Rocky Mountain educational programs for the birds

By Linda Bell
Correspondent

On a windy, chilly and rainy Saturday in late April, area Cub Scouts eagerly followed bird biologist Starr Nicely through last year's wet grasses along the Poudre River to where she had set up mist nets to entrap birds.

A lone robin was the only capture of the morning, but the nets are like treasure chests--there can always be a surprise.

The morning's surprise at the Environmental Learning Center in Fort Collins was that the captured robin Nicely hoped to band for the Cub Scouts was already banded.

The nine-digit number on the band is part of a much larger picture, and demonstrates the scope of activity the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory is undertaking. Shelly Morrell, education director, said the information on the robin's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service band would be submitted to the bird banding lab in Patuxent, Md., an arm of the U.S. Geological Survey.

"With the number, we can see where and when this robin was banded and report that it was found here as well," Morrell said. "These bands are invaluable tools to understanding migratory behavior in birds."

About 125 Cub Scouts from Longs Peak Boy Scout Council attended the RMBO-sponsored event, arranged in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program, the Colorado Division of Wildlife and Colorado State University's Environmental Learning Center. Most of the scouts were working on requirements toward a naturalist badge.

RMBO's mission, Morrell stressed, is to conserve not only the birds of the Rocky Mountains, Great Plains and the Intermountain West, but the habitats needed by those birds to survive. With the Cub Scouts, she said, capture and banding is only one part of an educational process that includes learning to identify bird species and to understand how different birds rely on various ecosystems for their continued survival.

"All birds are protected by federal and state law," Morrell told the Cub Scouts. "It is unlawful to keep feathers, even if they are found, because it is hard to prove the bird wasn't killed to obtain them."

People are indirectly responsible for killing millions of birds each year because their domestic cats stalk and kill them or because birds fly into vehicles and windows, Morrell said. However, it is habitat destruction caused by development that endangers survival of entire species, she added.

Morrell works with permitted banders and Poudre School District students and educators throughout the spring at the North Shields ponds to capture and band birds, an activity sponsored by the DOW. In May, the Girl Scouts had an international migratory bird day at Barr Lake similar to the Cub Scout event at the ELC.

The RMBO operates seven banding stations around the state, and there are educational programs at all of these, Morrell said. They are typically in operation for five weeks, during either the spring or the fall migration periods. Besides Fort Collins, they include the Audubon Center in Denver, Chico Basin Ranch near Colorado Springs, Willow Creek at Lamar, Ela Wildlife Sanctuary in Grand Junction, Ridgeway State Park and Barr Lake State Park near Brighton.

Last year, the RMBO started four short, self-supporting Wonders of Wildlife day camps based at RMBO's headquarters in the Old Stone House at Barr Lake State Park. Targeted for elementary grades, this year's camp schedule features Life on the Prairie, Animated Avians, Wild about Wetlands, and Who's Who in Nature.

Scott Gillihan, RMBO executive director, said the RMBO was founded in 1988 to address bird conservation and related educational issues and now includes 11 western states, even spilling into Mexico, because birds--the yellow warbler, for example--don't respect national boundaries. The nonprofit organization, which has an annual budget of about $2 million, is funded primarily by state and federal agencies through cost-share agreements.

One RMBO outreach program that was initiated in 2003 to protect habitat for mountain plovers has already improved nesting success through the cooperative efforts of plains farmers and biologists to locate and mark nesting sites during periods of cultivation, according to Tammy VerCauteren, outreach director. "The program started with a handful of farmers in eastern Colorado and the panhandle of Nebraska," she said, "and now there are 75 willing landowners helping in this conservation effort."

VerCauteren said mountain plovers build ground nests on both cultivated and uncultivated land, and many nests are disturbed or lost through heavy machinery. The progress being made will help preclude the bird being listed as threatened or endangered, she said. Mountain plover nestlings can move up to 1.5 miles within a few days after hatching, she said, making them vulnerable, even though they are escorted by adult birds and adapt quickly to finding their own food.

The RMBO also receives support from many individuals, Gillihan said, especially in Colorado where core supporters have continued since its founding. Members receive a newsletter, are invited to the bird banding stations, and have a social picnic once a year. More information about the RMBO and membership is available at the web site www.rmbo.org.