Tundra Swans

[emerald]

To learn about the important link between Pennsylvania agriculture and tundra swans, threats to the species and conservation measures undertaken and proposed, read the attached Pennsylvania Game News article.

[emerald]

This thread has been an interesting experiment, but I am not certain what to conclude.

Just before posting, I checked and found there were 101 hits and only 1 instance of someone having viewed the attached article.

The single view could mean many things including but not limited to users not being logged in when they see the opening post and not wishing to take the time to log in to view it. It is also possible the majority or at least some who clicked on the thread's title were not registered users.

I can think of many other reasons to explain the single view, but since some may be unable to read a good article about an interesting bird and conservation issue, I will link the same article from PCG's website in the next post.

[emerald]

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/document/765949/tundra_swans%E2%80%94a_pa_responsibility_species_p df

[TheTwanger]

Adobe gives me an error when trying to open the file even after saving it

[emerald]

You might try again after downloading the current version here.

[rickb]

In Backwoods Ethics, Guy and Laura Waterman have a chapter on Backpacker's Favorite lies. In order, these fall into the following categories: Pack Weight, Distances Hiked, Days away from People, Temperatures, Wind Speed, and finally Bird Species.

Bird Species

This is a highly specialized branch of the art. The very fact that backpackers who know anything about birds are as rare as Kirtland's Warb-- oops, sorry we mean they are very rare-- give lots of leeway to those who have little more than a nodding acquaintance with a Peterson Field Guide.

If you hear some far-off chirp, you'll rarely be caught off base when you say, "hey, did you hear that? Black-throated green warbler" If your companions ask you to point it out, the bird can generally be stuck with the blame for not repeating the call, if it ever issued it in the first place. Of course you risk having some unsuspecting amateur Audubon turn up among your companions and challenge your identification. If you've just confidently snapped "yellow-throated vireo" as a winged creature flitted momentarily in and out of view among some hemlocks, you may be aghast to have someone in the group venture an apparently better-informed view that it was in fact a robin. (Sometimes you can get out of this predicament by smilingly observing that the female immatures are not always easily distinguished.)

Variants of the bird species ploy may be explored in such areas as tree identification, ferns, rock types and especially alpine flowers.

Not sure how this fits into your thread, but somehow it might. Not the lies part, but rather that backpackers really don't get birds at all.

[sheepdog]

In Backwoods Ethics, Guy and Laura Waterman have a chapter on Backpacker's Favorite lies. In order, these fall into the following categories: Pack Weight, Distances Hiked, Days away from People, Temperatures, Wind Speed, and finally Bird Species.

Not sure how this fits into your thread, but somehow it might. Not the lies part, but rather that backpackers really don't get birds at all.

Depends if the backpacker is a city person or a country person. I live in the heart of Kirtlands Warbler country. If you think the AT is a wilderness, you are probably a city person.

[ki0eh]

I did click on the second link, it appears there is a drive to place some priority on preserving land in agricultural use in the environs of Middle Creek, but of course money is needed, hopefully in advance of a sewer extension that might spur development. The article seems to be somewhat lacking in geographic specificity.

[emerald]

Saturday, March 5, 2011 1000-1600.

Join us as we enjoy the sights and sounds of migrating waterfowl at Middle Creek. Witness thousands of Snow Geese and Tundra Swans as well as a large variety of other waterfowl. Also, songbirds and raptors. Chance for Short-eared Owls and American Woodcocks for those who wish to stay with the leaders until dusk. Registration is required. To register, contact Rick Wiltraut at (610) 746-2810.

[emerald]

The article seems to be somewhat lacking in geographic specificity.

I suspect landowners in the area specified already know who they are and at least some are already on a waiting list. Conservation easements usually want more for funding than for landowners interested in participation.

[emerald]

Not sure how this fits into your thread, but ... backpackers really don't get birds at all.

If so, and I believe it to be true to a large extent, then one of the more important reasons to have created and to protect the A.T. is a concept many backpackers don't get.

Middle Creek WMA is one of Pennsylvania's two important bird areas of global significance primarily because of its use by tundra swans as a staging area.

The notion that the other is a reclaimed strip mine and why it could be so important would leave them completely dumbfounded since most hikers think that the best, rarest and most desirable of all habitats is large, uniform tracts of mature timber.

I ought not need to point out the A.T. east of Susquehanna River passes through Kittatinny Ridge Important Bird Area along the same corridor that guides migrating raptors to their wintering grounds.

[emerald]

I am hopeful that when the A.T. is connected to DCNR's Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center at Wind Gap, hikers especially those of the long-distance subspecies may begin to better get birds. If they don't, it won't be because DCNR didn't put a good bird man there in Rick Wiltraut.

With Jacobsburg EEC, Lehigh Gap Nature Center, Hawk Mountain and the other hawk watches working in concert to increase knowledge about birds, one of the rarer A.T. hiker species can be expected to increase their numbers in the coming years.

[ki0eh]

backpackers really don't get birds at all.

If so, and I believe it to be true to a large extent, then one of the more important reasons to have created and to protect the A.T. is a concept many backpackers don't get.

Middle Creek WMA is one of Pennsylvania's two important bird areas of global significance primarily because of its use by tundra swans as a staging area.

The notion that the other is a reclaimed strip mine and why it could be so important would leave them completely dumbfounded since most hikers think that the best, rarest and most desirable of all habitats is large, uniform tracts of mature timber.

This could be an interesting discussion that many won't click on due to the title of this thread.

[emerald]

I often complain about off-topic posting primarily because if it does lead to fruitful discussion it often doesn't get read except by those who participate in it and contributors are often not the individuals who stand to benefit most.

Let me think about this topic for a few days and see if I can stir up some interest in it off-board. It would be a simple matter to start a new thread and link it for those who stumble upon what you thought might be a worthwhile topic.