Yesterday I wrapped up the prescribed fire bird surveys. I’m not sure of the totals yet but combined with the previous years’ grassland survey, I should have a nice story about ecological succession and birds. I was asked to do the survey but I assume I’ll need to write up a report.

Not one Golden-winged Warbler.

In the report I’ll recommend more heterogeneity in the forests. The forest tracts are large and tree ages within tracts all tend to be the same. Its my understanding that birds, including the Golden-winged Warbler,  use different types of habitat for different parts of their life history and just prefer heterogeneity per se. Would also be nice to build wetlands in the mix as well. Every feature, though, is money.

I think the best bird of the survey was the Red-headed Woodpecker at SGL91. Another goodie was a Blue Grosbeak at the Bethlehem Water Authority Property. That place is huge and will definitely get more scrub specialists (e.g., Yellow-breasted Chat, Blue Grosbeaks, Golden-winged Warbler) as time goes by.

So done with the prescribed fire bird surveys and now I’m going to do some urban-periurban surveys but these are all very close and I can get to several sites in a day so that should wrap up quickly

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