The PElican-- Helping Birds Through Community Science

By Diane Wong-Kone

​     The stories below highlight two community science projects that Lahontan Audubon Society actively participates in. If you are interested in volunteering or learning about either of these projects, please email us at [email protected].

Shorebird Migration Counts      
     Last week, I went to the River School Farm, where our AmeriCorps volunteer, Patty Moen, was leading the kids from Great Basin Outdoor School in a new game. It was an obstacle course. We set up the course for the kids, who were pretending to be birds. We wanted to see how many of them could finish their journey and make it to the finish line.

      It wasn’t an easy course. First, the kids - er, birds- had to jump between habitat patches where they could land and find food. They had to fly over or under rope powerlines and avoid skyscrapers along the way. There was a moving car, played by another student who tried to “tag” the bird running the course. The bird made it but, “Look out for that window!” Oops, a wind farm. That wasn’t there before. Navigating safely through the moving propellers, the bird flew over another city, where another student, playing a cat, was on the prowl. With pesticides, disorienting city lights, and shrinking habitat, would the bird make it? At the end of the game, we counted, and only about half of the birds survived.

      Sadly, this simulation becomes real for many of our migrating birds. Shorebirds, masters of long-distance flights north and south each year, have been identified as a group with plummeting population numbers. In the Intermountain West, saline lakes, like those found in the Lahontan Wetlands around Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge are valuable habitat areas where shorebirds can stop to feed and fuel their long flights. Saline lake complexes, such as the Lahontan Wetlands, Great Salt Lake and Salton Sea are diminishing, with causes that include a history of water diversion and climate patterns of longer drought cycles. As water recedes, migrating shorebirds, which are already stressed in flight by various obstacles as simulated in the kids’ game, experience increased mortality due to shrinking wetlands. Conservation of these wetlands is critically important for shorebird conservation. 

       Lahontan Audubon Society has been working with the National Audubon Society, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Nevada Department of Wildlife to monitor the shorebirds each year in the Lahontan Wetlands. Our volunteers perform counts each year during Spring and Fall, when the shorebirds migrate through our state. By documenting the numbers of our shorebirds each year, our volunteer data, along with that of others around the western U.S., gives a picture of how shorebirds are surviving in a changing world. Thanks to our dedicated volunteer crew, we are learning about shorebirds and working on ways to conserve our saline lakes. 

      Each year volunteers can sign up to partner with friends, visit our saline wetlands near Fallon, delight in the spectacle of shorebird migration and help provide important data that goes toward wetland conservation and management to benefit our feathered friends. New volunteers are always welcome to join us, to learn shorebird identification, and to help with the monitoring effort.

Red-necked Phalarope range map from Cornell’s All About Birds website and an in-flight photo from the Lahontan Audubon Society shorebirds workshop. (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-necked_Phalarope/maps-range accessed 7/28/2024).



Pinyon Jay Community Science Project    
       Have you walked in the hills lately? There is something special happening, right now! This is not a normal year. The pine trees in our mountain areas appear to be masting, and the pine trees are loaded with green cones. Green cones mean seeds, and that means a chance to see seed-eating birds feasting on the pinecone bounty.
   
      Mast years do not occur every year. They may only occur once in 5 or more years. That means that for birds that specialize in eating the seeds of pinecones, the food source is not reliable every year.
   
     One of the iconic birds of the Great Basin is the Pinyon Jay. You may have seen large flocks in our nearby hills, wherever there are pinyon pines. Like the shorebirds, the Pinyon Jay is experiencing dramatic population declines throughout its range in the western U.S. Unlike shorebirds, Pinyon Jays do not migrate long distances. Instead, they cache their food, hiding pinyon nuts in the ground, so that they can have stored food during the winter months.

    The Pinyon Jay is closely tied to pinyon-juniper woodland habitat because it specializes on harvesting and feeding on pinyon nuts. Across the landscape, pinyon juniper woodlands may expand and contract. We are still discovering and learning about these landscape-level patterns. Some scientific literature has suggested that pinyon juniper woodlands have been recently expanding. That may be the case, but the question lingers, “If the woodlands are increasing, then why are Pinyon Jay populations decreasing?” This is a mystery. Even though Pinyon Jays can be found throughout the wooded hills in Nevada, little is known about this bird, its movements, and its needs for survival. The Pinyon Jay’s diet of pine nuts seems to be a key element.

     As you have walked the hill trails, perhaps you have seen a jay flock. At first, you hear the raucous calls and looking around, you find a large flock of birds. They are flying low, stopping occasionally, and flying again as a loose group. Soon, they disappear over the hill and even their calls fade into silence. If only you could fly with them and travel over the hill with such ease!

     And that is where community science helps! Nevada, and adjacent states, cover a large area. Mountains can be hard to traverse, and the Pinyon Jays can fly across large territories, which has confounded low-budget and small scientist teams, who are on the ground trying to learn more about the Pinyon Jays. Community science involves the larger communities, that is, us. Using apps on our phones, we can help scientists cover larger areas every time we walk a trail in pinyon-juniper (and in Reno, occasionally lower elevation Jeffrey Pine) habitat. More people and more jay observations mean more data, so that larger, landscape-scale patterns can be found.
 
     Where are the Pinyon Jays nesting? Where do they find the pine nuts, especially in years when the trees are not masting? Where do they cache the nuts? What happens to the jay populations when the pines mast and produce abundant seed, versus the leaner years? These are all important questions, and anyone can help figure out the answers that can, in turn, help reverse the trend of Pinyon Jay declines. How do we do this? We do what we all love – birdwatching! Lahontan Audubon Society and the Great Basin Bird Observatory are planning on organizing walks, Survey123 app orientations, and informative talks about Pinyon Jays throughout the year. Please check the calendars on the LAS and GBBO websites for these events.

Photo of green Pinyon Pine cones with seeds and a Pinyon Jay in Sagebrush. ​