By Joe Kosack, Wildlife Conservation Education Specialist, Pennsylvania Game Commission

Surprises are surfacing in an ongoing survey - the largest ever - of wild birds that nest over the Commonwealth's more than 46,000-square-mile landscape.

The historic 2nd Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas has been underway for three years now and is on course to be completed in 2008. Nearly 2,100 Pennsylvanians have volunteered to participate in this massive summer undertaking; 400 volunteers joined this year. And just in case you might be interested, more help is needed.

"We've come a long way since the atlas begin in 2004, and much good has been accomplished for bird conservation and specifically the Pennsylvania Game Commission, which manages the state's wild birds," said Dan Brauning, agency wildlife diversity program supervisor. "But, with two years to go, and some substantial holes to fill in this important work, the Atlas surely could use help from more interested individuals, particularly along the New York and Maryland borders and in the mid-state area."

Since its start, more than 300,000 breeding records have been entered by participants, who have logged more than 50,000 hours casing the Commonwealth's forests, fields and suburbs. In this fieldwork, the state has been divided into 4,937 survey blocks. Volunteers have reported observations or nesting accounts in about 70 percent of the blocks, which means no work has occurred in more than 1,100 blocks.

More than 75 breeding birds have been confirmed in many blocks, particularly surrounding urban centers such as Harrisburg, Lancaster, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and State College, and also around recreation destinations such as Pymatuning Reservoir, Allegheny Reservoir and Raystown Lake.

Those areas of Pennsylvania that tend to be more remote and wild are where the atlas effort is in need of immediate volunteer assistance.

"We could definitely use some help in Adams, Bradford, Columbia, Fayette, Potter, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Washington and York counties," pointed out Bob Mulvihill, a field ornithologist at Carnegie Museum's Powdermill Nature Preserve, who is serving as the Atlas project coordinator. "These are areas that would be ideal for adoption by birders who may not necessarily live there. They provide beautiful scenery and great birding opportunities."

But even those not in one of the aforementioned counties can get involved with the Breeding Bird Atlas. In fact, atlas organizers are hoping to double - possibly triple - the number of people participating in the census over the next two years.

"Backyard birders are in a position to add thousands of valuable records that normally occur on their properties and this will add another dimension to the atlas," Mulvihill stressed. "We're interested in confirming the Carolina or house wren that nested in your bluebird box, the barn swallow that nested in your barn, or the whip-poor-wills that called in the night at your cabin. Over the next two years, we'd like to add as many of Pennsylvania's 2.7 million birders as we can to the atlas effort."

Survey information can be documented on-line, or forms can be filled out and returned to Atlas organizer's offices. Backyard forms - primarily for casual observers, or individuals without computer access - are available by calling 724-593-6022.

More information on the project or how to participate is available on the Breeding Bird Atlas website.

A special form also has been developed for Pennsylvania farmers to collect information on breeding birds such as bobolinks, meadowlarks and barn owls, species that are largely dependent on farmland.

"While bobolinks and meadowlarks are becoming more difficult to find, many of these birds are well known to those who spend countless hours outdoors working on farms in spring and summer," Mulvihill explained. "We want and need the help of farmers, so that when the atlas is completed, it will reflect the value of farmlands to Pennsylvania's bird diversity."

The robin leads the list of birds most frequently observed by atlas participants. It is followed by the song sparrow, crow, red-eyed vireo and yellowthroat.

One of the more interesting highlights in this year's fieldwork has been confirmation of the state's first-ever breeding pair of merlins in a planted pine and spruce grove in downtown Bradford. A member of the falcon family, merlins have nested historically in Canadian boreal forests and typically are an extraordinary find for summertime Pennsylvania birders.

"It's such a surprising discovery," Brauning said. "We had no idea. Interestingly, there also was a nesting pair of merlins in an adjacent atlas block, and a third pair was nesting in Warren. Several sightings of adult merlins also were noted elsewhere in the state.

"This important discovery underscores the atlas' need for more eyes and ears to help collect information on the more than 200 wild bird species that frequent Pennsylvania during the nesting season. Birds that use urban and suburban environs are every bit as important to the atlas as those nesting on the forested slopes of the Alleghenies or the backwaters along the Lake Erie shoreline. Every record matters!"

Record numbers of the state-endangered dickcissel and sedge wren were recorded in southern Pennsylvania, as were blue grosbeaks, which have been increasing their breeding base in the Commonwealth since they were first recorded instate in the 1960s. This atlas is demonstrating a dramatic expansion of the blue grosbeaks to the north and west.

Also this year, atlas participants in select blocks - almost 100 - began surveying owls and marsh birds with nocturnal and wetland surveys. The nightshift fieldwork turned up 23 saw-whet owls, three barn owls, one short-eared owl and one long-eared owl, as well as nine whip-poor-wills and one common snipe. The wetland work uncovered 11 Virginia rails, three Sora rails, two pied-bill grebes, and a Sandhill crane.

The 2nd Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas is the most extensive survey of the state's nesting birds ever attempted. Started in 2004, the grid-based survey - which provides visitors and participants "real time" atlas tabulations on birds and blocks covered - will continue for two more years and aims to track the changes that have occurred in bird populations since the first atlas was completed in 1989.

Since that time, eagles, ospreys and peregrine falcons have expanded their breeding numbers substantially. Also of interest will be charting whether the long-term declines of many songbirds reported in the first atlas continue.

Although it follows and largely replicates the first atlas, conducted in Pennsylvania from 1983 to 1989, the second atlas also provides new levels of understanding for the state's bird populations that will help to ensure their conservation now and in the future. It is supported largely with federal State Wildlife Grant funds awarded through the Game Commission, and organized and coordinated by the Carnegie Museum of Natural History through offices at the museum's Powdermill Nature Reserve.

When finished in 2008, the second Atlas will show changes in the occurrence and distribution of the state's nesting wild birds, and promises to provide much additional information about the state's breeding birds, including their habitat preferences and abundance.

The use of technologies, such as global positioning satellites and the internet - unavailable when data for the first Atlas was collected - are expected to improve the survey. But success in getting to the finish line and the quantity and quality of data collected will be directly influenced by the number of volunteers who participate, especially covering blocks in rural Pennsylvania.

Additional funding for the Atlas has been provided by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' Wild Resource Conservation Fund, and in-kind and other assistance is being provided by DCNR's bureaus of Forestry and State Parks, Pennsylvania Audubon, Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology, Penn State Cooperative Wetlands Center, Penn State Institutes of the Environment, Penn State School of Forest Resources, Powdermill Nature Reserve and Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.

For more information, visit the 2nd Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas website.

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