Tags: birds

Highlights:

• There are some important general features of nest boxes to benefit birds
• Nest boxes are generally designed with a particular species in mind,
• Location is important when deciding which species you wish to attract
• Remember to report your sighting to Project NestWatch

Within the next few weeks, migrating birds will be returning to our area for the spring and summer.

In 2018, Freshkills Park researchers conducted a study to learn more about grassland bird nesting preferences. Currently, a significantly greater number of grassland birds are nesting in an area known as East Mound than in the other areas. One species of special concern, the grasshopper sparrow, has been found nesting exclusively in East Mound.

Every year, Osprey (Pandion halibuts) make their summer homes at Freshkills Park, where they build nests on high structures above the Park’s creeks. They hunt for fish in the waterways and raise their young. Since 2018, parks researchers have been monitoring the breeding success of the Osprey at Freshkills Park.

Happy National Bike Month!

To celebrate biking in May, we created this Bingo board to document the plants, birds, and people that you may see while biking along the New Springville Greenway or your favorite local park. Click here for a printable version.

Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship

This summer, researchers from College of Staten Island completed their fourth year of Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) bird banding at Freshkills Park. MAPS is a collaborative, continent-wide research effort coordinated by the Institute for Bird Populations, with over 1,200 participant banding stations.

This summer, Freshkills staff and interns conducted fieldwork to assess the levels of moisture in the grassland soil on North and East Mounds. This research is part of an ongoing project to characterize the differences between the grasslands within Freshkills Park.

This summer Freshkills Park staff and interns partnered with the NYC Parks Wildlife Unit to evaluate differences in ambient noise levels between two areas of the park. To track the noise levels, sound recorders were placed at corresponding locations on North and East Mounds.

By early April, ospreys had arrived at Freshkills Park after spending the winter in warmer places. Nicknamed “fish hawks,” these large raptors like being close to shallow water for easy access to food. The birds quickly got to work building their summer homes on tall platforms close to the creeks.

The wide, open grasslands of Freshkills Park serve as an important habitat to a variety of wildlife. One species that depends on these areas is the American kestrel – the smallest member of the falcon family. These birds nest inside cavities of isolated trees scattered throughout open fields, and feed by swooping down to capture prey among the grasses such as large insects or small animals.

Summer is a great season for birdwatching! As the weather warms up, migrating species return from their wintering grounds. Birds can be seen foraging for food, building nests, displaying for mates, and defending their territories. Sometimes you can hear them calling to mates and declaring their territories to potential rivals.

The 2017 Christmas Bird Count took place in Staten Island on Saturday, December 16. As part of this yearly tradition, Staten Islanders spread across the Island to count as many different species as possible. This year there was a myriad of species found within Freshkills Park and across the Island.

With the decline of grassland habitat, less than 1% of original grasslands remain in the Northeast. Meanwhile, the mounds of the Fresh Kills Landfill have been covered by a cap and seeded with native plants, and the engineered grasslands at Freshkills Park are providing vital habitat to many bird species dependent upon them.

Freshkills Park celebrated summer solstice on June 21 with Make Music New York for “Inside the Bird Chorus” where the woodlands and grasslands meet in South Park. Naturalist Seth Wollney led an auditory bird tour and trumpeter Volker Goetze accompanied their songs in a performance of original and improvisational compositions as the sun set on the longest day of the year.

The 2016 Staten Island Christmas Bird Count took place on Sunday, December 17th. During this yearly event, Staten Island birders spread out in teams to take count of all the birds present at the time. This year, there was a nice showing of different species both on the Island and in Freshkills Park.

Freshkills Park will soon launch a digital app that will tweet photos of birds like tree swallows and house wrens from inside their bird boxes at the Park. This project will broadcast the ongoing ecological restoration of the Park, create new potentials in the field of scientific research, and highlight a research project investigating the health of the Park’s cavity nesting birds.

On June 21st, Freshkills Park will take part in Inside the Bird Chorus, a project conceived by philosopher and artist David Rothenberg as a dialogue between musicians and New York City’s bird populations.

Visitors are invited to attend the performance.

On June 21st, Freshkills Park will take part in Inside the Bird Chorus, a project conceived by the philosopher and artist David Rothenberg as a dialogue between musicians and bird populations of New York City. The 21st of June is the summer solstice, making it the longest day of the year.

Freshkills Park will offer Discovery Day on May 15th from 11am to 4pm. During this free public event, 700 acres of the otherwise closed site will be open for outdoor recreation, providing opportunities to explore and learn about the landfill-to-park project.

On President’s Day weekend, millions of birds were recorded as part of the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). According to the New York Times, this was the 19th year that both amateur and expert ornithologists worldwide have contributed bird sightings to this citizen science project, run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society and Bird Studies of Canada.

Researchers found a rare Swainson’s hawk at Freshkills Park’s East Mound on Tuesday morning. Dr. Richard Veit of The College of Staten Island described the hawk as a western North American grasslands specialist bird.