By Matt Spillane on August 16, 2014
This summer marked the Bedford Audubon Society’s sixth season of bird banding as part of the Institute for Bird Population’s Monitoring Avian Productivity & Survivorship (MAPS) program.
MAPS data provides information relating to the ecology, conservation, and management of North American landbird populations, and the factors responsible for declines in their populations. Bedford Audubon is one of more than 500 sites across the country collecting data on the age, sex, stage of molt, breeding success, and migration return rates of these birds.
Bedford Audubon’s naturalist-in-residence, Tait Johansson, leads the society’s MAPS program, and is joined by summer field biologist Emily Patterson. Ms. Patterson is studying biology and environmental studies at St. Olaf College in Minnesota and has five years of mist netting and banding experience as a volunteer at Braddock Bay Bird Observatory in Rochester.
“Conservation dollars are scarce and precious,” Ms. Patterson said. “Programs like MAPS help ensure that we’re focusing limited resources on the most critical portion of a bird’s life cycle.”
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