Birds of The Great Marsh: A Multi-Year Research Project

Marsh birds are a group of waterbirds which include rails, bitterns, sora, gallinules, and snipe.  They typically inhabit dense wetlands such as the privately owned Great Marsh in northern Chester County which, at 700+ acres, is the largest marsh in Southeastern Pennsylvania.  Marsh birds are known for their secretive nature, making them very difficult to find and study.

Since 2019, the Great Marsh Institute (greatmarshinstitute.org) has been utilizing Autonomous Recording Units (ARUs) for the purpose of detecting and monitoring bird species within the marsh.  ARUs are useful in remote locations and for targeting rare species.  What started as a side project utilizing a single ARU has turned into a multi-year science program utilizing multiple ARUs in different areas of the marsh.  Raw field data is analyzed through a multi-step process which then shows the distribution and relative density of various species.  This long-term research allows the tracking of trends which informs future conservation decisions.

In this program, avian researcher Mike Coulter of the Great Marsh Institute will describe the purpose and process of this study and the results obtained to date, as well as how you can help with this research.    A question-and-answer session will follow.

Zoom link:  https://bit.ly/42MTNhP

About the presenter:

Mike Coulter has been birding and surveying the birds at the Great Marsh for the past 13 years.  Influenced early on by Valley Forge Audubon Society members Neal Thorpe and Joe Hudson, Mike has been a passionate birder in the area for the past 25 years.