ThinkingAfield.org

Bats are everywhere! It may feel that way to some of Vermont’s human residents. Summer is when some species of bats gather in colonies, to raise their young in human-made structures such as houses, barns, office buildings, and bat houses but fall is the safe time to get them out.

“Summer is the time of year when the greatest number of unwanted bat-human interactions are reported,” according to Vermont Fish and Wildlife’s Small Mammals Biologist Alyssa Bennett, who works on the conservation and recovery of Vermont’s threatened and endangered bat species.

“Bats can end up in your living space for many reasons, including young bats that are weak, disoriented or lost while coming and going from the roost, bats moving within a structure to find warmer or cooler roosting space as temperatures fluctuate, and bats being displaced from their roosts due to building repairs and renovations.” Read more

EDGEFIELD, S.C. — As part of its 2023 investment in wild turkey research, the NWTF is helping fund, for the second year, a unique wild turkey research project conducted by Mississippi State University and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.

The research project utilizes recent advances in genetic analysis to better understand wild turkey ecology and how certain factors — such as hunting seasons, land type and management practices — can affect population densities.

In its second year, the project is improving estimates of various population data, which will allow state wildlife agencies and turkey managers to make better-informed decisions regarding management actions and hunting season frameworks, ultimately leading to a stronger population.

However, accurately gauging the number of wild turkeys on a particular landscape is complicated. Population estimates are often made using rough approximations that rely on anecdotal accounts, volunteer surveys and catch-per-unit information.

The other, more labor-intensive way wild turkey researchers and managers can estimate wild turkey numbers is by trapping and marking birds. While this method has provided valuable and insightful information for decades, it is expensive, takes a lot of personnel, is time-consuming and involves risks. Read more

The species’ remarkable combination of colors is evident in this Painted Bunting photo taken by David Hollie. Are you lucky enough to see male and female Painted Buntings at one of your seed feeders?

The oldest Painted Bunting on record was banded 14 years ago, and still returns to the same yard each spring (photo by Jim Konrad).

A program that enlisted the help of birders who attracted Painted Buntings to their feeding stations was initiated by a group of biologists centered in the Carolinas – the Painted Bunting Observation Team (PBOT) – a research program that banded and monitored buntings across the East Coast side of the species’ range. Feeder hosts let the group know when they were attracting Painted Buntings to their feeders, which would elicit a response by a team member to capture, band, and release the colorful songbirds to learn more about them.

Thereafter, the host birders recorded the activities of banded Painted Buntings at their feeders, sometimes over the course of years, which revealed information about their longevity, site fidelity, and other behaviors to the team, and to science. This all started 14 years ago, when Lex Glover, a retired wildlife biologist with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and Jamie Rotenburg, a professor at the University of North Carolina, started the PBOT. During that first season, one special male Painted Bunting was banded that would make this story even more significant.

After the Painted Bunting was banded, its activities were monitored and documented by Ann Knolte and Hank Stallworth at their feeding station at their stunning farmhouse surrounded by flower gardens in South Carolina. In fact, even after the PBOT program ended, Ann Knolte continued taking detailed notes of bunting behavior in her yard that included information about the banded bunting that continued to visit the area for years. Read more