Vermont's bird diversity soars, new survey shows

BURLINGTON, Vt.—A new survey of Vermont's bird populations shows that the state has breeding populations of 17 more species than it did in the late 1970s, but it also raises concern about the future of some species.

The second Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas, put together with information from volunteer birders during a five-year, 30,000-hour survey, could be used by scientists as a kind of environmental bellwether, according to Rosalind Renfrew, an ornithologist at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, who led the project.

The survey, the first of its kind since 1981, sent volunteers to 365 10-square-mile blocks of land across the state and ended up confirming the breeding of 180 species, including backyard robins, ospreys and peregrine falcons.

"You can think of birds as sentinels of change, a kind of alarm system about what is happening to our environment," said Rosalind Renfrew, an ornithologist at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies and leader of the atlas project.

"We can't protect what we don't know exists," Renfrew said. "This work allows us to carry out smart conservation."

According to the survey:

-- the eastern meadowlark was spotted in half as many places in Vermont as it was 30 years ago.

-- the common nighthawk has all but disappeared.

-- breeding pairs of four kinds of northern warblers weren't found anywhere.

Vermont's first breeding bird survey helped establish the state's list of threatened and endangered birds, according to ornithologist Sally Laughlin, of Cambridge, director of the first atlas and a member of the state Endangered Species Committee.

After the loon, peregrine and osprey were put on the list, the state developed programs to them to the point where all three now have healthy breeding populations.

"This new information will let us review where we stand," Laughlin said of the endangered species. "The nighthawk and whip-poor-will aren't on the list, and from the data it sure looks like they should be."

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On the Net:

Vermont Center for Ecostudies: http://www.vtecostudies.org

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Information from: The Burlington Free Press, http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com