Dear New York Birders, The International Rusty Blackbird Working Group (IRBWG), in partnership with eBird, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, is coordinating a Spring Migration Blitz in 2014 for Rusty Blackbirds. You may recall the recent Rusty Blackbird Winter Blitz, which was aimed at challenging birders to go out and search for Rusty Blackbirds on their wintering grounds. The Spring Migration Blitz holds the same concept but is aimed at gathering information on preferred migration stopover sites used by Rusties. Migration stopovers are still poorly understood and we are seeking your help in an effort to put together some pieces of this puzzle. In the end, we hope to answer questions such as; Are stopover areas on protected lands, and if so, does the availability of these lands limit their survival? Are there favored stopover locations that groups of Rusties use each year? These are just a couple of example questions that the IRBWG is attempting to answer and for this reason, the Blitz will run annually through Spring 2016. We know one thing, and its that the population of the Rusty Blackbird has declined by an estimated 85-99% in the past 40 years.
The target Blitz dates for New York are March and April. All of the data and information will be collected via eBird where there will be an available drop down option to select RUBL Blitz Survey. To learn more about the Blitz objectives, target dates and identification challenges (ID pages should be available by January), please see the web pages launched by the IRBWG: http://rustyblackbird.org The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds website is an additional, excellent source of information: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Rusty_Blackbird/id While we still have a few months before the action begins, I thought it was appropriate to introduce the project and to encourage birders to start thinking about the Blitz. I will be coordinating the Blitz for the Long Island/NYC area and Mike Shanley has agreed to coordinate for the Staten Island area. The upstate region will be coordinated by Melanie McCormack. We are available to help answer any questions pertaining to the project, how to effectively submit observations in eBird, etc. Keep up to speed on current happenings with the Spring Blitz on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rustyblackbirdspringblitz I'll be sending out posts with additional information as the Blitz drawers nearer. In the meantime, I hope everyone considers the challenge of the Blitz and participates in this meaningful citizen science effort. Best, Derek Rogers ([email protected]) NYC/LI Blitz Coordinator Mike Shanley ([email protected]) Staten Island Coordinator Melanie McCormack ([email protected]) Upstate New York -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
