Bluebirds of Peters: MAPS in MINGO...what?

This summer brought a new project my way. I established a MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) station in Mingo Creek Park, with support from Powdermill Avian Research Center, the environmental research station of the Carnegie Museum located in the Laurel Highlands and the Washington County Department of Parks.

MAPS is a program staffed by researchers and citizen scientists which monitors the breeding populations of local species in many areas across the world. The data collected by MAPS stations is often used by other researchers to investigate what may be affecting breeding populations of birds.

This year, with the help of several people, the Mingo MAPS Station was operated for the full breeding season in our area. This involved eight visits from the end of May to the beginning of August to our established area in the park. Before dawn, mist nets were erected and opened. Banding ran for six hours for each visit.

We were surprised on our first visit to capture and band several Brown Thrashers. Several were in breeding condition so this tells us that there is a breeding population of this species in the park. We hoped to capture some of the young later in the season, but we did not. We do not know if the species successfully bred. Birds face many challenges to their survival, especially when in the nest when they are very vulnerable to predators.

We were happy to find a breeding population of Blue-winged Warblers in the park. These warblers are often found in early successional habitat and woodlands.They spend winters in Central America.

We also found numerous breeding pairs of Yellow Warblers. These birds seemed to be ubiquitous in the park, continually singing and appearing in our nets and nearby branches, seemingly watching us.

Another surprise was to find two Bobolinks in the park. We hoped to find one in our nets, but they managed to stay clear of the nets!

This project will return to Mingo this coming late spring through summer. Feel free to stop by if you see us and learn a bit about these birds. There will be a public program offered in early June. Look for the program schedule from the Washington County Parks.