Sorry i meant if each concerned birder put 10 dollars in local money pool might
be able to get enough to pay individual targeted landowners
Hollis
Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy Tablet
-------- Original message --------From: Alicia <[email protected]> Date:
6/21/21 2:28 PM (GMT-05:00) To: [email protected] Subject: Re:
[cayugabirds-l] Fields being mowed.
Paying farmers: It's worth considering paying
farmers to manage farmland to accommodate nesting birds, but it
isn't $10 per farmer, farmers were paid $50/acre for the 2019
growing season by the Bobolink Project. Bobolinks like large
fields, the bigger the better., so the Bobolink Project requires a
minimum grassland field size of 20 acres. At 2019 rates, that meant
one minimally sized field cost $1000/yr. Upland sandpipers
generally require 100 acres - $5000/yr. Probably why in 2021 their
fundraising protected only 1,159 acres statewide - much better than
nothing, but not a large area. That is in Massachusetts and acreage
protection could cost more or less here, but probably not much less
since grassland is farmed to produce hay, which is not cheap.
Discouraging birds from nesting: With
regard to Geo's point on discouraging nesting where mowing will be
done, MassAudubon,
which runs the Bobolink Project, recommends:
If a field must be mowed during
June or early July—and we strongly hope
such will not be the case for lands
held in the public trust by municipalities, land
trusts, and conservation NGOs—intentionally
make the site unsuitable for
grassland-nesting birds by mowing every 2 or 3 weeks,
beginning in late May and
continuing through mid-July. Discouraging birds from nesting
on such sites will prevent them from being
lured into ecological traps; hopefully the frequent mowing will
force them to relocate to other, more bird-friendly location.
Not clear they are basing this on any particular evidence. Also, I
don't understand how this would work for hay, but perhaps they mean
non-farmers?
Targeting grassland not in cultivation:
Landowners who aren't farming their land might not even need to be
paid to adopt a bird-friendly mowing schedule, or they might accept
a much lower payment since they aren't out of pocket when they
change how and when they mow. Does it make sense to begin by
looking into efforts made by other bird clubs and organizations to
these landowners, and then spend time on outreach to state, not for
profit, and private landowners? There are plenty of grassland
management guides to borrow from (for example MassAudubon's
and the NYS DEC's). The
DEC itself manages a lot of land on wildlife refuges - is it
required to follow its own guidelines on the grassland portions?
And is it required to keep grassland as grassland or is it allowing
it to grow up into scrub, renting it to farmers to use as cropland,
or otherwise failing to maintain this habitat?
On 6/21/2021 10:52 AM, hollis.white
wrote:
Hi everyone,on early/late mowing,why not follow the Bobolink
Project,pay the farmers and whoever,to mow later,10 dollars
apiece or some sum,giv
En to farmer will do wonders.
Hollis
Sent from my
Verizon, Samsung Galaxy Tablet
-------- Original message --------
From: Geo Kloppel <[email protected]>
Date: 6/21/21 8:54 AM (GMT-05:00)
To: [email protected]
Cc: CayugaBirds-L b <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Fields being mowed.
Hi Anne,
I wasn’t thinking of entering the fields that had been
pre-selected for early mowing, nor searching for nests. Rather, I
was wondering if in some way those fields could be rendered
unappealing just before nesting begins, at the critical moment*
when the sociable and polygamous Bobolinks are choosing which
fields to build their nests in. Maybe they would find certain
noises or predator signals or patrolling drones or something else
unacceptable, and move on to settle into other fields that were
slated for later mowing.
*I wrote “moment” for whatever the brief period might be before
they make their choice and begin nest building.
-Geo
Sent from my iPhone
> On Jun 21, 2021, at 6:36 AM, [email protected] wrote:
>
> Speaking as someone who spent years locating redwing nests,
I think this is a mountain not a molehill. Locating nests in
grassland is HARD on purpose. Birds make it that way. Feeding
females do t go down to their nests. They drop and walk to the
nest. One makes paths tromping through the grass which neither
farmer nor birds will benefit from.
>
> I was thinking about what long term obs and relatively few
nesting areas it took for the one farm as described.
>
> No not impossible but much harder than it seems. And leaving
clumps with nests as well as paths near them will increase
predation.
>
> I am dubious as good as this sounds.
>
> Anne
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Jun 20, 2021, at 10:40 PM, Geo Kloppel
<[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> I’ve been musing along a different line, wondering if a
preemptive approach is possible.
>>
>> It takes time to mow the big fields that grassland
nesters favor, and the hay farmer can’t mow all of them
simultaneously. The work of haying season has to begin somewhere,
and start early enough that the farmer can get through it all. So
each year some field will be selected to go first, and another
second, and the rest must wait their turns.
>>
>> Clearly some fields that are later in the queue can
produce a crop of fledglings before it’s their turn to be mowed;
otherwise we wouldn’t be having this conversation. So, suppose for
the moment that the decision about which fields to mow early could
be made before nesting had even begun. If there was then some way
to discourage the birds from selecting those particular fields to
nest in, the effect would be to direct them to the fields slated
for later mowing...
>>
>> -Geo
>> --
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