Won’t you be my neighbor?
What do you do when your neighborhood gets too crowded?
Virginia’s Piney Grove Preserve is home to the state’s only established population of endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers. Twenty woodpeckers in 2002 grew to 84 in 2017 thanks to dedicated conservation efforts. While that is great news for the species, it also means the birds were running out of space. But Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries planned ahead. They acquired Big Woods Wildlife Management Area, with funds from our agency’s Recovery Land Acquisition Grant Program, in 2010 and started restoring it to the longleaf pine habitat preferred by the woodpeckers (more on that later).
Their efforts paid off.
A pair of red-cockaded woodpeckers were spotted building nest cavities in the pines at Big Woods in spring 2019. The sight gave biologists hope that the pair, originally tagged at Piney Grove, was there to stay. Where other woodpeckers traditionally nest in dead or decaying trees, red-cockaded woodpeckers excavate their roosting and nesting cavities in living pine trees — a process that can take months or even years.
Then came May 16, as described by Sergio Harding, bird conservation biologist at Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries:
On the morning of May 16, a group of thirteen biologists met at the Big Woods Wildlife Management Area in Sussex County for what was to be a landmark conservation event: the banding of two nestlings of the federally endangered red-cockaded woodpecker, the first ever to be hatched on the WMA.
Tired yawns could not stifle the air of excitement as the group gathered — there were representatives from VDGIF, The Nature Conservancy and the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary/Virginia Commonwealth University. All three entities have been partners in conservation efforts for the woodpecker in Virginia, and the banding was to be the culmination of all the time, energy and work that has gone into this project since VDGIF acquired Big Woods in 2011.
The group hiked to the woodpeckers’ territory amid ebullient conversation. Using specialized sectional ladders, Bryan Watts from Center for Conservation Biology climbed nearly 40 feet up a live pine tree to the nest cavity, and from it he carefully extracted the nestlings. It was at this moment that the group’s excited chatter abruptly gave way to reverential silence: all present understood the significance of this moment, and maintained their silent focus as the birds were brought down to the ground and the banding proceeded.
The two young birds, at 6 days old, weighed only ¾ oz each, were featherless and had not yet opened their eyes. They were naked and helpless, and their appearance was vaguely reptilian. Chance Hines from CCB banded each with a federal aluminum band and a combination of brightly colored plastic leg bands. At that point, wide grins and fist bumps erupted among the gathering. Within a few minutes, the chicks were safely returned to their nest, and the parents were soon back to feeding them.
Nesting pair — check. Hatched chicks — check. Now it was time to see if the chicks would fledge. Somewhere over the weekend of June 1–2, two groups of birders visiting the WMA witnessed a flurry of activity around the nest site and captured these photos.
The path to a successful nest at Big Woods WMS was not a simple one. The new property would have to be managed to create pine savanna, the habitat preferred by red-cockaded woodpecker. Jessica Ruthenberg, Watchable Wildlife Biologist from Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries picks up the story from here:
Pine savannas are open woodlands containing widely spaced pine trees and a lush groundcover of diverse grasses and wildflowers. This restoration has been preparation for the hopeful, eventual arrival of the endangered woodpeckers, but in the meantime, it has also benefited numerous other bird species such as Northern bobwhite and wild turkey.
One of the most critical restoration efforts by VDGIF has been reintroducing fire to this forest, which historically played an essential role in shaping pine savannas. The agency burns units on the WMA every two to three years. To further aid in the restoration process at Big Woods WMA, VDGIF has also strategically thinned trees and planted longleaf pines, the pine species preferred by red-cockaded woodpeckers and the historically dominant tree of Virginia’s pine savannas. The arrival of these woodpeckers in Big Woods WMA demonstrates that the VDGIF’s restoration efforts are making a difference and Piney Grove Preserve’s woodpeckers are finding the expanded habitat they need. “We’re excited to see our work on the ground pay off,” says Stephen Living, the Lands & Facilities Manager overseeing VDGIF’s habitat work at Big Woods. “Over the last six years, our efforts have really accelerated and you can see the difference in the habitat. We are accomplishing critical habitat work for red-cockaded woodpecker and countless other species like turkey, quail and neotropical migrants.”
And there is more good news for the endangered woodpecker. A partnership has been working to reestablish a population of red-cockaded woodpeckers at Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. This spring, for the second year in a row, a pair has successfully fledged two more chicks.
Since 2011, more than 180 species in the eastern U.S. did not need federal protection as a result of conservation, additional information such as survey data, and/or reevaluation of threats to their survival. The effort to conserve at-risk wildlife and recover listed species is led by the Service and state wildlife agencies in partnership with other government agencies, private landowners, conservation groups, tribes, businesses, utilities and others. It has drawn support for its use of incentives and flexibilities within the Endangered Species Act to protect rare wildlife, reduce regulations and keep working lands working.
This story was put together from articles originally posted on the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries blog.
