Montana Audubon 2018 Wildlife Grants
Each year Montana Audubon awards grants from the Audubon Wildlife Fund of Montana, a permanent endowment. Congratulations to our 2018 recipients, the University of Montana Bird Ecology Lab and the Golden Eagle Migration Survey. Audubon Wildlife Fund grants support education and research projects that benefit wildlife in Montana. Preference is given to projects benefiting nongame wildlife and their habitats.
Learn more about our wildlife grant program here.
WINTER WINGS OVER MISSOULA
The University of Montana Bird Ecology Lab (UMBEL) will continue to use schoolyard bird feeders to engage third grade students at Lewis and Clark Elementary in Missoula in a wintering bird population study. Building on a pilot year in 2017, this year we will expand the program to an additional classroom, reaching a total of nearly 100 third graders.
We will also adjust our classroom curriculum to include the creation of a personal field guide of local birds for each student. This tangible, take-home product was inspired by the success of small coloring projects the students completed during our first classroom visit in 2017. The field guide project will teach students about bird topography, sexual dichotomy, bill evolution/function, and general identification. We will continue to place bird feeders in the school’s Outdoor Discovery Core Habitat Area, which is a certified National Wildlife Federation “Schoolyard Habitat.”
Students will maintain the feeders daily and conduct regular observations of birds visiting feeders through Project Feederwatch, a national winter-long survey of birds. Once birds acclimate to the feeders, UMBEL biologists will capture and band birds using a mist-net or walk-in trap following standard methods. Banding will provide exciting, up-close observation of birds in the hand and introduce students to field methods in bird research. In addition to project implementation, UMBEL will provide teachers with scientific expertise and curriculum covering basic bird ecology. Students will learn to identify resident bird species and develop skills in observation, collecting data, and communicating results.
AWARDED: $370
GOLDEN EAGLE MONITORING SURVEY (GEMS)
The Golden Eagle Migration Survey has three specific goals:
- To determine if the Rocky Mountain Front (east slope) is a preferred major flyway for migrating eagles and other raptor species.
- To understand if migration route preferences are determined by food sources, if they are weather related or if these preferences are driven by human caused factors such as light and particulate pollutants, habitat loss and/or environmental change.
- To determine the status and migration pattern of raptor populations using the Rocky Mountain Front flyway.
During the previous three fall migration seasons, Montana Audubon and Last Chance Audubon Society have collaborated with the US Forest Service (Lewis & Clark-Helena National Forest) and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to conduct migrating raptor surveys in the Big Belt Mountains. This site has proven to support the largest concentration of migrating Golden Eagles in the lower 48 States (more than 2,500 eagles seen each season). An Audubon Wildlife Fund grant award would assist with travel for observers, on-site accommodations and data submission/integrity. Through this ongoing annual project Montana Audubon and Last Chance Audubon hope to provide reliable research data for science, public education through participation, and monitoring of raptor populations in support of ecosystem health.