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Photo by James Rieley
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We thank Dreaming Creek www.dreamingcreek.com for contributing wood for Prothonotary Project nest boxes in 2008.
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Birds In The News:
Prothonotary Warbler Banding Project at Dutch Gap
From work begun in the mid 1980’s at Presquile NWR and later at Deep Bottom Park, Charles and Leann Blem (now retired faculty from VCU and living in Montana) demonstrated that the cavity-nesting Prothonotary Warbler, a watchlist species whose population is declining nationally, would readily nest in man-made nest boxes installed, over water. Bob Reilly and his son James Reilly began assisting the Blems at the Presquile site in 1995, enabling the site to continue operating much later in the season. It quickly became apparent that the nest boxes dramatically improved fledging success rates by nearly eliminating predation during the nesting period, and that many of the warblers were able to successfully rear two broods per season in the project boxes.
Encouraged by the successes at Presquile and Deep Bottom, and acting on a tip from John Coe, then president of RAS, Bob initiated a new project site at the Dutch Gap Conservation Area in 2002 with the installation of 43 nest boxes in the lagoon and along the old river channel. The boxes were mounted over water on 10-ft metal conduit poles, located 5-15 feet from the bank. That year 95 prothonotaries (adults and nestlings) were banded at the Dutch Gap site. Each year since then the number of boxes has been expanded. In 2007 there were 140 boxes spread out all around the lagoon and up the length of the old river channel. Each year the boxes are monitored continuously from April 20th - July 20th by canoe. Presence and timing of nest material and eggs is recoded, nestlings and adults are banded, and morphological and fitness-related data are taken on them. In addition, specialized data, which varies from year-to-year, are taken by VCU graduate students working on the masters thesis projects in Biology and Environmental Science.
From its modest beginning in 2002, the Dutch Gap Prothonotary Project has become a major contributor to the regional conservation of this beautiful neo-tropical migrant. The numbers for the 2007 season appear in the following table.
Dutch Gap
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Foreign Birds
(banded elsewhere)
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Total Prothonotary Warblers Handled
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Several of the remarkable 132 returned adult breeders in 2007 have been coming to the site since 2003; indeed one male has been returning each year since 2001 when just a few birds were banded as part of an exploratory effort conducted at the site by Bob and John. In addition, many of the 132 returned breeders in 2007 were themselves once nestlings in the Dutch Gap boxes. As these birds must migrate an average of 5000+ miles each year, twice crossing the Gulf of Mexico en-route to or returning from their Central and South American winter grounds, their achievement in overcoming staggering hardship and unimaginable danger to once again raise another brood of young in our Dutch Gap boxes is truly humbling. It’s is a great pleasure each spring to log in, and welcome back as old friends, these intrepid travelers.
In the last two years this project has been largely supported by funding from Richmond Audubon and, increasingly, by the help of trained volunteers from RAS. 2008 promises to be the most successful season yet, with a planned expansion to 160 nest boxes. Any morning from May 1st through about June 20th, a birder along the 4-mile trail at Dutch Gap is unlikely to ever be out of hearing of the song of a Prothonotary Warbler. The birds are an ever-present and striking reminder of the benefits that sustained conservation efforts can produce.
Bob Reilly
SEE: MAP OF BIRD BOX LOCATIONS (below)
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