| Greetings, On behalf of Tania Homayoun and the Texas Nature Trackers (TNT) program, I would like to extend an invitation to your chapter for a new TMN volunteer opportunity. Working with the Oaks and Prairies Join Venture program, we are seeking Texas Master Naturalists interested in helping conduct research on Loggerhead Shrike nesting activity at Old Settler’s Park in Round Rock, beginning this spring. Our programs, led by TNT’s Tania Homayoun and OPJV’s Anna Matthews, have been putting this program together for the past two years. The original plan was to kick off work last year, until the pandemic hit, effectively shutting down field work for 2020. We are now in a position to proceed with our first field season. Why: The Loggerhead Shrike, also known as the “butcherbird,” is a predatory songbird that is suffering significant declines in populations throughout much of its range. Old Settler’s Park has had, and continues to have, an apparently stable breeding and overwintering population of birds. We would like to better understand the dynamics of this population to help inform both local and range-wide conservation of this species. When: We are reaching out to your chapter to request your help in spreading the word and inviting potential volunteers to attend two upcoming training sessions: • The first will be a virtual session on Webex next Thursday, April 8, from 10 a.m. to Noon. • The second training date will be in the field on the following Monday, April 12 from 10 a.m. to Noon at Old Settler’s Park. What: This research effort will focus primarily on collecting nesting data for this breeding population of shrikes through locating nests, recording observations of activity, nest checks including determining number of eggs and young, and nest success. All data will be recorded on 123 Survey apps that have been developed for this project. We will also be recording information on larders when encountered. Finally, when possible, TNT staff will be capturing and banding shrikes using both the traditional metal band and colored leg bands, allowing for field identification of individual birds to track their use of the study site as well as longevity. Who: We are looking for volunteers with a working knowledge of basic bird identification or willingness to become proficient with identifying shrikes, be able to commit to spending time in the field at the park collecting data using phone apps, and document nest activity via video or image recording using cell phones. We hope to recruit and train at least ten volunteers for this project (more if possible). It will be important that field work be conducted with everyone’s safety in mind, thus we will strongly encourage wearing of masks as well as social distancing when in the field with others at this time. We would ask that you please share this email with your membership. If any of your fellow TMNs is interested in attending the training sessions, please have them notify me at craig.hensley@tpwd.texas.gov to receive the link to the link to the training session for next Thursday. Should they have questions, they can either email me or call me at 512.547.9730. We greatly appreciate your helping us to build a volunteer corps for this exciting new field research effort. Thank you so much! Craig Hensley, Texas Nature Trackers Biologist Report these hours at: FR: Bird Populations |