COYOTES, WOLVES AND COUGARS BLOG reader Dave Messineo is an amateur Ornithologist who has participated in two New York State Breeding Bird Surveys with several published breeding discoveries under his belt..............In his New York home region, he is locally known as an experienced and expert birder...............He is also a student of the environmental changes that have occurred since European colonization began in the Eastern USA, circa AD1600...........An advocate of restoring this region to its 17th century Eastern Woodland environment as much as possible, he has actively encouraged his Upstate NY farm to recover from a cattle farming cycle of close to 200 years..............Dave passionately refutes with solid facts my most recent Blog Post entitled FOREST MANAGEMENT AND BIRDS that opined on the need to create prairie openings in Eastern woodlands to bring back bird populations that have been declining since the turn of the 20th century..............A solid Op Ed articulation from Dave for your reading pleasure below

Rick:

.

   There have a number of articles that encourage
 opening the forest for the benefit of birds.

    Unfortunately while this is well intended, it is 
misguided and simply wrong.

    Wood thrushes and indeed all the thrushes are
 forest birds and any decrease in numbers is a 
result of

 decreasing winter habitat and/or various 
chemical pollutants here in the US.

    The Golden winged warbler was never a 
numerous bird, preferring open areas with
 brush and trees. They

 have plenty of that kind of habitat here in 
NY but are still limited so something 

else is at play keeping their numbers down.

   The great eastern forest is home to many
 birds that don’t need openings to nest and
 breed. Openings only

 serve as a detriment and decrease their 
breeding habitat and in fact are deadly for them.

  These forest birds are threatened by the
 fragmentation of that forest. Many studies 
have verified the 

decrease of native eastern forest birds due
 to forest fragmentation. Audubon annual 
surveys bear this out.

     The birds that will benefit most from
 openings are mostly birds that were
 originally absent or limited in

 the eastand took advantage of the
 cleared land, eg.  bobolinks, meadow 
larks, grasshopper sparrow,

 savannah sparrow. vesper sparrow. As
 the forest recovers those birds will
 decrease or disappear.

    Opening the forest allows cowbirds 
(from the west) to parasitize our native 
forest birds.  When I was an

 active bird bander we found that Goshawks
 that built nests near fire breaks or forest 
roads were often

 killed on the nest by horned owls or raccoons.

    Indeed horned owls thrive in broken forest 
ares to the detriment of the barred owl and
 many other hawks

 and owls.

    Most of the warblers want unbroken forest
 eg. northern water thrush want forest swamps,
 Louisiana water thrush want forested ravines.  

     Canada warblers are deep in the forest. 
Wood peewees and pileated woodpeckers as 
well as most of the vireos need forest. 

    Winter wrens are found in cool forested 
swamps and ravines.

   These are the birds we lose through forest
 clearing and openings 

  It is also a fallacy that birds need young trees
 to feed and breed. Some birds do like young
trees which occur naturally without help.  But
 each bird has a particular niche for feeding. 

   Warblers and vireos may glean insects from 
the bark, some from the leaves.   Each has a 
special place in the ecology and the trees
benefit from the removal of insects. Young
 trees do not have  more food than big 

older trees. More than likely less food for birds.

 We have become used to all the midwestern
 and prairie birds here on our artificial eastern
 prairies but if we are to return back to our 
natural environment  we will have to accept 
 that as  we gain backour forest birds

 we will see less of the open habitat birds.

 The people that open up their forest will see
 more birds but the true forest birds are almost
 never visible anyway and are only detected by
 their distinct calls.  Most of the average forest
 owners have no idea of the existence of 
Swainsons thrush or Cerulean warbler or black
 throated blue or black throated  green warblers.
 Most of our forest birds never come to feeders.
 Most of my birding is by call or song. 

It is indeed unfortunate that some 
foresters/loggers are encouraging thinning 
beyond what is good forest management.
 Good forest management keeps

 the forest dense and only allows minimal 
thinning to keepthe trees growing quality
 lumber. Most foresters/ loggers will gladly
 cut your trees and will seldom tell a

 landowner to leave more tress. I have had 
several lumber sales and dealt with numerous  
loggers and foresters and they will use any excuse to 

advise the landowner to let them cut as it is 
profitable for them. 

I have participated in two Breeding Bird Atlases
 here in New York State for a period of ten years
 and I cantell you with a good deal of experience
 that forest openings are usually pretty blah
 areas for bird life.

Dave Messineo

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A few shots follow below of my wood lot which has many 
different habitats, wooded swamp, Hemlocks,cattails,
 ravines, steep slopes and river bottom and well 

as beaver ponds: 

Maple and cherry seedlngs will use increased sunlight 
to surge upward. Too much sun and all you get are

 blackberries and ferns which are of little use for wildlife.

Sugar maple and cherry shooting up in one area will restock the
future forest and offer habitat for hooded Warblers that prefer that 
habitat

A section of my wood lot showing uneven aged trees. A logging job
has opened the canopy to allow a limit amount sun to enter the forest
 but in a few years the canopy will close again as the trees grow
 larger from the increased sunlight

 A logging job has opened the canopy to allow

 a limit amount sun to enter the forest but in a few years the canopy
 will close again as the trees grow larger from the increased
bank account and I dare say  I have more bird species
 than any of the open forest advocates.