Greetings Upper Valley Birders,

The following message was sent out the other day to the NH.Birds listserve, and now it's time to harass folks in my old stomping grounds for a change. A bit of context: this is the most recent in a series of emails trying to recruit birders to do more than go out and report on their list - to bird in a targetted fashion to help in conservation efforts. The Upper Valley fits squarely in 1-2 of the Grassland Focal Areas discussed below (depending on how far south you go), and it'd be great to get some more data.

And now for my missive...
Pam Hunt

I seem to be on a roll this month, and have yet another exciting opportunity for any and all of you to contribute to the NH Ornithogical Record, and in the process help out with bird conservation. So if you've already found breeding Palm Warblers in Cheshire County, or discovered a Cliff Swallow mega-colony in Wentworth, or simply don't have the inclination for either of those previous challenges, here we go again.

As I suspect most of you know, grassland birds are declining significantly in NH, and also across most of their North American ranges. In fact, the only grassland associated species that seems to be INCREASING is the Eastern Bluebird, almost certainly as a result of next box programs. As a result, the group as a whole is a conservation priority for most states in the Northeast, and NH is no exception. Three species (Northern Harrier, Upland Sandpiper, and Grasshopper Sparrow) are listed as Threatened or Endangered in NH, and another four (American Kestrel, Horned Lark, Vesper Sparrow, and Eastern Meadowlark) are considered Special Concern.

As grasslands go, NH is not exactly Kansas (after Maine, I think we're still the most forested state in the nation), and we need to acknowledge that we are something of a drop in the bucket for continental populations of all these species. Most if not all of them are fairly recent colonists as well, having expanded their ranges east during agricultural clearing in the 19th century. In combination, these two items would argue against paying much attention to grassland birds in a forested state, but the State still holds the responsibility to conserve populations of wildlife within its borders, so grassland birds remain on the table.

That said, we do need to be strategic about where to work on grassland bird conservation, and focus our efforts on landscapes where we can get the most bang for our limited bucks. To that end, I've been working on identifying "Grassland Bird Focal Areas" across the state. These are generally areas with extensive remaining grassland, known populations of the rarer species, and ideally combinations of both. One of my problems, however, is that there aren't always recent (post-Atlas) data for some of these areas.

Your challenge is thus to go looking for grassland birds in one of the focal areas below. I'm interested in specific locations within each focal area, numbers of birds, and - if available - the land use. As usual, submit your data directly to NH Bird Records on the handy forms (www.nhbirdrecords.org).

The focal areas and any specific priorities in each are as follows:

1) Stewartstown/Colebrook/Columbia: 
There are extensive hill farms in this region, as well as good grassland along the Connecticut River. This used to be where the mother lode of NH's harriers bred, but our data are now over a decade old. How many are still up there? Are they on the same fields? Agriculture, and thus grassland habitat, is declining in the North Country, and it's not clear how this is affecting our harriers. And while you're at it, see if there are still meadowlarks up here. It used to be their northern limit in the state, but they've been disappearing from suitable places south of the Whites for decades.

2) Jefferson/Whitefield/Lancaster/Northumberland. 
The grasslands here are along the Connecticut and Israel Rivers, as well as in the Lost Nation area. It might be the runner-up for harriers, and might once have held an Upland Sandpiper or two. Again, it'd be worth knowing how many meadowlarks remain. So next time you visit Pondicherry, leave some time to check out the grasslands nearby (and not just at the Whitefield Airport!).

3) Connecticut Valley from Monroe to Lyme.
Checking out the Sandhill Crane in Monroe? Count meadowlarks as well. THE historic site for Uppies was in Haverhill, but they disappeared from there in the late 1980s. Back in the mid-1900s, Vesper Sparrows used to outnumber Savannahs in the Upper Valley, but now are almost gone. Or ARE they gone? Check the pastures and strawberry fields in Piermont and Haverhill where they were last reported!

4) Connecticut Valley from Claremont to Hinsdale.
This area is actually an Important Bird Area, and as a result we'd love to have better data on the grassland BREEDING birds (we get plenty on migrants!). Go do a count at the Cheshire County Farm or Great Meadows. We actually have VERY little data on grassland birds down there.

5) Merrimack Valley from Franklin to Pembroke.
There are pretty good data from the Concord area, and in general this is one of the better covered focal areas. It would be neat ro see what's along the river in Franklin though. And are there any meadowlarks left outside the Concord Airport?

6) Souhegan and Merrimack Rivers from Milford to Merrimack/Litchfield.
This is something of a "minor" focal area, perhaps best known for a few historic Grasshopoper Sparrow sites. It'd be great to get updated info on those sites, namely: Cemetery Fields in Amherst, the Milford Waterworks land in Amherst, and the fields behind Anheuser-Busch in Merrimack (access along the tracks from Thornton's Ferry). Should still be a fair number of meadowlarks down there.

7) Seacoast
This is the most poorly defined focal area, and extends from Rochester down to Kingston and Kensington. We know there are good populations of grassland birds at the Strafford and Rockingham County Farms, plus of course Pease. But could use data from elsewhere. My impression from my last grassland trip down there was that many of the fields are becoming fragmented, and don't support as many birds as perhaps they used to. But that's just an impression. There are enough birders in the southeast that getting the current data shouldn't be that hard!

Finally, there is a tentative focal area along the Saco in Conway. Historically there have been Vesper Sparrows and meadowlarks here as well, and we actually have some fairly recent data. I might be up there this weekend, so stay tuned.

So if you've made it through this message - you deserve a round of applause. The next step is to get out there and count - and of course REPORT - the grassland birds you find. In this case the ZEROS are important, so the best option might be to fill out a data form of some sort (a COMPLETE eBird checklist is another). If anyone is interested in the latter, email me at this address and I'll send one off to you!

Many thanks in advance,
Pam


Pamela D. Hunt, Ph.D.
Senior Conservation Biologist
Audubon Society of New Hampshire
84 Silk Farm Road
Concord, NH  03301

(603) 224-9909 extension 328
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FAX: (603) 226-0902


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