New York State Ornithological Association For the birders and birds of the Empire State |
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ConservationUpdated 1/20/10
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NYSOA
to Launch New York State Whip-poor-will Monitoring Program
by Matthew Medler
Published
in the April 2007 issue
of NY Birders
UPDATED 1/20/10
Results from the second New York State Breeding Bird Atlas suggest dramatic decreases in breeding Whip-poor-wills in New York State since the 1980s. Such declines are consistent with Atlas results and anecdotal evidence from neighboring states and provinces. As a result, a Northeast Nightjar Monitoring program was established in 2005 to begin collecting population information for these poorly-known birds. This year, the New York State Ornithological Association (NYSOA) will be organizing Whip-poor-will monitoring efforts in our state, as part of the coordinated effort throughout the northeast. There will be two major goals for the NYSOA monitoring efforts this
year: to conduct 30+ random survey routes in areas with Whip-poor-will
concentrations during the first and/or second Atlases; and to conduct
targeted monitoring at known Whip-poor-will hotspots, such as pine barrens
sites. UPDATE In 2007, NYSOA's first year of organizing Whip-poor-will surveys in New York State, more than 70 volunteers conducted 34 random-route surveys as well as additional monitoring in several known Whip-poor-will hotspots. Thanks to these efforts, the project had excellent geographical coverage in northern and eastern New York, with random routes surveyed in 21 counties around the Adirondacks and in the Hudson Valley region. The combined results of the random surveys, hotspot monitoring, and
casual observations paint a picture of a species that is scarcely distributed
throughout much of its New York State range, occurs in higher densities
in northern New York, and is abundant in a few hotspots. Whip-poor-wills
were detected on nine of the 34 random routes conducted. Two-thirds of
these nine positive routes were located in the North Country counties
of Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Clinton, and Essex, while only one-third
of the total routes surveyed were in this region. Whip-poor-will hotspot surveys in New York, 2007
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