Status of Grassland Birds Breeding on Restored Grasslands at Floyd Bennett Field, Gateway National Recreation Area
Elbin SB and Koontz FW. 1998. Status of Grassland Birds Breeding on Restored Grasslands at Floyd Bennett Field, Gateway National Recreation Area. Wildlife Conservation Society. Bronx, NY
As early as the 1970s, Floyd Bennett Field was identified as providing critical grassland habitat for such avian species as northern harrier, short-eared owl, American kestrel, barn owl, upland sandpiper, eastern meadowlark and grasshopper sparrow. Floyd Bennett Field is not large enough to divide into statistically significant treatment and protocol plots to analyze avian response. Because time and money are limited and grasshopper sparrows have not been seen in the area for at least three years, we recommend a more conservative approach than prescribed burns on one-third of the area each year. In part, this would target savannah sparrows as the management species and would time mowing or haying to allow late-born nestlings to fledge, to allow butterflies a chance to lay eggs and to give flowers a chance to set seed.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Elbin, Susan; Koontz, Fred
- Date of Issue
- 1998-12
- Publisher
- Wildlife Conservation Society
- Units
- GATE
- Keywords
- grasshopper sparrows, Grassland Birds, Grassland Ecology, grassland management, savannah sparrows