The NYC Parks Wildlife Unit asked me to help get the word out about two programs of interest to NYC Raptor enthusiasts in NYC…

Citizen Science: Raptor Monitoring with NYC Parks Wildlife Unit

2020 Raptor Nest Monitoring Project

The NYC Parks’ Wildlife Unit is reaching out to outdoor, park-caring enthusiasts for help scouting for raptor nests during the 2020 breeding season. NYC Parks records data on raptor nests, such as red-tailed hawks, cooper’s hawks, American kestrels, and others, found in or adjacent to park property. We are looking to recruit some additional eyes to scout throughout the city, especially in the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island (Northern Manhattan and Prospect Park, Brooklyn are already very well covered). Your assistance will be useful in creating a vivid picture of where birds of prey are nesting in NYC. This information will also be helpful for future conservation and education efforts conducted by NYC Parks and our partner agencies and organizations. We know you are already outside enjoying the outdoors and caring for Parks, we would love to put some of your observations to good use.

Scouts will be asked to:

• commit to exploring an area of their choice to scout for nesting raptors, February through June 2020
• participate in an online training session to learn more about the project
• if a nest is found, scouts can commit to monitor the nest and send in weekly observations
• strictly follow wildlife viewing ethics, to be discussed during training session

If interested in participating, please email or call. Also contact us with any additional questions.

Sunny Corrao Public Engagement Associate
NYC Parks’ Wildlife Unit
212-360-1447
Sunny.corrao@parks.nyc.gov

Also note an upcoming raptor scouting session:

Citizen Science Raptor Nest Scouting Day
When: Saturday, March 14; 11:00 a.m.

Meet at the Greenbelt Nature Center; 700 Rockland Avenue; Staten Island

NYC Parks’ Wildlife Unit collects information regarding location and success of nesting birds of prey throughout NYC. Participate in our citizen science project and scout areas to find active nests around the Greenbelt in Staten Island. NYC Parks’ staff will provide basic training and binoculars to borrow, for those that need it. Pre-registration is preferred. To register or for more information please contact Public Engagement Associate Sunny Corrao by email or phone: sunny.corrao@parks.nyc.gov or 212-360-1447.

After years of research and lobbying, NYC Audubon, along with a consortium of partners has gotten Initiative 1482B, the Bird Safe Glass Bill passed and sent off to the mayor, who is expected to sign the bill into law.  NYC Audubon’s press release is here.

I’m so proud of the staff, board and members of NYC Audubon.  This has been years in the making and included the extensive documentation of bird fatalities by scores of volunteers of Project Safe Flight who created the D-bird database.  The hard work has paid off.

In most counties and states across America there is a bird alert system, generally based on an email listserv or yahoo group.  They're generally sponsored and monitored by a local birding group or the local Audubon Society. 

In New York City, there were and still are a variety of services which are a little difficult to use.  So, David Barrett, as an individual set up a wonderful Twitter based Manhattan Bird Alert as an alternative to some older systems.  David's Manhattan Bird Alert filled a void and was adopted by most Manhattan birders. I also enjoyed David re-posting some of my photos and videos.

But as David gained many followers on Twitter due to the notoriety of the vagrant escaped Mandarin Duck, something changed.  What had been great, over the last month has diverged from its original mission and

1) Started advertising T-Shirts.

2) Promoted commercial Owl Walks that point flashlights at owls and use excessive audio playback.  Owls are very easy to watch in New York City, so there is absolutely no need to resort to invasive methods of observation.

3) Reported owls with exact locations, which resulted in the over birding of some owls, especially a specific Northern Saw-whet Owl.  David's guidelines say post about any bird including all owls.  There needs to be some limits, just as there are on most alert systems.  At a minimum some rules on reporting exact locations of nesting birds, smaller owls and Snowy Owls.

4) Promoted the feeding of ducks on The Pond, which is against Park regulations, is unhealthy for the ducks and ends up supporting the rodent population.  If any duck on The Pond really needs to get fed, it is not a wild bird. It should be captured and put in an appropriate bird sanctuary.

So, for 2019 I think it is time to return to an alert systems that simply provides alerts, without any advertising or promotions, and which has a well thought out set of guidelines on what is appropriate to post. Ideally, the system should also require an opt-in to the posting guidelines before allowing users to post sightings.

Since it doesn't look like David is interested in going back to a simple alert system with some reasonable posting guidelines, I've stopped following the Manhattan Bird Alert and will no longer post using the #birdcp tag.

I'm sure the system will live on without me, but at least I won't feel like I'm participating in a site that uses my sightings or photography to promotes commercial products or unethical activity.  eBird already offers hourly email alerts, so I see no need to continue using David's system.

I know at least two folks who are talking about building alternative notification systems.   Please let me know when they're ready.  If possible, try to get your systems sponsored by NYC Audubon or any other birding group!  It would be really great if an organization with a long history of supporting conservation, could assist in setting posting standards.

The birding community has long supported citizen science by reporting bird sightings to scientists.  In our digital world, the most popular system for reporting bird sightings is run by Cornell Labs, ebird.org.

Sightings can be recored via the web or by using an iOS or Android phone app.  It’s a fantastic system for reporting bird sightings, keeping your “life list” and finding out what birds have been seen in a specific area.  

Unfortunately, the Ross’s Gull was taken by a Peregrine Falcon this last Saturday, resulting in an eBirds.org checklist by Peter Sole that will go down as one of the most classic checklists ever.

Peter Sole’s ebird.org checklist for the Ross’s Gull.

New York City has begun to experiment with Dry Ice (frozen CO2) as an alternative to using rat poisons in city parks.  The technique has turned out to be very effective and as been used recently in a few parks with known Red-Tailed Hawk populations in Manhattan.

Articles about the program have appeared in the New York Daily News and on NY1.  For years there has been tension between hawk lovers and rat haters, and this solution seems to be a wonderful alternative to rodenticide use, that works for everyone.

Kudos to those who wrote letters of complaint after the death of the hawk earlier this year downtown, and many, many thanks to the Department of Health and the Parks Department for finding a safer rat control solution.

NYC hawk watchers will be looking at nests for signs of hatching over the next few weeks.  Calculating hatches can be complicated.  While egg take 28-25 days to incubate

• females may begin to sit on nests a few days before they lay their eggs
• egg are laid 36-48 hours apart and incubation may not fully begin until the last egg is laid
• an egg takes about a day to hatch as the chick pips out of the egg and feeding usually doesn’t begin right after hatching

Since we can rarely look into a nest, we’ll be looking for signs of a hatch such as a hawk slice from an eyass (pooping chick), a victory flight lap by the parents or lots of food being brought to the nest by the male and a first feeding.  It takes a few extra days from when we see a feeding until we can see fuzzy heads too.

We might see a hatch by next weekend and certainly within two weeks.  It’s a great time watch a nest and a sure sign that spring has arrived.