{"id":484,"date":"2012-08-29T08:25:11","date_gmt":"2012-08-29T12:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.massaudubon.org\/blogs\/yourgreatoutdoors\/?p=484"},"modified":"2012-08-29T08:25:11","modified_gmt":"2012-08-29T12:25:11","slug":"a-meadowlark-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/a-meadowlark-surprise\/","title":{"rendered":"A Meadowlark Surprise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Massachusetts is re-foresting in a major way. Lands cleared for agriculture just 100 years ago are now wooded once again. Many more acres are now successional i.e. that brushy, shrubby phase between meadow or field and forest.<\/p>\n

That’s a good thing, right? Well, widescale changes like this can cause problems for birds reliant on specific habitat types. The statewide reforestation was never more apparent to birders in Massachusetts than when Mass Audubon released the 2011 State of the Birds Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It stated: “Breeding birds of forests and urban\/suburban landscapes are prospering across the state. Conversely, birds of early-successional habitats (such as grasslands and shrublands) are, by and large, declining\u2014some of them precipitously so.” In other words, as the woods expand and the fields vanish, woodpeckers are up, meadowlarks are down.<\/p>\n

So, what can and should be done? Nobody in Massachusetts is prepared to clear forests to create grasslands, but the grasslands that are intact can be taken care of<\/a> for the sake of their dependent birds, like upland sandpipers, grasshopper sparrows, bobolinks, and more.<\/p>\n

Here’s a quick comparative study. During the first Breeding Bird Atlas project in the 1970s, “atlasers” (volunteer birders\u00a0who gave their time over a five-year period to find the state’s nesters) found eastern meadowlarks<\/a> in 44 percent of the state.\u00a0During the second atlas, completed last year, eastern meadowlarks<\/a> were found in just 10 percent of the state. The reason\u00a0for the decline\u00a0was obvious. Their habitat\u00a0was disappearing.<\/p>\n

Among its thousands of acres of protected lands, Mass Audubon owns several grasslands, including one at the Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary<\/a> in Marshfield. For the past several years, the staff at the sanctuary has been working hard at invasive plant species removal, eradicating brown knapweed that was choking the native grasses. The hope was that should the grasses be more natural, the fields would provide better nesting habitat for endemic birds.<\/p>\n

In June of this year, the staff was rewarded when they noticed two eastern meadowlarks, at the height of breeding season, flying around a specific area. The following morning, while leading a bird walk, they noticed an adult bird carrying food to a spot in the grasses, a sure sign of breeding activity.<\/p>\n

For longtime birders of Daniel Webster, the sight of meadowlarks in summer was a return to the way things used to be, decades ago. Hopefully the meadowlarks and their youngsters will survive their migrations and will find Daniel Webster again, so that past becomes part of the future.<\/p>\n

It just goes to show: a little management can go a long way, especially when\u00a0the life of one of earth’s creatures is at stake. Did you see any eastern meadowlarks this year? If so, tell us where and when in the comments.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Massachusetts is re-foresting in a major way. Lands cleared for agriculture just 100 years ago are now wooded once again. Many more acres are now successional i.e. that brushy, shrubby phase between meadow or field and forest. That’s a good thing, right? Well, widescale changes like this can cause problems for birds reliant on specific […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,15],"tags":[21,28],"class_list":["post-484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nature-notes","category-wildlife-sanctuaries","tag-atlas","tag-birds"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t87A-7O","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16335,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/elm-hill-welcomes-new-birds\/","url_meta":{"origin":484,"position":0},"title":"Elm Hill Welcomes New Birds","author":"William Freedberg","date":"September 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Some species of\u00a0threatened\u00a0open-country birds\u00a0are expanding into new habitat created for them at Elm Hill in Brookfield, a Mass Audubon sanctuary focused on providing shrubland, grassland, and young forest. Prior to this year, Elm Hill was defined by a patchwork of forest and overgrown agricultural fields, some of which were separated\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Birds & Birding"","block_context":{"text":"Birds & Birding","link":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/category\/birds-birding\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/09\/16738143693_601cab9d4e_o-e1631631719416.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/09\/16738143693_601cab9d4e_o-e1631631719416.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/09\/16738143693_601cab9d4e_o-e1631631719416.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/09\/16738143693_601cab9d4e_o-e1631631719416.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16405,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/take-5-sorting-out-sparrows\/","url_meta":{"origin":484,"position":1},"title":"Take 5: Sorting Out Sparrows","author":"Ryan D.","date":"September 27, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"There are some birds that scream for attention, like Northern Cardinals or (more literally) Blue Jays. Sparrows are not that kind of bird. Sparrows are subtle, nuanced, and notoriously tricky to tell apart from one species to another. Commonly referred to as \"Little Brown Jobs\" (LBJs for short), sparrows mostly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Birds & Birding"","block_context":{"text":"Birds & Birding","link":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/category\/birds-birding\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Savannah Sparrow \u00a9 Phil Doyle","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/09\/3063Phil_Doyle16673-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/09\/3063Phil_Doyle16673-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/09\/3063Phil_Doyle16673-2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2021\/09\/3063Phil_Doyle16673-2.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3031,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/report-cards-for-our-birds\/","url_meta":{"origin":484,"position":2},"title":"Report Cards for Our Birds","author":"Mass Audubon","date":"December 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Conservation is a gamble on the future. While a complex array of drivers act on our natural systems to cause rapid changes in the landscape and the species we have come to love, we need to quickly adapt to make the best choices to preserve our natural heritage. That is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Project Updates"","block_context":{"text":"Project Updates","link":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/category\/project-updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"killdeer","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/12\/killdeer.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1907,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/centennial-milestone\/","url_meta":{"origin":484,"position":3},"title":"Centennial Milestone","author":"Hillary T.","date":"March 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Excerpted from Sanctuary magazine Beginning in March some of our best-known, most-loved migratory birds will arrive in Massachusetts as harbingers of spring. March is also the month when, 100 years ago, the Weeks-McLean Act, the precursor to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, passed\u2014the first legislation in the nation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Advocacy"","block_context":{"text":"Advocacy","link":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/category\/advocacy-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/03\/514SandySelesky5314.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":124,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/get-involved-citizen-your-subjects-await\/","url_meta":{"origin":484,"position":4},"title":"Get Involved, Citizen! 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As with most things in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wildlife Sanctuaries"","block_context":{"text":"Wildlife Sanctuaries","link":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/category\/wildlife-sanctuaries\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/06\/IMG_1792-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.massaudubon.org\/yourgreatoutdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}