Grasslands provide important living space

As I drive along the back roads of northern Wilkes County, I watch for birds on the power lines that parallel the road. Bluebirds are common power-line perchers, especially along these fields. Depending on the season, you might see our smallest falcon, the American Kestrel, perched on the wire in wintertime, its long tail bobbing up and down as it watches the fields for the movement of a mouse.

Rarely, you might see a bird the size of a robin but with a short tail and a longer, more-pointed beak. If the bird is facing the road and the sun is just right, you can see its bright yellow breast and chin with a broad black band separating the two. The Eastern Meadowlark is a very handsome bird, indeed.

It is a bird of the grasslands, its favorite habitat being tall-grass prairie, which, you might notice, is in short supply in our area. In the absence of native grasslands, meadowlarks resort to artificial grasslands produced by man. This manipulation was probably started thousands of years ago by American Indians who cleared forests for their settlements and crops. Now, they are in the form of pastures for grazing livestock, hay fields and some croplands.

A rapid decrease in acreage

Meadowlarks like this habitat because it meets their needs in many ways. These fields provide lots of weed seeds for food in winter and lots of crickets and grasshoppers the rest of the year. They provide cover and nesting materials for the well-concealed nests, often dome-shaped, that are hidden directly on the ground among the weeds and grasses.

And they provide cover for the adults who blend in so well with the earth tones of the grasses. Yes, the head, back and wings of these birds are streaked with brown, buff and black, and when one drops off the power line and ducks into the vegetation, the bright yellow breast is hidden and the bird just disappears.

But farmlands are decreasing at an alarming rate in North Carolina and with them, grassland birds. North Carolina is losing more than 100,000 acres of farmland each year, mostly to urban development. This is the fifth highest rate in the country according to the Conservation Trust of North Carolina. From 1990 to 2007, the state's population has grown by more than a third, from just over 6 million to 9 million people.

As the human population increases, urban development expands, paving over farmland and, in effect, the birds that rely on them.

But it isn't development alone that it responsible for declining populations of meadowlarks. Modern farming techniques are part of the problem, too. Traditionally, hayfields were harvested late in the summer and this allowed nesting birds to rear their young to independence before the disturbance of the harvest. Now, hay is harvested earlier in the season and through several cuttings, often while the birds are still nesting.

Such crops as corn and soybeans tend to be planted in much larger fields and are managed as nearly as possible as monocultures, with the least possible plant diversity. This increases yield and profits, but produces an environment that most birds can't use.

As a result of these changes in land management, the Eastern Meadowlark population has decreased 72 percent throughout its range since 1967. And it isn't the only grassland bird that is suffering from the loss of fields. According to the National Audubon Society, the once common Loggerhead Shrike has declined by 71 percent and the Grasshopper Sparrows by 65 percent. A bird familiar to anyone who grew up in a rural area, the Northern Bobwhite, has declined by an astonishing 82 percent.

Other birds may not nest in the fields of our state, but rely heavily on them for winter habitat or places to rest and refuel as they pass through on migration. The Northern Harrier, formerly know as the Marsh Hawk, and the stunning Bobolink are among them.

So what is the average citizen to do about these problems affecting our birdlife, indeed, the entire web of life in our state's rural areas? Several groups are working hard to find solutions to these difficult problems. You can learn more about the issues and the solutions by visiting the Web sites of the Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust, www.brrlt.org; Piedmont Land Conservancy, www.piedmontland.org, and Conservation Trust for North Carolina, www.ctnc.org.

■ Bird's-Eye View is joint column by Ron Morris and Phil Dickinson. Today's column was written by Morris, who retired after 24 years as curator at the N.C. Zoo. If you have a birding question or story idea, write to Bird's-Eye View in care of Features, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27101-3159, or send an e-mail to birding@wsjournal.com. Please type "birds" in the subject line.