to see more on her local urban ornithology menu. So, with an eye toward giving embattled natives like American Robins and Cedar Waxwings a leg up— and giving transient species a nice place to rest— she worked with Boston city officials, Northeastern University biologist Gwilym Jones, and other volunteers to transform a neighborhood eyesore into a viable avian habitat. What was once an abandoned, half-acre parking lot just blocks from Boston’ s Fenway Park is now a“ parking lot” for nearly 200 species of wild birds.
Known as Ramler Park, the spot officially opened in the summer of 2004, and has had plenty of time to become well established. Thoughtful planning means the birds can find essential natural food sources year-round: great stands of trees like white pines and sweetgums; shrubs such as cranberry viburnum; and perennial flowers including bee balm, oriental poppy, goldenrod, and veronica beckon to all manner of visitors. Scarlet Tanagers, Rufous-sided Towhees, Carolina Wrens, Green Warblers, and many other distinguished guests have all been spotted here. Aside from its myriad native plant species, Ramler Park’ s proximity to Muddy River and the Back Bay Fens also has something to do with its ability to attract birds.“ What we wanted was a little piece of that action right in our neighborhood,” admits Veikley, who’ s president of Friends of Ramler Park, the neighborhood group that helped shape the project. Some of its members are hard-core birders, but, she says,“ Most of them are neophytes just awakening to all that is around us.”
Besides good forage and cover for wildlife, there are touches for the park’ s human visitors, too. A tile-lined fountain burbles at the its center, brick paths wind beneath a striking pergola, and an ornate metal fence featuring soaring swallows nicely contains the area.“ It was meant to be sort of a spiritual place. I don’ t want to start using those‘ Kumbaya’ words, but we made sure that there was no‘ active’ activity place there. There’ s no playground equipment. There’ s no place to play ball. It’ s really just meant to be the most beautiful place that it could be,” Veikley says.
In the case of Ramler Park, so far, so good. But Cooper warns that not all green spaces are created equal. It may sound counterintuitive, but some may be doing more harm than good:“ There is some concern that green spaces can be ecological traps— habitat that looks good and draws birds in, but actually their population would do poorly there, because maybe there were a lot of cats around or something else was affecting their nesting success.” Ecological traps can wreak havoc on migratory birds as well.“ Maybe there are lots of window crashes or the food sources are really of such low quality that they didn’ t charge [ the birds ] up enough so that they could make it to their next stopover,” she explains.“ People are trying to understand if those things happen, and if so, how can we stop that from happening?”
Ultimately, urban birders just might have a hand in finding out. To determine how and why birds in urban environments thrive— or don’ t— Cooper and others are enlisting the help of citizen scientists willing to“ bird” in cities year-round.( All right, so counting Black-capped Chickadees during the winter doldrums isn’ t nearly as glamorous as discovering a Boreal Owl passing through Central Park, but it’ s still important.)“ We have been trying to recruit more people in urban environments into birding, and also encouraging people to bird in residential landscapes, because we are interested in understanding how urbanization is affecting all kinds of birds,” she says. To that end, researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology launched“ Urban Bird Studies” projects such as“ Birds in the City,” funded by the National Science Foundation( see sidebar).“ Through the programs, everyday people who are interested in birds collect data that they submit and our scientists use that data to answer research questions about birds. It’ s everyday people participating in genuine scientific research,” Cooper says.
That’ s good news for the birds doing their best to nest or migrate despite our growing cities. And in the long run, it’ s good for urban birders like me. Who knows? Maybe the next Indigo Bunting I see will be alive and well, safely clearing my city’ s rooftops as he warbles his way north this spring. ■
LOOK! UP IN THE SKY! |
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Sure, it’ s just good sense to look up when you’ re on the lookout for birds on the wing, but Steven Saffi er, a science associate for the National Audubon Society, reminds would-be birders to look really high in the sky. That’ s where you’ ll fi nd aerial feeders like raptors, gulls, swallows, and swifts.“ The last time I was in New York City, my colleague stopped in his tracks. Through the traffi c sounds and the river of pedestrians, he managed to hear the |
call of Chimney Swifts. We looked up through a canyon of high-rises and saw a fl ock fl ying above the buildings,” he says.
Not sure you’ d know a Chimney Swift if you heard one? Brush up on 250 North American birds— and hear their songs via Bird Songs by Les Beletsky( Chronicle Books, $ 45). The full-color release features a built-in digital audio player, so you can listen to individual bird calls as you read up on their habits and habitats.
Another good urban birding bet? Any green space situated near well-established bird migration routes. Blogger
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Sharon Stiteler( birdchick. com) admits she’ s partial to cemeteries:“ They’ re some of the best places to go birding, because you don’ t get a lot of rowdy traffi c going through them. Of course, you want to be discreet when you’ re watching birds in there. If you’ re passing a funeral, you obviously don’ t want to walk through with your binoculars.”
And green spaces that are wellstocked with native plants like Purple Conefl ower and Black-eyed Susan get urban birding bonus points since they provide high-grade fuel and cover. Karl Overman, of the Detroit Audubon Society
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, has noticed that plantings mulched with leaf litter are especially good.“ That seems to attract migrants and hold them for long periods,” he says.
Once you’ ve gotten good at spotting birds in your city or even the suburbs, you can learn to“ conduct a transect”( that’ s science speak for“ take a walk”) in your area, record the number and types of birds you fi nd, and submit your results to the Birds in the City project( urbanbirds. org). Another option: The Great Backyard Bird Count( birdsource. org / gbbc), taking place nationally from February 16 to 19.— S. B.
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