Dear Ospreyers,

I wanted to submit a (somewhat late) report from this last summer's  Bird Blitz surveys because it may be of particular interest to Anne Arundel birders and conservationists. As a reminder, Bird Blitz is a breeding season survey designed to provide data for reviewing potential Important Bird Areas (see Audubon Maryland-DC website http://www.audubonmddc.org/SciCon_IBAs.html

In June, Rich Mason, Drew Koslow and I surveyed the forested valleys of the South River, a site we are calling the South River Greenway. This site extends northwards from Route 50 along two South River tributaries, the Bacon Ridge Branch and North River, for about 5 miles. This is the large forested area that I-97 passes to the south of the Rte 3 intersection (Exit 7).  The central portion of the site is part of the old Crownsville Hospital grounds and has recently transferred ownership from the Maryland Environmental Trust to Anne Arundel County.

We got some impressive totals of at-risk species (the primary target species in the table below), from our 6 survey visits. Two surprises were the high number of Kentucky Warblers (total=14) and the discovery of Prothonotary Warblers in a block where they were not recorded during the Breeding Bird Atlas project. Kentucky Warblers are one of the fastest declining breeding birdds in Maryland (38% decrease in the number of occupied blocks from 1st atlas to 2nd atlas) so the good numbers here highlight this site's value for bird conservation. Another impressive aspect of these results is the high number of forest-interior dwelling species (marked FIDS in the table below). We found 19 species, 18 of which are likely regular breeders here. To put this in perspective, the average number of FIDS in atlas blocks across Maryland's coastal plain is 10, and only 5% of coastal plain atlas blocks have >18 FIDS.  I don't know forest sites IN Anne Arundel county intimately but it appears that this could be the best site in the county for breeding forest birds outside Patuxent Research Refuge.

We will be reviewing the South River Greenway as a nominated IBA soon and it looks likely to qualify. Much of the site is privately owned and, since this is a part of the state with very high pressure from development, there is a risk of losing integral parts of this forest block. There may be opportunities to get more of this area protected by public purchase. Would local birders be supportive of these efforts? Please let me know.

All the best,

Dave


Primary target species  Total
Black-billed Cuckoo     1       FIDS
Wood thrush     70      FIDS
Prairie Warbler 10
Prothonotary Warbler    4       FIDS
Worm-eating Warbler     16      FIDS
Louisiana Waterthrush   14      FIDS
Kentucky Warbler        14      FIDS

Secondary target species        Total
Red-shouldered hawk     2       FIDS
Barred Owl      1       FIDS
Hairy Woodpecker        7       FIDS
Pileated Woodpecker     6       FIDS
Acadian Flycatcher      74      FIDS
Yellow-throated Vireo   15      FIDS
Red-eyed Vireo  54      FIDS
Northern Parula 46      FIDS
Black-and-White Warbler 16      FIDS
Ovenbird        62      FIDS
Hooded Warbler  31      FIDS
Scarlet Tanager 37      FIDS
Summer Tanager  1       FIDS
White-eyed Vireo        9       SHRUB
Yellow-breasted Chat    8       SHRUB
Eastern Towhee  14      SHRUB
Field Sparrow   14      SHRUB


David Curson, PhD
Director of Bird Conservation,
Audubon MD-DC,
2437 Eastern Avenue,
Baltimore  MD  21224
Tel: (410) 558 2473
E-mail: