USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center HiLites

News from Scientists at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
Monday, December 12, 2005

Chan Robbins to Retire after 60 years with DOI

Chandler S. Robbins, one of our best known and loved scientists, will soon be retiring after 60 years of service at Patuxent. Chan has devoted his life to the study of migratory birds. A senior author of "The Field Guide to Birds of North America", Robbins is also credited with organizing the North American Breeding Bird Survey, assisting with the Maryland and District of Columbia Breeding Bird Atlas, and writing and editing hundreds of articles in journals and other publications. In addition to his work in Maryland, Robbins has done extensive work in Latin America, studying the many species of birds that migrate thousands of miles annually. Robbins is also known for his critical research on the effects of forest fragmentation on bird populations. In honor of Chan Robbins and his career, the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center has dedicated a website that can be found at the following address: http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/whatsnew/events/robbins/

Contact Lois Loges, Laurel, MD 301-497-5531

Endangered Whooping Cranes reach Florida

Nineteen endangered whooping cranes and their surrogate parents—four ultralight aircraft—reached Florida’s Gulf on December 13 after a 61-day trek of more than 1,100 miles through seven states. This is the fifth year that whooping cranes have followed ultralights to Florida from central Wisconsin. The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP), an international coalition of public and private organizations, is conducting this reintroduction effort to return this species to its historic range in eastern North America. The project has now placed 64 whooping cranes in the wild in five years. The U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Maryland, a primary partner in this coalition, is responsible for hatching and rearing the whooping crane chicks used in the project.

Besides producing most of the whooper chicks used for the ultralight project, Patuxent also contributes eggs for the "direct autumn release" (DAR)in which WCEP biologists released four chicks to the company of older whoopers in Wisconsin in the hopes that the chicks would learn the migration route from adult cranes. One of those chicks was produced from the captive whooping crane flock at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. WCEP is using this “direct autumn release” (DAR) technique to complement the ultralight-led migrations. This method of reintroduction has been tested and proven successful with sandhill cranes. Much of that work was done by USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center biologists using sandhills produced at Patuxent. As of December 10, the DAR birds were in Tennessee, well on their way to their Florida wintering grounds.

More information on both of these projects can be found at WCEP's website: http://www.bringbackthecranes.org/ .

Contact Kathy O’Malley, Laurel, MD,301-497-5782

CBS Sunday Morning with Chan Robbins

Chan Robbins will be accompanied this Saturday (Dec. 17) at the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area near Clarksville, Maryland, by a film crew from CBS Sunday Morning as he begins his 72nd consecutive year of Christmas bird counting in collaboration with the National Audubon Society. Robbins, who has just completed his 60th year of wildlife research activities for the U.S. Department of Interior, will spend the day walking the same trails he has covered each Christmas since 1949, noting changes that have occurred in the landscape and in the winter bird populations. In the days following Christmas he will conduct similar counts at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, at Saxis Island, Virginia, in the Pocomoke River Swamp near Ocean City, Maryland, and finally at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, which has been his home base for six decades.

Contact Chan Robbins, Laurel, MD 301-497-5641

Reducing Uncertainties through Monitoring

Joe Meyers, Clint Moore, Paul Sykes, and Bruce Peterjohn, all biologists at USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, met on December 6-8, 2005 with partners from US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Forest Service, the Atlantic Coast Joint Venture, state conservation agencies, and universities to plan monitoring designs and to identify research priorities for the eastern population of Painted Bunting. The Painted Bunting is a migratory songbird of conservation concern that breeds along the highly human-impacted Atlantic coast from Florida to North Carolina. On its wintering range in Mexico and Cuba, the brightly-colored males are captured for the caged bird trade. USGS scientists helped meeting participants identify the critical information needed for the proper international management of the bird, efficient designs for obtaining and managing the information, and uses of the data for reducing uncertainties about management. Primary outcomes of the meeting were plans for a periodic survey, conducted by a network of resource biologists and volunteers across the breeding range of the bird, for the assessment of breeding population size and the identification of research needs for better management of the species.

Contacts: Clint Moore or J. Michael Meyers, Athens, GA, 706-542-1882

HiLites Contact: Regina Lanning, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, 301-497-5509

See Previous HiLites: