| Mark Your Calendars | |
April
IVY OUT @ Grace Cole Nature Park
April 16th and 23rd
For more information about work parties,please call Mamie at
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| LFP Stewardship Foundation Board Members |
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President
Mamie Bolender,
Vice President
Jean Reid,
Treasurer
Kim Josund,
Secretary
Jim Halliday
Doug Hennick
Linda Holman
Doug Mitchell
Yuichi Shoda
Jack Tonkin
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Urban Winter bird-banding
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Watershed Preservation
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Urban Winter Color-banding Project by
Puget Sound Bird Observatory (PSBO)
Middle of year three-report by Christine Southwick, Urban Winter Color-banding Project Manager.
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Winter bird banding involves setting up "mist" (capture) nets in designated study sites in Shoreline and Lake Forest Park. Held weekly as weather allows, birds are caught in the nets, and data is collected including: species, sex, health by level of fat and feather condition, estimated age, wing measurements, and weight, before the birds are released again.
A numbered band is placed on all birds caught for re-identification, and three colored bands are placed on chickadees, juncos and fox sparrows for visual identification. By the end of April 2010, PSBO had color-banded a total of 171 Juncos, 17 Fox Sparrows, 191 Black-capped Chickadees and 55 Chestnut-backed Chickadees at a total of five sites during the first 2 seasons of banding.
A bander extracting a chickadee caught in mist net,
the first step in banding.
Preliminary results show strong site fidelity and year-round territoriality for the chickadees. It appears that Chestnut-backed chickadees may have a smaller territory than Black-capped, based on the frequency of daily sightings of most of the color-banded Chestnut-backed; compared to the number of Black-capped, whose numbers often had missing members for several days. Oregon Juncos appear to have a high winter-site-fidelity with a dramatic turnover early in the winter and return of local breeders in
early/late February.
Fox Sparrows are strikingly dependent on particular vegetation types, notably invasive Himalayan Blackberry. Fifteen of the Fox Sparrows caught by this study were using the blackberry brambles-there were no Fox Sparrows caught in sites without blackberry. There have been three additional Fox Sparrows caught in two other sites, both with small patches of blackberry brambles. The near future of this long-term project will emphasize re-sighting efforts and patterns of returns and habitat use at sites in single-family tracts and in large urban parks.
Outreach to neighbors, schools and the public to generate awareness of the needs of individual birds is also a critical component of this project. Anyone who has contacts with schools, service groups, etc. who would be willing to approach about helping with re-sighting, should contact Christine Southwick at 206-659-3428.
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| IvyOUT program,
Working with Friends of Cedar River Watershed
| The Partnership which the Stewardship foundation has established with the Friends of Cedar River Watershed (FCRW) has proved to be beneficial to both parties. Our goals are parallel, in that we are both dedicated to conservation, preservation and protection of the watershed through education and stewardship.
With funds from a Wild Places in City Spaces grant from King County Dept. of Natural Resources and Parks, we have enlisted FCRW to help organize work parties from their broader base of volunteers. They have mustered groups of 40-plus to join with us in our attempt to eradicate the pervasive, invasive non-native, English Ivy from LFP's parks and public spaces, where it has established monocultures in some areas and is destroying trees.
During the first series of 5 work parties we cleared Ivy from the ground and trees of approximately 5 acres of Grace Cole Nature Park. We are using the King County Grant and generous donations from The Secret Gardens of LFP tours for re-vegetation plants. There is more to do, and we realistically know that annual maintenance will be necessary to keep the Ivy at bay.
We have now launched into a second series of work parties, including the banks of McAleer Creek along Perkins Way, concentrating there on removal from trees rather than the ground so as not to impact the creek during this sensitive season of salmon hatching, rearing and heavy rainfall.
This has been FCRW's first venture into the outer reaches of the Cedar River Watershed, having concentrated primarily along the Cedar River and its source, Chester Morse Lake, where most of the water used in the Seattle area comes from.
All of you are welcome to participate in upcoming work parties. Details will follow.
For more information on work parties and other projects, please go to our website here. |
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