Curlew Tracking Update from the Flat Ranch Preserve

by Jordan Reeves, East Idaho conservation manager
 

As you may recall from earlier blog posts, we’ve been anxiously awaiting the annual late spring arrival of long-billed curlew to our Flat Ranch Preserve. While we are always excited to witness the birds return to nest at the ranch, this year was particularly exciting because we have been planning for months to place a satellite transmitter on a curlew in order to track its annual migration.  

 

Curlew at the Ranch ©Megan Grover-Cereda/TNC

On May 28 we successfully fitted “AH,” a beautiful female curlew with a tracking device that will provide us with hourly GPS coordinates of her whereabouts throughout the year.  AH is the curlew’s temporary name while we await the results of a voting contest to choose her name. You can cast your vote here until July 11.

Fitting a curlew with a satellite transmitter is no small feat.  To capture AH, fit her with the transmitter and release her, we needed a team of scientists and volunteers. Skilled scientists from the Intermountain Bird Observatory and Idaho Department of Fish and Game used a mist net to very carefully capture AH while she was sitting on her nest. While they took her measurements and fitted her with her a solar-powered micro-transmitter, we watched over AH’s vacant nest to ensure no predators took advantage of her momentary absence to snatch her eggs.  After a transmitter was placed on AH and scientists were confident the lightweight device would not hinder her mobility, we released her and wished her the best for the long journey ahead. 

 Volunteers keeping watch ©Shyne Brothers

As AH flew away she left behind one of her feathers for Ellie, the youngest (and cutest!) volunteer. “This is the best day ever!” Ellie exclaimed. It was a poignant end to an exciting day. Ellie is the granddaughter of Debbie Empey, a local rancher who partnered with the Conservancy to ensure curlew and other species have the lands and waters they need to thrive.

Ellie with her feather ©Shyne Brothers

Now we sit back, cross our fingers for AH’s safety, and follow her movements over the next year as she travels to wintering grounds further south and (hopefully) returns to Idaho next summer for another nesting season.  We don’t know where East Idaho’s curlew travel during their annual migration so AH has many things to teach us!

To read more about our curlew project read an earlier blog we posted on this charismatic bird.  We also hope that AH is a pioneer in our Henry’s Fork curlew monitoring efforts.  To support us in tracking the migrations of more long-billed curlews, please donate here.

America’s Largest Shorebird Nests in Idaho?

by Jordan Reeves, East Idaho conservation manager

That’s right!  Though it seems counter-intuitive, the long-billed curlew, considered to be America’s largest shorebird, journeys over a thousand miles every year from the warm climates, wetlands, and sandy beaches of California and Northern Mexico to nest and rear its young among Idaho’s grasslands.  Who would have guessed it?  In fact, The Nature Conservancy’s 1,600-acre Flat Ranch Preserve on the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River is considered to be among Idaho’s most important nesting sites for these charismatic birds.
  

Curlew Photo © Chris Little/TNC

The Conservancy’s rotational grazing program, along with the pristine waters of the Henry’s Fork and its tributary streams, provide a vast network of wetlands and a mosaic of native grasses that provide curlew with shelter and nourishment during their vulnerable fledgling stages.  Despite the incredible habitat awaiting these birds as they return to the Henry’s Fork each summer, local wildlife biologists are growing increasingly concerned by evidence of declining curlew populations across Idaho and much of the West.  Many ranchers and farmers are seeing fewer birds return to nest with each passing summer and unfortunately they don’t yet know why.  How far do these birds travel in the course of a year?  Where do they stop along the way?  What types of habitats are they using? And most importantly, what factors are threatening them during their migration and reducing their population numbers? 

The Nature Conservancy, in partnership with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the Intermountain Bird Observatory, will attempt to shed some light on these questions with our efforts to monitor curlew on the Flat Ranch this summer.  We will be conducting pre-nesting and post-nesting surveys of long-billed curlew on the Flat Ranch and neighboring properties during May in order to compare population numbers from previous years and gain a better understanding of the impacts to our local curlew population.  

Taking Flight © Chris Little/TNC

Thanks to the generous support of many community members here in East Idaho and our TNC supporters throughout the country, we will also be tagging one lucky curlew with a satellite transmitter.  This device will allow us to track the movements of this curlew throughout the year as it travels to wintering grounds and returns (fingers crossed) safely to the Flat Ranch next summer.  This is just the beginning of what we hope will become a broader effort in the Henry’s Fork region and throughout Eastern Idaho to monitor and track curlew population numbers and migration movements.  The data we generate will give us a much better understanding of the habitat Curlews need throughout their life cycle and the potential threats to their survival, whether in Idaho, California, Mexico, or somewhere in between. Ultimately our intention is to pin-point actions we can take to ensure the iconic sight of long-billed curlews amongst the grasslands of the Henry’s Fork will be enjoyed by many generations to come.  

Please help raise money to place an additional satellite transmitter on long-billed curlew by donating via the following link: www.nature.org/idaho/curlewproject

Really Big Trout

To start the week, here are two big fish photos from our Idaho preserves. The above photo was taken at Flat Ranch Preserve, on the headwaters of the Henry's Fork in Macks Inn.

The Henry's Fork Foundation recently conducted an electro-shocking survey of a stretch of the preserve's waters where a habitat restoration project was recently completed. The 24-inch Yellowstone cutthroat is one of the fish they caught and released during the survey.

The Henry's Fork Outlet that runs through Flat Ranch is not very big water. Most would not guess it holds fish like this.

The Yellowstone cutthroat is the native fish of these waters, and is imperiled due to the usual enemies of native trout: loss of habitat and competition from non-native fishes. It's great so see these fish still surviving on the Flat Ranch. The habitat restoration offers a hopeful future for these beautiful fish.

And here's a fish caught--by fly fishing, not electro-shocking--by the Conservancy's East Idaho conservation manager, Chet Work, on Silver Creek Preserve.

Chet recently accepted the position of executive director for the Teton Regional Land Trust, so we like to think of this as his going-away present.

Words like "passion" and "obsession" don't quite capture Chet's enthusiasm for fishing. This is someone who, quite literally, sets hooks in his sleep. He has spent some late nights chasing the monster browns of Silver Creek.

And while he's not saying what fly caught the trout, another recent Silver Creek blog post might hold a clue.

Having snorkeled much of the preserve last week, I can also assure you that I saw plenty of other behemoth trout--including a few that could pass for this one's "big brother"--swimming the waters.

They're out there, lurking beneath the surface. We'd love to see your photos if you have any luck.

In the meantime, we'd like to again take this opportunity to thank Chet for his five outstanding years with the Conservancy, and wish him the best as he continues to work towards protecting Idaho's most special places.

Cutthroat trout photo by Flat Ranch Preserve intern Bryan Kloster.