Frank Gill lecture

Last night Denise and I went to hear Frank Gill speak at Natural Lands Trust's main office at Hildacy Farm. This was part of a lecture series organized for conservation landowners—people who have land under conservation easement—and local birders.

Gill is the retired Chief Scientist for National Audubon and has worked for The Nature Conservancy and gave a talk entitled, "Bird Lands." He noted that although there are some bird species that are doing very well—including some, like the bald eagle, that had in the past faced severe reductions in numbers—there are others that today are experiencing rapid declines in population size. The largest factor he cited is habitat loss.

He praised the work to create Important Bird Areas (IBA's), a process that applies consistent scientific criteria to habitats all over the globe to evaluate them for bird habitat (at Crow's Nest, we are in Pennsylvania's IBA #74, the Hay Creek/French Creek Forest block). These places then can be prioritized for protection so that these efforts will have the greatest effect in preserving bird populations.

But, Gill noted, IBA's are embedded in a mosaic of built-upon lands, so what people do in their backyards really matters. Everyone can help by planting native species, keeping pet cats indoors, and managing for the right kinds of habitat. We at Natural Lands Trust have fact sheets on which species to plant for wildlife, and there are many other resources online, such as habitat guides from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

We have long said, "Build it and they will come"—plant the right communities and the wildlife will find its way there. It was great to hear Gill cite data that supports this statement.

He also talked about the Great Backyard Bird Count, scheduled for February 15 to 18, 2008, another way that people can help birds by providing data on their numbers. The data set is so large, and the event has been going on for ten years, that backyard birdwatchers have made a valuable contribution to science.