A Message From the Conservation Committee
The Conservation Committee and the Council are pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s conservation grants:
- $750 to the Birding Backpack Lending Program to purchase five additional backpacks, and the remainder
- $600 to Audubon’s Discovery Center to establish a recording station to capture and analyze nocturnal flight calls of migrants.
The Birding Backpack Lending Program, with its goal of exposing children and adults in our communities to the wonderful birding opportunities in our backyards, was established at the Andorra Library in April 2017 and has since been expanded to three additional branches. Andorra’s birding backpacks saw over 100 uses during nature programs hosted by the Library. Citywide, the currently available 40 backpacks have been borrowed by individuals over 295 times to date, for 3-week loan periods. Each backpack contains binoculars, trail maps, a field guide and a laminated BirdPhilly card.
Establishing a recording station for nocturnal flight calls at the Discovery Center will increase our understanding of how and when birds migrate over the city of Philadelphia. Holger Pflicke, who has been running such a station from his home in South Philadelphia for three migration seasons, has been working with Audubon’s Keith Russell to ensure the feasibility of this project. A test run in October 2018 was successful, and included the capture of a recording of an unexpected fly-over Dickcissel. All data generated through this project will be made available to the public via ebird.
Further information on the Conservation Committee and Conservation Grants is at
http://dvoc.org/about/committees/conservation/