This summer, I had the opportunity to work with the Massachusetts Audubon Society and the Bobolink Project. The Bobolink Project is a regional program working to conserve grassland birds on private farms. Grassland birds are rapidly declining in the US due to habitat loss. In addition, the ideal time for farmers to cut their fields for hay coincides with critical times in the bobolink breeding season, when young are in the nest. Delayed haying protects nests and allows them to fledge, but it is a major financial burden to farmers.
The Bobolink Project uses donations to provide financial support to farmers who follow bird-friendly haying timelines. The project enrolls fields annually and reaches across Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, and Maine. Employees and volunteers work together to survey the fields in the program in mid-June, focusing on counting female bobolinks to represent the number of nests and estimate how many fledglings each field will produce. Monitoring also includes collecting vegetation data to help assess habitat quality and provide recommendations to landowners. I was able to monitor three Bobolink Project fields in the Champlain Valley and collected data that will help decide which fields will be most beneficial to enroll next year.
I was completely new to birding at the start of the summer, with minimal knowledge about grassland songbirds or agriculture, and how they are intertwined. I spent my first three weeks in June honing in on learning everything I could about grassland birds. With the help of experienced birders, I learned to identify key species like bobolinks, savannah sparrows, eastern meadowlarks, and northern harriers. I practiced by completing point counts, where I went to different locations and identified every bird I could hear or see for three minutes, three times. I learned to observe important bobolink behavior like circling, chasing, and agitated tail flicks, indicating they are near a nest. During this time, I was also introduced to landowners involved with the Bobolink Project and talked to them about how they manage their land for grassland birds. I learned so much about the push and pull of conservation and agriculture from hearing the perspectives of farmers who love birds.
The challenge of balancing financial viability with best stewardship practices motivated my research project, where I explored the value of expanding support for bird-friendly practices to pastured land. In addition to delayed haying, fields require active management to provide habitat where grassland birds can thrive. When fields are only cut late in the season, they gradually decline in quality with the encroachment of invasive species, forbs, and woody vegetation. Grazing is an important tool to maintain fields by reducing undesirable vegetation and increasing biodiversity and soil health. I surveyed birds and vegetation on 200 acres split between grazed and ungrazed land to compare bobolink abundance and habitat quality between pastures and hayfields. I also interviewed farmers to gauge their attitudes towards a bird-friendly beef or dairy recognition program. I compiled my findings into a report with recommendations for how a recognition program could provide additional support to conservation-minded farmers and expand the acreage of protected grasslands.
This experience gave me a greater appreciation for grassland birds and the need to protect them. My time spent in beautiful meadows full of bobolinks made me feel more connected by learning about the landscape I was in. Being able to identify the birds and different types of vegetation makes what I once thought were monolithic fields of grass much more special. I was able to connect with farmers and landowners who were excited to have me do research on their land so they could learn more about how to help the birds. It was heartwarming to witness the passion many farmers have for managing their land to protect wildlife.
My fellowship with the Upstate Institute allowed me to apply knowledge from my Biology major and Environmental Studies minor in a real-world setting. I practiced experimental design, literature reviews, and scientific writing throughout my research project and while writing a report. I got to learn about the experiences of professionals in the field of conservation biology and what their day-to-day work looks like. This experience makes me excited to continue pursuing my interest in conservation with the skills that I have learned. — Naomi Valentine ’27