NH PEREGRINE FALCONS MOVE NESTING AREAS, BUT POST RECORD NUMBER OF YOUNG

Peregrine falcons in New Hampshire produced 29 young this year, more than in any other breeding season during the past half-century. Territorial peregrines in the state used 15 natural cliffs, one urban building and the area around a major hydroelectric dam as places to live and raise their young in 2009. In Manchester, the state's best-known falcon pair surprised everyone by moving one mile down Elm Street to nest successfully across from City Hall. In the Connecticut River valley, a cave-like nest ledge used for 22 consecutive years was passed over for a new ledge on the same cliff. And another pair of peregrines living in the Seacoast region hopped 100 feet over the border to raise three chicks on the Maine side of the Piscataqua River bridge.

Breeding peregrine numbers in New Hampshire, and across the entire eastern United States, had declined to near zero by the 1960s, when levels of the pesticide DDT in songbirds and other prey items disrupted their ability to hatch viable eggs. After almost two decades without any successful nesting in New England, a peregrine pair nesting in Franconia Notch in 1981 became the first to produce chicks at an historical nesting cliff. Intensive recovery efforts, followed by sustained monitoring and management, led to a gradual peregrine population rebound. As a result, in September 2008, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department upgraded the status of this fastest flying raptor in the state from endangered to threatened.

A record-high 29 young peregrines reached fledging age in New Hampshire in 2009, surpassing the previous high of 27 young fledged last year. Biologists and volunteer observers affiliated with New Hampshire Audubon checked a total of 36 potential breeding sites in the state this year and confirmed 17 occupied territories, down one from 2008. Fifteen of the 17 occupied sites hosted falcon pairs, and two sites supported only single adults. Observers documented incubation behavior by 13 of the state's 15 territorial pairs in 2009, down from 16 of 17 in 2008. Of this year's 13 incubating pairs, 12 (92%) hatched at least one egg. All 12 pairs that hatched eggs successfully fledged young in 2009, also down slightly from a state record-high of 13 successful pairs in 2008.

After eight consecutive years of producing young in a nest box installed on the Brady-Sullivan Tower near the Amoskeag Bridge, Manchester's falcon pair moved one mile down Elm Street to nest on the Citizens Bank building. "We were looking for them in their usual spot, but they weren't there, and the camera showed an empty nest!" said Chris Martin, a N. H. Audubon's raptor specialist, who coordinates the state's peregrine management efforts. "The female falcon laid her eggs on a narrow decorative ledge at Citizens Bank -- right over Elm Street -- and when the chicks were three weeks old, we moved them into a more secure nest box located on the roof." All three chicks ultimately fledged without incident. Juvenile peregrines are considered fledged at six weeks of age, when they first begin to fly to and from the nest.

Holts Ledge in Lyme, N.H., is an historical nesting site with a photo record dating back as far as 1928. Observers monitoring the cliff in 2009 reported that for the first time in 23 years, falcons selected a new nesting ledge, passing over a deep cave that had been used for a nesting each year since peregrines first reoccupied the cliff in 1987.

New Hampshire set a new record high for peregrine fledglings in 2009, in spite of giving up claim to a pair nesting in Portsmouth Harbor. In 2007 and 2008, this pair nested in the bridge's superstructure, using two different hollow vertical beams located on the New Hampshire side of the state line, and fledging one chick each year. In 2009, they used a similar beam, but one located on the Maine side. "Both states can't count the same breeding pair, so we generally credit them to the state where the eggs are laid," said Martin.

Management of the state's recovering peregrine falcon population is carried out by N.H. Audubon, working under contract with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department's Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program. Management actions include tracking recreational use at cliffs, posting temporary closures on rock climbing routes when needed, and providing technical advice to natural resource agencies and to the public. N.H. Audubon also recruits, trains, and deploys volunteer observers to document peregrine distribution and productivity and to band young.

Martin, aided by several rock-climbing volunteers, accessed six peregrine nests in the state in 2009, examining and banding 15 nestlings and recovering four non-viable eggs. He estimates that roughly 35% of New Hampshire's breeding adult peregrines currently wear color-coded leg-bands. Notable highlights among banded peregrines seen in 2009: a 7-year-old female raised in Dixville Notch that breeds in the Sandwich Range of the White Mountains, but winters in Concord; a 6-year-old female from Milford, Connecticut, that breeds in Lyme, N.H.; and a 2-year-old male from Lyme now nesting just across border in Fairlee, Vermont.

Since the removal of peregrines from the federal Endangered List in 1999, New Hampshire has participated in a national breeding site sampling study to detect any major changes in peregrine breeding populations on a regional scale. Coordinated by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the study tracks breeding activity at five peregrine territories on a triennial basis (in 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015). Three (60%) of New Hampshire's five sites produced a total of six young in 2009.

