This past weekend 10 volunteers from across Virginia participated in the
first comprehensive Golden-winged Warbler survey in Highland and Bath
County to aid the Audubon Important Bird Areas program, the US Forest
Service, and the Cornell GWWA Atlas Project in determining the breeding
distribution of GWWAs in Virginia. Despite a forecast threatening rain,
Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day and we were able to survey for
most of the day. Since the majority of the county is privately owned,
all surveys were conducted from roadsides, where we surveyed any and all
possible habitat that looked like it might be suitable for GWWAs.
Although we were limited in where we could survey, we were certainly not
disappointed in our preliminary results. Among the group, we found a
total of 22 Golden-winged males, 2 Blue winged Warblers, and 2 hybrids.
The low blue-wing and hybrid count is good news, as it suggests that
this area is a refuge for Golden wings, where they may be safe from
hybridization with blue-winged warblers. Certainly a good area to
target for conservation and we hope to do just that! =20
We plan to continue to gather information about GWWA populations in this
area in the future and hope to hold the event again. If you have
information about GWWA locations in this area (particularly away from
roadsides), or are interested in conducting some independent surveys
please let me know and I can add them to the map or get you involved.
A big thanks to all the volunteers who helped to collect this valuable
information and who made the weekend not only a success but also a lot
of fun. We celebrated the event with a great weekend at Margaret
O'Bryan's farm - quite possibly one of the most beautiful places I have
been in Virginia and not at all a bad base camp for the surveys! She
has offered her farm for future surveys, so keep your eye out for
opportunities to get involved!
Aimee Weldon
_______________________
Aimee Weldon
Virginia IBA Coordinator
P.O. Box 1089
Ashland, VA 23005
804-752-5850 (office)
804-370-3528 (cell)
804-752-5882 (fax)
www.audubon.org
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