Hi Dave (& Kathy, and OBOLers at large),
Your points are well taken and well stated. It's very sensible to let folks
know that you don't need more band combos, especially if there's a risk that
well-intentioned birders could stress the birds with the idea that they're
getting important data.
I wonder if it might be helpful to post a list of portions of the
Oregon/Washington coast where it would be useful for birders to try to get band
combos, outside of the areas that you and your colleagues regularly patrol. For
example, would reports from Tillamook County be useful?
The whole idea of "citizen science" seems to work best when the effort can be
directed toward places where additional data are actually useful for science.
Portland Audubon (thanks to Joe Liebezeit's leadership) have shown some good
examples of this, for example on wintering Horned Larks. We don't need 50 more
birders hanging around and duplicating coverage places that lark researchers
like Randy Moore have already staked out. What we need are people checking
areas that don't otherwise get covered. Portland Audubon has shown some good
examples of how this can be done.
I kind of wish we had this problem for "Oregon" Vesper Sparrows! We have upward
of 500 color-banded birds out there, as part of an American Bird Conservancy
project led by Bob Altman, with cooperating efforts by Klamath Bird Observatory
(in Jackson Co.) and Gary Slater's Ecostudies Institute (in the south Puget
Sound area). Every year, it seems like we get one "glamor bird" near Corvallis
that just about every birder in Benton County manages to see, right along a
popular walking path. But the rest of the population are rarely seen.
It probably serves to show, how very little suitable nesting habitat remains on
publicly accessible land! Over the past 5 years, we've had two of resights of
color-banded Vesper Sparrows from central California (both in the general area
of Davis/Vacaville or a bit north), but so far no sightings away from known
nesting sites in Oregon or Washington.
Cheers,
Joel
From: DJLauten and KACastelein < deweysage@xxxxxxxxxxx >
Subject: [obol] more on plovers in Coos Cty
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2021 07:12:25 -0700
It has come to my attention that my comment "Most of the plovers are
banded. I do not need to be inundated with band combos!!!! We monitor
these birds intensely and I have plenty of data on them. Please do not
bother the birds to get band combos,"
may be interpreted as me basically telling people, “We know where those
birds are from, so don’t tell us and we’re not going to tell you
anything about them.”
I apologize if anyone got that message, that was not my intent.
I am more than happy to tell you about any banded plovers you find
anywhere in the state of Oregon or at this location.
However, what I do not want is people deliberately pushing the birds
around to get as many band combos as they can. We monitor these birds
regularly and we bother them enough to get their band combos. They do
not need additional people doing the same, so please refrain from
attempting to accumulate band combos. If you do get full band combos
and are interested to here about their history, I am more than happy to
respond. What I am hoping to avoid is 25 people sending me emails with
50 combos each of all the same birds. I apologize for being selfish,
but honestly my bigger concern is making sure the birds are not
unnecessarily bothered or harassed.
I will add that almost all of the plovers are Oregon residents, and were
banded between Floras Lake to Sutton Beach in Lane Cty, with the
majority of them either coming from New River, Bandon Beach, or Coos Bay
North Spit. These birds generally breed and winter in Coos, Curry,
Douglas and Lane Cty, so most of them are not long distance migrants nor
have dispersed long distances. We do however have birds that are
fairly long distance migrants, as some birds will winter in California
from Humboldt Cty to Sand Diego and even Baja California, and we
occasionally get dispersing birds from California (in fact there is a
fledgling from Monterey Bay in Waldport as I type!).
If you are more interested in Oregon Snowy Plovers, Daniel Farrar, my
colleague, has recently given a presentation about Oregon plovers for
WhatsApp and the video is posted on youtube. I do not have the link but
it was posted to OBOL about a week ago. You can also find our annual
reports at Institute for Natural Resources, Oregon State Univ webpage
[ https://inr.oregonstate.edu/biblio ;| https://inr.oregonstate.edu/biblio ] . ;
We have been monitoring the
plovers in Oregon since 1990, so we know a few things about Oregon
plovers at this point. The plovers are protected under the Endangered
Species Act (hence the prohibition on harassing the birds), and they
have recovered from a low population level of about 35-50 in 1990 to
over 600 in Oregon in 2021. It is a very successful ESA program, and
we hope that Oregon birders are aware of the tremendous efforts state
and federal agencies have made to help these most awesome, cute, and
lovable shorebirds to recover.
cheers
Dave Lauten
Oregon Biodiversity Information Center
Institute for Natural Resources
Portland State Univ
deweysage@xxxxxxxxxxx
