are currently six Audubon chapters in Wyoming's the Big Horn chapter and Sheraton the Cheyenne high plains in Cheyenne the Laramie in Laramie the metal art chapter in Cody

the Murie in Caspar and the Red Desert chapter in Lander. The members from these chapters assist with bird conservation education in their local areas. These volunteers and citizen scientists are critical to the success of Audubon Wyoming's programs. The more pairs of eyes that you can have looking at birds and catching birds the more information you have. And there's a lot to be said for field experience which citizen scientists have they're used to going out looking for birds identifying them correctly both by song and by sight so we can use these citizen scientists to gather much more data then we would be able to if this were left up to biologists alone a person can participate in more than one count and a lot of people do which is again a wonderful thing that you can see birds in another part of the state that you might not might not see in your local hometown. And it's a fun way to get together with other birders and share your interest.

Every single conservation program we have initiated relies heavily on volunteers to make it a success. For example the important bird area program relies on the efforts of volunteers in all three stages of the program identification nomination and monitoring volunteers also assist with classes and programs at our center. There is no doubt that without the help of volunteers Audubon Wyoming programs would not be as successful. Well there are several ways that you can get started. Many are upon chapters offer bird identification classes and these usually take place in the early spring and into the summer so that you can actually. Learn about the field characteristics that you should be seeing. And then there are field trips involved where you can go out and identify birds in the field. Another good thing to do is to set up a bird feeder or two in your backyard with different kinds of seeds you might offer different types of feeders one that's raised up one that's on the ground perhaps some sewage and then you are bound to attract different species of birds into your backyard. And the best thing to do is to go out with someone who knows

how to bird and then you. You're learning first hand in the field from someone who already knows what they're doing. You know in the end it's all about the birds. They let us know the health of our world in Audubon Wyoming along with the local Audubon just dedicated to protecting and enjoying birds other wildlife and their habitats through our education and conservation programs. We're looking for citizen scientists like you to hear about conserving our birds and their habitats for future generations. Anyone can volunteer. You don't have to be a bird expert or even an Audubon member. If you would like to participate in Audubon Wyoming's exciting program or simply learn more about how to enjoy birds in Wyoming's great outdoors Here's how to get in touch.