An Ocean Behind, the Andes Ahead

9/24/12: Swallow-tailed Kite 2012 Southbound Migration

Last month, when we wrote about the start of this year’s southbound Swallow-tailed Kite migration (Swallow Tailed Kites Tallied at Roosts and Tracked by Satellite), several of our satellite-tracked birds had yet to make the risky 700 km over-water flight from the U.S. to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. We are happy to report that all 13 tagged kites safely reached land by August 25th, just before tropical storm Isaac swept across the Florida Keys, and are continuing their 8,000 km journey to South America. Watch for an update soon on where they end up spending the northern winter. 

This map shows the 2012 southbound migration of the 13 satellite-tracked Swallow-tailed Kites. 

(ARCI’s collaborators are Orleans Audubon Society and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.) 

Florida Conservation Organizations Rally Support for ARCI

9/19/12: Local Conservationists Give to ARCI

After learning recently about ARCI's work and fund-raising challenges, the boards of Sanibel-Captiva Audubon Society (SCAS) and International Osprey Foundation boldly responded by posting a challenge grant and appealing to their members to contribute individual matching contributions. They quickly succeeded and, within a month, ARCI received $5,320 in very welcome support. By then, concerned members of Hernando Audubon Society (HAS) had already asked their board to do the same, resulting in an additional challenge/match contribution of $5,000. SCAS and HAS have now appealed to other Audubon chapters to follow suit. 

We are very grateful to these hard-working grassroots conservationists for their generous contributions, and we are equally heartened by their encouragement. They deserve everyone's thanks for their tireless conservation efforts at all levels. Please visit their websites to learn what these dedicated volunteers are accomplishing.  

Sanibel-Captiva Audubon Society: www.san-capaudubon.org  

International Osprey Foundation: www.ospreys.com 

Hernando Audubon Society: www.hernandoaudubon.org

White-crowned Pigeon Threatened by Zip-line

9/9/12: Draft Plans to Develop Crane Point Hammock

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity has moved toward approval of $727,000 of federal Community Development Block Grant funds to finance a zip-line tourism attraction in one of the largest remaining stands of tropical hardwood hammock in the Florida Keys. In addition to this plant community’s status of critical conservation concern, the development site, Crane Point Hammock, serves as a primary feeding destination for the country’s largest remaining nesting concentration of White-crowned Pigeons. This bird was recently added to the state’s highest-priority list of protected species by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The accompanying draft management plan repeatedly focuses on the need to protect remaining hardwood hammocks from development.

The U.S. range of the White-crowned Pigeon is limited entirely to southern Florida's tropical hardwood hammocks, where they find the fruit on which they depend, and nearby mangrove islands, where they nest in the absence of predators. The nonprofit Florida Keys Land and Sea Trust owns and manages Crane Point Hammock. Ironically, part of their stated mission is "to preserve, conserve, and restore valuable rare and endangered natural areas in the Florida Keys, especially woodlands known as hardwood hammocks."

In response to the Trust’s zip-line plan, ARCI has been providing information on White-crowned Pigeon/hardwood hammock ecology to government decision makers and an opposing group of citizen conservationists.

You can learn more about the plans for Crane Point Hammock and the public resources that are threatened at the following sites.

Keep Crane Point Natural:  www.keepcranepointnatural.com   

Florida Fish and Wildlife:  www.myfwc.com/about/inside-fwc/hsc   

U.S. Fish and Widlife Service:  www.fws.gov/nationalkeydeer

Migrating Kites Tallied at Roosts and Tracked by Satellite

8/10/12: Swallow-tailed Kite 2012 Roost Surveys

We recently completed the 2012 surveys of Swallow-tailed Kite pre-migration roosts in Florida. The good news is that our counts have been consistent the last several years, at least suggesting that there is no apparent decline at this time. We will continue to watch the 5,000 mile migrations of 13 satellite-tracked kites unfold over the next few weeks. Half are already in Latin America, the leader just entering Colombia. The rest remain in the U.S., yet to face the quickly-changing winds and emerging storms of the Gulf of Mexico, Florida Straits, Yucatan Channel, and Caribbean Sea.    

This is the 24th year that ARCI has monitored the pre-migration roosts of Swallow-tailed Kites in Florida.  We began by counting a single aggregation west of Lake Okeechobee that still peaks at over 3,000 birds each year. This roost remains the largest of nine that total nearly 7,000 annually. In most of the 24 years, our surveys have been funded by contributions, not grants. The exception, supported by USFWS, was a collaborative study from 2009 to 2011 by ARCI and partners in six other states (see Programs). Our goal was to refine our monitoring methods and size estimates of the national population.     

In 2011, USFWS provided funding to ARCI and Dr. Jennifer Coulson (Orleans Audubon Society) to deploy GPS-equipped satellite transmitters on adult Swallow-tailed Kites. We tagged birds in five states to identify previously unknown roosts, improve our estimates of survivorship, and identify threats on the South American winter range. Thanks to the GPS fixes, we recently discovered two previously unknown roosts totaling 427 kites. The GPS data also have filled many gaps in ARCI's previous documentation of kite migration, which was based on less sophisticated tracking devices. Over the five years of expected life, this exciting new generation of satellite transmitters will reveal year-round movements and habitat selection of Swallow-tailed Kites at an unprecedented scale.

ARCI Launches Website

8/1/12: Welcome to ARCI on the web!

Thank you very much for visiting our new website. With this News Blog section, we will provide brief accounts of recent project results, accomplishments, and events affecting the birds we study. For a broader view of what we do and details of why and how we do it, we hope you will take some time to enjoy the rest of ARCI's website.