The 2011 breeding season for Red-cockaded Woodpeckers (RCWs) at The Nature
Conservancy's Piney Grove Preserve has now set 30-year high marks for
population size and reproductive output in Virginia. The current population of
43 adult birds exceeds numbers from a 1980 census conducted by Dana Bradshaw
who, at the time, was a graduate student of Mitchell Byrd at the College of
William and Mary. The 1980 survey marked a time when RCWs were in their
steepest declines. Between 1977 and 1980 over half of the known RCW clusters
(i.e., individual breeding sites) were lost to deforestation from landowner and
corporate timbering. The last 9 remaining clusters from the 1980 census were
reduced further to 5 sites by 1990 and then to 2 sites by the year 2000. In
2001, The Nature Conservancy purchased the property surrounding the last 2
clusters and established the Piney Grove Preserve to conserve the species in
Virginia and reverse the population losses.
The current breeding population of RCWs is more than double the count of birds
we have detected from 2001. These existing birds are distributed among 9
potential breeding clusters. All 9 breeding pairs produced eggs this season
marking an increase from 7 pairs that did so last year, 6 pairs in 2009, 5
pairs in 2008, 4 pairs in 2005, and 3 pairs from 2001-2004. Although one pair
failed to hatch eggs in 2011, the other 8 successful pairs produced 25
fledglings (11 females, 14 males).
Over the past decade, the annual fledgling count ranged from 3-9 birds from
2001-2008 but then jumped markedly to 16 birds in 2009, 18 birds in 2010, and
then reached the new high of 25 birds for this year. This recent surge is an
obvious product of the number of breeding pairs but it is also aided by
increases in the number of young fledged per nest. The number of fledged
birds has increased from an average of 1.6 birds per breeding pair during the
years 2006-2008 to an average of 2.7 birds per breeding pair during the years
2009-2011.
The population reversal of RCWs from the 2000 low point is a direct result of
intensive population and habitat management. The Nature Conservancy has
implemented a timber management and prescribed fire plan that has vastly
improved the habitat for RCWs. Most notable are alterations in the physical
structure of The Preserve that has opened up new foraging and nesting areas.
These changes translate ecologically into more food, more energy for
reproduction, and greater survivorship of adults, nestlings, and hatch-year
birds.
The Center for Conservation Biology will inventory the population in the early
winter as part of a year-long activity to monitor population demographics.
Funding for breeding season monitoring is provided by the Center for
Conservation Biology and the Virginia Chapter of the Nature Conservancy.
Michael Wilson
Center for Conservation Biology
College of William and Mary & Virginia Commonwealth University
P.O. Box 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
phone: 757-221-1649
fax: 757-221-1650
email: mdwils@xxxxxx
web: www.ccb-wm.org
