Visitors Travel from Afar to See a Bicknell's Thrush

The VCE Bicknell’s Thrush team recently introduced two of our Dominican counterparts to the songbird that has formed a bridge between our two countries since VCE began studying the species on Hispaniola in 1994. Jesus and Jaime Moreno, ardent Dominican conservationists, co-owners of the country’s top-selling ice cream company, Helados Bon http://www.heladosbon.com, and VCE partners in the DR, visited our study site on Mt. Mansfield on June 29-30. The primary object of their quest was Bicknell’s Thrush itself, a bird that has coalesced our collaborative conservation efforts in the DR but also eluded their previous attempts to find it on the island. We had guaranteed them an up-close-and-personal encounter here in Vermont, so the pressure was on, especially with a threatening forecast for Monday and Tuesday.

As we began ascending the Mansfield toll road about 7:30 pm on Monday, clouds magically lifted and patches of clearing skies appeared. Winds were calm on the ridgeline, temperatures mild, and hopes high as we set up several mist nets. Our attempts to capture a thrush with recorded playbacks were unsuccessful that evening, but we treated our visitors (which included colleagues Jamie Phillips of the Eddy Foundation and Chuck Kerchner of AgRefresh http://www.agrefresh.org) to a stunning view of Lake Champlain and a strong dusk chorus. We practically had to drag Jesus off the mountain after dark…

The following morning featured a different story weatherwise, as clouds had descended on the mountain and winds picked up from the south. However, we opened our 7 nets at dawn and awaited our visitors, who had stayed below at the Stowe Mountain Resort. We quickly caught 4 thrushes, one of which received a new solar geolocator, but we dared not hold them in the cool, wet weather. Luckily, Jesus, Jaime, Jamie, and Chuck appeared shortly after 6:00 am, in time to see a newly-captured male and female thrush. It was an exciting and rewarding moment for all, and Jesus proved an avian Pied Piper, as the male sat in his hand for a full minute before flying off. We mist-netted one more female (a bird banded in 2007), putting our morning’s total at 7 birds in 7 nets.

Breakfast in Stowe found us all planning for future collaborations in the Dominican Republic, where we are beginning an ambitious 2-year, multi-partner conservation project in the Cordillera Septentrional. Once again, the Bicknell’s Thrush had proved to be a bridge between two countries and two cultures, each with equal responsibility for ensuring its long-term conservation.