By Charlie Frisk
Correspondent
This summer, I am spending more time than usual cruising the backroads east of Green Bay on my bike.
I am training for the RAGBRAI, the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, so I am biking at least every other day. I have been pleasantly surprised at the number of birds I see and hear from the seat of my bike.
Sandhill cranes
The area east of Green Bay has an abundance of wetlands, so I see sandhill cranes every time I ride.
Sandhill cranes almost always lay two eggs, but many of the pairs have already lost at least one of the colts, usually thought to be due to predation.
As recently as the early 1980s, there were almost no sandhill cranes in Brown or Kewaunee County.
I participated in the Annual Midwest Crane Count, which was sponsored by the International Crane Conservancy in 1984, and our team was assigned a large area east of Green Bay.
We neither saw nor heard a single crane, and our experience was typical of most of the teams.
Today, sandhill cranes are common in any rural areas that have some wetlands.
The sandhill cranes remarkable recovery is due to protection from hunting and the restoration of their wetland habitat.
Grassland species
Most of the bird species I see while biking are grassland or wetland species.
One that I see every time I bike is a grassland sparrow called the dickcissel.
Loss of habitat
The majority of grassland nesting birds have experienced population declines due to a variety of causes – the most important factor being loss of habitat.
On many modern dairy farms, the cows spend their entire life inside of buildings, so the farmer has no pasture.
Future threat
The greatest future threat for many grassland birds is climate change.
It is well documented that many bird species are gradually moving their range north every year as the climate warms.
There is a limit as to how long this can work, as once they hit the forested regions of northern U.S. and Canada they will not be able to survive.
Throughout the Midwest, the most important habitat for grassland birds are the acreages that are enrolled in some type of government conservation program.
Three U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that provide millions of acres of habitat for grassland birds are the Conservation Reserve Program, CRP, the Farmable Wetlands Program and Pollinator Habitat Planting.
Farmers are paid government subsidies for enrolling acreage into these programs.
Many farmers, particularly those producing organic meat and milk, have converted to rotational grazing for raising cattle and sheep, which provides ideal habitat for birds and their food sources.
On a rotational grazing farm, the livestock is moved to a new grass plot every few days to allow the grass to recover.
Homeowners can also help birds by replacing some of their turf grass yard with native grassland species.
It might seem like a tiny area, but if enough homeowners plant natural areas, the acreage will add up.
Great for starting out
The farmland birds are great for someone just getting started at learning bird calls, as there are not so many to be overwhelming, and most of their calls are fairly distinctive.
Merlin Bird ID, Cornell and Audubon Apps are all excellent for identifying birds – both by call and visually.
With these apps, the user can photograph the bird or record the call of a bird, and the app will identify it for them.
Biking is a great way to observe farmland birds.
You can go fast enough to cover a lot of distance, but not so fast that you don’t see or hear the birds.
You should never wear headphones while biking, as they prevent you from hearing approaching vehicles, and they keep you from enjoying the bird song.
Bay Area Birds is a column written by local ornithology enthusiast Charlie Frisk.
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