The Center for Conservation Biology and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has
just completed the breeding season monitoring and nestling banding of
Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers (RCWs) at the TNC Piney Grove Preserve, Sussex
County, VA. This season marked another record high with the fledging of 18
birds from 7 breeding groups. These numbers represent the highest modern
count of breeding groups and production of RCWs in Virginia since the early
1980s when the overall population began its steepest decline. Breeding
results for 2010 also eclipsed records set in 2009 when 15 birds were
fledged from 6 breeding groups.
RCWs are cooperative breeders so the term breeding group signifies both the
adult male and female breeding pair as well as accessory adults that help
with activities such as incubating eggs and the feeding of young. Group
size at Piney Grove currently ranges from 2-8 adults.
This most recent delivery of good news marks another positive upshot for
Red-cockaded Woodpeckers in Virginia. When TNC purchased the property from
the John Hancock Corporation in 2000 the area (now the Piney Grove Preserve)
harbored the last 3 remaining breeding groups of RCWs in the state. Since
that time, the Center has monitored the population as it has progressed
through several stepwise increases. The population made its first advance
in 2005 when one additional breeding group was pioneered. Three more
breeding groups were added between 2006 and 2009 and in 2010 a pair of birds
established a new territory over the winter and fledged one male this
spring. We still have one potential breeding group at the Preserve that has
not produced young but has maintained the same territory for the last two
years.
The overall success at Piney Grove is made possible from dedicated, often
daily, management of the habitat and RCW population. Management of
red-cockaded woodpeckers at the Piney Grove Preserve includes conventional
methods of timber management, prescribed fire, artificial cavity
provisioning, cavity competitor control, population monitoring, and the
translocation of new individual RCWs into the local population.
Translocation has proven to be an important tool. Since translocation
activities began in 2003, 5 of the 25 birds moved to Piney Grove eventually
established new territories and have contributed 35 of the total 87
fledglings produced from 2003 to 2010.
RCW monitoring and management in Virginia has been possible from a
multi-partner effort between the Nature Conservancy, the Center for
Conservation Biology, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Virginia
Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Additional personnel and resources
for prescribed burning are contributed the Virginia Division of Forestry and
the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Michael Wilson
Center for Conservation Biology
College of William and Mary & Virginia Commonwealth University
PO Box 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
phone: 757-221-1649
fax: 757-221-1650
email: mdwils@xxxxxx
