Bobolinks, and other grassland birds, are facing tough times.  Financial pressures force farmers to mow their fields during the weeks that these species are actively nesting. Fortunately, there is a simple–and innovative–way to help. The Bobolink Project  “buys time” for grassland birds to successfully nest on working farms by financing bird friendly mowing. The project collects money from conservation donors, and pays farmers who are willing to manage their fields for grassland birds. Learn more about the project.

Help protect Bobolink nestlings this summer by donating to The Bobolink Project.

Time is running out to protect Bobolinks this season as our deadline to receive donations is April 22. The Project has been so appealing to local farmers that we have over 650 acres submitted. Thanks to the generosity of donors so far, we have enough money to protect over 350 acres of farmland in New England this summer.

However, without extra support suitable habitat that has been offered by interested farmers will remain unprotected. Please donate now so that we can cover these extra acres and protect more baby Bobolinks this year! eBird records show that Bobolinks are moving north with recent sightings in Florida. We look forward to welcoming them back to our New England fields.

The Bobolink Project In the News

Project leaders have been busily promoting The Bobolink Project in recent months. In Vermont, Mark Labarr and Allan Strong discussed The Bobolink Project on WCAX’s “Across the Fence“. The Project also appeared in the Rutland Herald, and a recent WCAX story featured one of our landowners from 2015! Check out the video.

In March, project leaders spread the word at the Connecticut Ornithological Association’s Annual Meeting in Middletown CT, and the Mass Audubon Birders Meeting in Boston MA.

Donate, Sign up, like us on Facebook and spread the word to help save our grassland birds!

Male Bobolink by Allan Strong.

Grassland bird species are in steep decline in Massachusetts, New England, and beyond. Mass Audubon’s focus on grassland bird conservation, triggered by findings reported in the State of the Birds 2013, includes initiatives to protect birds on working lands. Grasslands in the Northeast have provided home and sanctuary to grassland birds and other wildlife for hundreds of years. The majority of New England’s agricultural acreage consists of privately owned hayfields, so any concerted conservation efforts MUST involve significant participation from farmers and land owners.

Male Bobolink by Allan Strong.

Agriculture is the only widespread land use that maintains the open land that grassland birds depend upon for breeding. However, financial pressures force farmers to mow their fields during the weeks that birds like Bobolinks are actively nesting. The issue, in terms of grassland bird conservation, is one of timing and economics: birds settle into fields for nesting in May, and farmers typically harvest their first cut in June, when the monetary value of the hay crop is highest. The cutting, raking and bailing of hay typically results in a complete loss of eggs and nestlings, and even breeding adults may be killed.

One of the most promising new strategies for conserving grassland birds is The Bobolink Project, which finances bird-friendly mowing practices. There are many hay farmers in New England who are willing to delay their harvest schedule for the sake of nesting grassland birds, but to do so costs money – late season hay is less valuable than early season hay. The Bobolink Project “buys time” for grassland birds to successfully nest on working farms by providing financial support, collected from conservation donors, which is paid to farmers who are willing to manage their fields for grassland birds.

The Bobolink Project started as a collaborative effort between the University of Vermont and the University of Connecticut; research and administrative costs were initially covered by a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. The main focus of The Project was the Champlain Valley in Vermont.

In 2015, approximately 550 young fledged from fields enrolled in The Bobolink Project. These hayfields also supported other declining grassland bird species such as Savannah Sparrows, Eastern Meadowlarks and Northern Harriers. The Project was so successful that founders, participants and contributors wanted The Bobolink Project to continue despite the ending of federal funding at the end of 2015.

All was in jeopardy until Mass Audubon joined forces with Audubon Vermont and Audubon Connecticut, and took on administrative and oversight responsibilities. The Bobolink Project is now collaboratively coordinated by Mass Audubon Bird Conservation staff and our Audubon partners, with The Project’s founders still supporting the effort.  We are expanding the geographic range of The Project and can only succeed with your support. We need the cooperation of both farmers and donors by April 22.  Pass this information to your friends, farmers or donors, and ask them to tell their friends too!

Donate, Sign up, like us on Facebook and spread the word to help save our grassland birds!

Help protect Bobolinks by donating to The Bobolink Project. Photo by Allan Strong.

Audio playbacks (playing pre-recorded bird song) have been increasingly used as a means of re-establishing many species on former breeding sites or at sites that can be easily protected from various threats. In general, the songs or calls from individuals of the same species can indicate good habitat and encourage other individuals to settle and breed there too. This conservation tool has now been used successfully to attract over 20 songbird species throughout North America including Black-capped Vireos, Baird’s Sparrow, Least Flycatchers and Henslow’s Sparrows.

Equipment and Eastern Meadowlark decoy for playback field experiment.

This summer, we will assess whether this conservation tool can be used to attract Eastern Meadowlarks, which have suffered one of the sharpest declines of any grassland bird species in Massachusetts. We are busy creating automatic, solar-powered playback and decoy systems that will be deployed soon. This experiment will be conducted on two of our Sanctuaries where Eastern Meadowlarks have historically nested: Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary in Marshfield and Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary in Dartmouth.

Keep and eye on this blog for progress updates. We are very excited to share our results with you and to see meadowlarks and other grassland birds thrive on our sanctuaries!

Learn more about Eastern Meadowlark conservation

Upland Sandpiper, by John Sill. Copyright Mass Audubon.

Over the last 50 years, grassland birds have experienced steeper, more consistent, and more widespread population decline than any other avian group in North America. Have a look at the data we presented in Massachusetts State of the Birds 2013 to document this decline right here in the Bay State.

The main factors behind these declines are habitat loss and intensification in farming practices, and for some species losses on the wintering grounds are also of concern. Informed grassland management practices during the breeding season as well as during their wintering months are essential to these birds’ future success. Owners of open space meadows and agricultural land can make a real difference in protecting these species by implementing bird friendly management practices.

Mass Audubon has been busy developing outreach programs to help spread the word about how people can help these declining birds. During the summer of 2014 Liz Newlands, part of our Ecologic Extension Service team, got our regional grassland bird inventory off the ground. In August we hired our first Bird Conservation Fellow, Dr. Jon Atwood, to build a grassland bird program at Mass Audubon. By November, Lindall Kidd, a recent graduate from Oxford University, joined us to help fledge the program.

We are currently preparing brochures and pamphlets to update our work from the 1990’s, and to share basic guidelines for bird-friendly land management across the State. Along with those efforts we will begin an experimental program this summer designed to “lure” grassland birds into fields with delayed mowing schedules, thus eliminating the nesting loss due to mowing while the birds are still on nests.

We are also engaged in State-wide and region-wide inventories of grassland bird breeding sites with partners from Massachusetts DFW (see their grassland bird recovery plan here), Vermont Center for Ecostudies, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, New Hampshire Audubon, University of Delaware, and State agencies in Rhode Island and Connecticut

In addition, we are working with Mass Audubon’s Sanctuary Directors to look for ways to optimize grassland management practices on our own sanctuaries.  We are planning an internal inventory of grasslands that will include a survey assessing our current resources and management practices, as well as looking at the barriers we might have for optimizing management, and opportunities for demonstrating best practices on our own land, and beyond.

Our objective with this work is to ensure that Mass Audubon leads by example in order to preserve Massachusetts agricultural landscape and the birds that inhabit it for future generations.