KARNER BLUE BUTTERFLIES BACK AFTER BEING WIPED OUT TEN YEARS AGO

CONCORD, N.H. -- Ten years ago, New Hampshire's official State Butterfly -- the Karner blue - had disappeared from the state. Now, thanks to dedicated conservation and restoration efforts by the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department and many partners, Karners are being successfully raised in captivity and surviving once again on their own in the wild. Their haunt is the Concord Pine Barrens -- a sandy, wooded area located off Loudon Road, comprised of pitch pine and scrub oak trees and native flowering plants such as New Jersey tea and wild blue lupine that provide essential habitat for Karners and other rare wildlife.

This year marks the fifth straight year that biologists have observed and documented Karner blue butterflies surviving on their own in the wild of the Concord Pine Barrens. Biologists observed Karner blue butterfly eggs and caterpillars and marked approximately 250 adult butterflies hatched in the wild. These observations confirm that Karner blue butterflies are reproducing in the wild.

In addition, biologists continue to raise the butterflies in captivity and release them into the wild. The N.H. Army National Guard provides a nearby location for raising the butterflies. "In April, the National Guard moved the Karner captive rearing facility into a newly renovated building that gives us twice as much space and better opportunities to keep the rooms at the ideal environmental conditions needed to raise Karner blue butterflies," said Lindsay Webb, a biological technician with the N.H. Fish and Game Department's Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program. "When the butterflies emerge in early summer, we release them every day, weather permitting, and sometimes 2 or 3 times a day depending on how many adults are in the captive rearing facility." In all, over 3,700 adult Karner blue butterflies were released into the wild this summer in New Hampshire.

Restoring Karner blue butterflies to New Hampshire has been largely successful over the years. This gives hope that with continued management of the habitat and the butterfly population that Karner blue butterflies will once again thrive on their own and be a beautiful symbol of the natural diversity of New Hampshire's wildlife.

The public is welcome to visit the easement at the end of Chenell Drive in East Concord, where a trailhead kiosk describes the Karner restoration project. Visitors are asked to not step on any wild lupine plants -- there may be Karner blue eggs or larvae on them. There are no adult butterflies at this time of year.

Funding for the habitat and butterfly restoration project is provided in part by Federal grants, sales of the New Hampshire conservation license plate (moose plates) and through private donations to the Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program. The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department's partners in the Karner blue butterfly project include the N.H. Army National Guard, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the City of Concord. To help support the Karner blue butterfly and efforts to conserve other nongame and endangered species in New Hampshire, visit http://www.wildnh.com/Wildlife/nongame_and_endangered_wildlife.htm and download a print-and-mail donation form.

New Research Finds Introduced Rats Killing Thrushes in the Dominiican Republic

Many studies have demonstrated the deleterious effects of introduced predators on resident populations of island birds, but few have quantified their effect on the survival and space-use behavior of migratory species. We used radio telemetry to investigate the winter survival and roosting patterns of Bicknell’s Thrush (Catharus bicknelli) at two sites in the Dominican Republic. Depredation by introduced rats was the only cause of mortality among 53 radio-tagged individuals monitored between January and March over multiple years; five (9%) marked individuals were depredated. Predator trapping revealed the presence of both the black rat (Rattus rattus) and Norway rat (R. norvegicus) and that the density of rats was higher in broadleaf cloud forest than in nearby pine forest. Some thrushes that used cloud forest exclusively during the day roosted at night in adjacent pine habitat. We suggest that introduced rats exert predation pressure on wintering Bicknell’s Thrush in the Dominican Republic and that nocturnal arboreal rat predation could influence the thrush’s space-use strategies.

Townsend, J.M., C.C. Rimmer, J. Brocca, K.P. McFarland, and A. K. Townsend. 2009. Predation of a wintering migratory songbird by introduced rats: can nocturnal roosting behavior serve as predator avoidance? Condor 111(3): 565-569.

Wood Thrush Needs Help from Java Drinkers

Northern Woodlands | The Outside Story | Wood Thrush Needs Help from Java Drinkers

Marine Important Bird Areas

BirdLife International has moved toward the identification of Marine Important Bird Areas (mIBAs) for seabirds around the world. “Seabirds have deteriorated in IUCN Red List status faster than any other group of bird species,” said Ben Lascelles, BirdLife’s Global Marine IBA officer. “We urgently need to protect their habitats if we are to stop and reverse these rapid declines.”

BirdLife has established new guidelines for following seabirds and analyzing the data used to identify Marine IBAs, a major step towards establishing a global network of representative protected areas for seabirds.

BirdLife and its partners are now focused  on getting the outcomes of these standards endorsed by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at an upcoming meeting in Ottawa, Canada.

For more on mIBAs, see details here:   
http://bit.ly/rBN7r

VPR Learns about VCE Bicknell's Thrush Migration Study

Vermont Public Radio's Jane Lindholm did an interview with Burlington Free Press reporter Candace Page about bird migration studies underway.  VCE biologists are attaching small geolocator backpacks on Bicknell's Thrushes as they prepare for their winter migration to the Caribbean. Listen to the interview...