This coming Friday, January 4, Doug Forsell, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service migratory bird specialist and expert on watewrfowl, will present his results from years of surveying wintering waterfowl in the Chesapeake Bay region.  So, if you want to know how species of ducks, geese and swans are doing around where we all go birding, Doug is going to tell us at the Anne Arundel Bird Club meeting at 8:00 p.m. at Arlington Echo Environmental Education Center, Crownsville, MD. 


Friday, January 4, 2008. POPULATIONS AND CONSERVATION OF WINTERING WATERBIRDS IN CHESAPEAKE BAY AND OFFSHORE COASTAL WATERS. Doug Forsell, USFWS, Chesapeake Bay Field Office.

Doug Forsell will discuss the status and trends of wintering waterfowl of the Chesapeake Bay, from Scaups and Buffleheads to Canvasbacks and Redheads.  With his extensive experience in aerial monitoring of waterfowl and other wintering waterbirds for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Doug also will present findings on populations of such open water species of the Bay as Loons, Gannets, and Scoters that may number 500,000.  Recent offshore surveys of species from NJ to NC will be presented to give us a bigger picture along with a discussion of threats faced by offshore birds.  State and Federal wildlife biologists have conducted such winter aerial surveys of waterfowl along the shorelines of the entire Chesapeake Bay since 1957. Doug has studied migratory birds for over 33 years, 31 of those years with the USFWS. Since 1990, he has worked to implement the Waterfowl Management Plan of the Chesapeake Bay Program, including interpretation of waterfowl population trends, surveys of wa
terbirds in offshore waters, assessing the mortality of waterbirds in anchored gillnets, modeling diving duck distributions, and identifying and mitigating threats to birds and their habitats.

Sue Ricciardi
For Gerald Winegrad, AABC Program Chair