Bobolink update
-
- July
- 13
When we last left the bobolinks in North Salem, there were 23 male birds, according to the Bedford Audubon Society.
Well, the birds were busy this year in the unmowed fields in Westchester County’s northeastern corner. Jim Nordgren, the society’s executive director, and Tait E. Johansson, Bedford Audubon’s naturalist, visited the fields again last week where they first found bobolinks this spring. They had tried to convince some landowners and managers not to mow their fields until the bobolinks raised their families because the birds nest on the ground.
Nordgren then supplied this update:
. . . we counted a total of 116 bobolinks, a combo of adult males and females and fledglings—a huge number.Our initial take on this is that there were the original 23 adult males, an equal number of adult females, for about 50, the rest, 60 or so, must be fledglings, which is stunning.
But it makes sense, 23 or so active nests producing 3 young for about 75 fledglings, 50 surviving.
These 50 fledgling would be a total of zero fledgling if mowing had taken place in June.
Nordgren said they will be writing a formal report and then looking for grants and other funding to help the birds next spring.
This entry was posted
on Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 1:00 pm by Mike Risinit.
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Journal News staff writer Greg Clary writes Earth Watch, reporting on environmental issues in the lower Hudson region. Clary has been a reporter, editor and columnist at the Journal News since 1988 and has covered police and courts, transportation, municipal government, development and the environment in the Lower Hudson Valley, among other topics. 
Laura Incalcaterra covers the environment, open space and zoning and planning issues for The Journal News. A Boston College graduate, Laura grew up in Rockland, attended East Ramapo schools and has worked for The Journal News since 1993. Laura has written features and covered North Rockland, crime, government and a host of other issues.
Mike Risinit covers Patterson and Kent in Putnam County, as well as environmental topics touching on the Hudson River and the Great Swamp. Risinit has been a reporter at The Journal News since 1998.
