Pennsylvania Game News - August 2016 - 16

"The boreal forest is vast, but there
are increasing threats from climate
change and development, even in the
remote north woods that is the world's
great bird nursery," Gross said.
Some Pennsylvania breeding birds
are doing better here than elsewhere.
Watch-list birds that seem to be at least
stable in Pennsylvania are the American
woodcock, bobolink and eastern whippoor-will.
Most of Pennsylvania's game birds
seemed to be holding their own, based
on survey results. Wild turkeys and
mourning doves seem stable. Ruffed
grouse have been slipping and West
Nile virus might be creating even more
stress on our state bird. Gallinule, snipe
and American coot populations have
slipped some over the past decade.
"There's plenty of bad news and
some good news for ruffed grouse,"
said Lisa Williams, Game Commission
game birds biologist.
"The bad news is the picture for
grouse may well be bleaker than this
report indicates," Williams said. "While
the species remains secure in northern
states and Canada, grouse populations
are falling dramatically in the middle
and southern portions of their range."
The loss of young forests has led to
highly isolated and fragmented populations in most of Pennsylvania, Williams
explained. These grouse pockets, then
become more vulnerable to disease,
disturbance, predation and extreme
weather. In some regions, grouse might
be falling below densities needed to
maintain populations.
West Nile virus, Gross said, also has
been implicated in the declines of kestrels, goshawks and owls. In addition,
golden-winged and prairie warblers
have been impacted by loss of young
16

forestland in Pennsylvania, he added.
Some relatively common birds many
Pennsylvanians likely wouldn't expect
to find in trouble in this report include
the veery, killdeer, green heron, eastern towhee, scarlet tanager, Baltimore
oriole, belted kingfisher and eastern
screech owl. Only three of these birds
currently are Pennsylvania species of
greatest conservation need.
When relatively common species
start to become uncommon and a third
of the continent's birds need critical
management attention, it's a signal that
any outcome is conditional upon the
commitments of Canada, Mexico and
the United States.
Either everyone's all in, or birds will
lose more ground.
Why? Because almost a third of
North America's birds spend some time
in each of these countries every year.
Only through lasting commitments
that provide more habitat - and possibly risk reductions - will there be a
future for these birds on their migratory
highways.
Internationally, Ashe said, America
will work in concert with Mexico and
Canada to ensure birds fill the skies for
the next 100 years
"Today, I joined my counterparts
from Mexico and Canada to sign a
document pledging our three nations
to strengthen collaborative efforts to
conserve our shared migratory-bird
species and habitat within and beyond
our borders," Ashe said in Ottawa.
"We will work together to build this
shared vision and ensure that future
generations of Mexicans, Canadians
and Americans can enjoy and appreciate our shared heritage. And we will
engage other countries in the Western
Hemisphere in these efforts."
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - August 2016
