The fall migration for many birds is well underway, and scientists are excited about a new method for tracking them – a technology that provides detailed information without disturbing our feathered friends.
Each fall, more than 2,500 American oystercatchers show up off Virginia’s Eastern Shore – roosting on barrier islands owned by the Nature Conservancy. These 17,000 acres of undisturbed land are essential to the birds which will spend the winter here – feeding and resting.
By tracking them from their nesting grounds, scientists like Alex Wilke say people can better protect the birds.
“We want to make sure that they have what they need here – that they have undisturbed areas that are protected, where they can get enough food and rest to make a successful journey,” she explains.
But counting flocks of birds is a time-consuming business according to scientist Zak Poulton. “We were talking about monitoring brown pelican nests. Traditionally we go out with about ten people and two boats, and it takes up to five hours to do that, where I can go out on the boat with one other person and get it done in 45 minutes to an hour,” he says.
The key is a five pound drone. An onboard camera provides such detailed pictures that the Nature Conservancy’s Alex Wilke can read tiny bands placed on the birds’ legs when they were chicks.
“K2 is the code on the band," she concludes, " so we can go back in our records, and that bird was banded in Virginia.”
And Poulton says counting them is easy enough.
“You can pick out individual birds from 200 feet. In the spring time we’re using it to monitor nesting birds. From 200 feet you can pick out eggs that are laying in the sand.”
The birds don’t seem to fear or even notice the drones, which allow scientists to see them in hard-to-reach places, to check on how successfully they’re nesting, and sometimes to see if raccoons, foxes or coyotes are swimming to the barrier islands and eating eggs or baby birds.
“We do take steps to reduce the populations of those particular species out there,” Wilke says.
Someday, software may allow computers to study the images and do the tedious job of counting. For now, scientists review the photos and they’ve confirmed good news for the oyster-catchers. Their population has grown by about 60% in Virginia.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
