your home & yard, birds & collisions

A new paper addresses collisions and wildlife-friendly yards:
http://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/blog/2016/07/27/yards-increase-risk-of-bird-window-collisions/

Please read the entire article - solutions exist to deter window collisions! This paper should not be taken to mean that wildlife-friendly yards are the problem. GLASS - if not treated in some way to avoid collisions, is the real source of mortality.

Here are some solutions:
 http://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/featured-stories/15-products-that-prevent-windows-strikes/

WI songbirds in late July/early August -- a 2nd brood, or only one?

If you're wondering whether the species you're looking at here in WI in late July or early August is in the process of raising a 2nd brood, or if the species typically has only 1 brood, here's a list of some common WI species and the number of broods they have. Keep in mind that many species will start a 2nd clutch of eggs and raise that brood if they lose the first clutch through predation or some accident. These numbers are different for many species whose range also covers southern states, where the same species that is single-brooded in the north, may have 2 in the south:

most Neotropical flycatcher species - 1 brood
E. Phoebe - 2 broods
most swallows - 1 brood, Barn Swallow - 2 broods
Blue Jay - 1 brood
Gray Jay - 1 brood
Am. Crow and Com. Raven - 1 brood
chickadees & titmice - 1 brood
nuthatches - 1 brood
House Wren - 2 or 3
Carolina Wren - 2
Marsh Wren & Sedge Wren - 2
kinglets and gnatcatcher - 1 (GCKI may have 2)
E. Bluebird, Wood Thrush, Hermit Thrush - 2
Am. Robin - 2, sometimes 3
catbird & thrasher - 2
Cedar Waxwing - most often 1
most vireos at our latitude - 1, some exceptions
most warblers - this is still poorly-known for some species, prob. 1 (Yellow-r. Warbler, Com. Yellowthroat & Ovenbird may have 2)
grosbeaks, bunting, cardinal - 2 (cardinal may have 3!)
Dickcissel -1
Scarlet Tanager -1
E. Towhee - 2
Grasshopper, Henslow's, Vesper, Savannah, Song, Field, Chipping, and Swamp Sparrows - 2
Lark Sparrow - 1
White-throated and Lincoln's Sparrows - usually 1
both Meadowlarks - 2
Red-winged, Yellow-headed Blackbirds - 2
Brewer's Blackbird - 1
Baltimore and Orchard Orioles - 1 
Am. Goldfinch - 2, sometimes 1

your garden, and birds (and more)

It's summer - are you gardening?

New information on protecting your yard but not "overdoing" the use of pesticides:

http://content.yardmap.org/learn/herbicide-use-around-property/

And, a much more thorough look at the effect of pesticides on birds:

http://www.wisconsinbirds.org/effectspesticides.htm

And one more, on avoiding the worst pesticides, that cause harm to bees and other pollinators:

 http://www.xerces.org/wings-magazine/neonicotinoids-in-your-garden/

two excellent bird conferences in WI this fall

It's not too soon to start planning. We sincerely hope you will strongly consider attending both of these excellent conferences this fall:

2016 State of Stopover Symposium - A Great Lakes-wide Symposium on Migratory Bird Stopover Ecology and Conservation of Stopover Habitats

https://stopover2016.wordpress.com/

This is the first region-wide conference on the stopover ecology of migratory birds.

WGLBBO and Dr. Amber Roth, coordinator of the Midwest Landbird Migration Monitoring Network, will host one of the three workshop tracks at the State of Stopover Symposium. We hope you will join us. 

2016 WBCI Annual Conference – October 27-29, 2016 (Protecting birds through action & art)

http://www.wisconsinbirds.org/annualmeeting2016.htm 

This combined WBCI and BCW conference is shaping up to be one of the most unique bird conservation meetings in years. 

These meetings will provide great opportunities for learning the latest information on bird conservation, migration ecology, and connecting with colleagues from both the Midwestern United States and Canada, and from across the country.

a new partnership between 2 conservation heavyweights

The Habitat Network is a new partnership between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and The Nature Conservancy: http://content.yardmap.org/learn/habitat-network-intro/


Learn how it will help birds at: http://content.yardmap.org/learn/category/birds/