mprysby

The U.S. Nightjar Survey Network (NSN) is a citizen science-driven research group that has worked to collect long-term occupancy data for this unusual group of birds over the past 12 years.
 
North American nightjars, or goatsuckers, include nine nocturnal (most active at night) and crepuscular (most active at dawn and dusk) species. Nightjars arrive in North America during late March after migrating from their wintering grounds, which can be as distant as South America. They typically breed and forage in deciduous and pine forests near shrubby or agriculture fields and bodies of water.  Depending on the species, nightjars typically lay 1-3 eggs in leaf litter found on the forest floor or in open pebbled and sandy tracts. The downy-feathered, semi-precocial nestlings (see photo) are mostly dependent on the adults for food, but are mobile near the nest within days of hatching. Nightjar young become independent after their parents feed them for up to a month in their natal territory. Nightjars begin their movements back to their wintering grounds as early as July, though some populations remain in southern states such as Texas, Florida and Arizona throughout the winter. 

The Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary in Virginia established the network in 2007 in an attempt to fill gaps in knowledge for these species. Since its initiation over 3,000 surveys have been conducted nationwide. The project is designed to be effective over many years of surveying and over broad landscapes. With the support of the Virginia Master Naturalists we are hopeful that we can tap into a core group of local participants that would be willing to donate a few hours of their time once a year to this cause. A passion for scientific contribution, a willingness to work on a gorgeous moonlit night, and a vehicle is all it takes to become a surveyor. The structure of the survey network also encourages participants to conduct routes (even those without birds) for several years to lend insight into trends over time. 

Feel free to contact us anytime with questions you may have at nightjars@nightjars.org. 
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Happy Birding!

In order to make sure the information that is being shared is current, VCE requires that publications be updated every five years or else they will be removed from the publications website.  In 2019, the twelve publications from the Sustaining America’s Aquatic Biodiversity series were on that sunset list.  Unfortunately, the original authors of most of the publications were no longer with Virginia Tech.  Feeling that these publications had value for both new Virginia Master Naturalist trainees learning about aquatic ecology and for members of the public interested in aquatic creatures, I reached out to see if any Virginia Master Naturalist volunteers might like to help.

It turned out that there were many volunteers looking for at-home projects (and this was before COVID-19!) and many who had skills and knowledge related to aquatic species or writing and editing.  We assembled 47 volunteers into twelve teams, sent each team a publication, and let them go to work.  Every team did a fabulous job, returning the edited versions back on time.  The edits were definitely needed; many of the publications had links that no longer worked and statistics about species diversity that were no longer accurate.  

I was incredibly impressed by the work of the volunteers.  They essentially rescued these publications so that more people can learn from them in the future.  They also demonstrated that this method is a viable one for completing a task of this type.  I have recommended to my other natural resource colleagues at VCE to consider engaging VMNs if they need help with future publication revisions.  In addition, working with the volunteers on this publication project gave me the confidence to engage a larger group of VMN volunteers in a new project to edit all the captions from our collection of 75+ continuing education webinar videos.  Thank you to all of the volunteers who contributed!

You can find the Sustaining America’s Aquatic Biodiversity publications on the VCE publications site.  You can also find links to the publications on our VMN aquatic ecology curriculum page and at the end of this article.

What is aquatic biodiversity; Why is it important?
Why is aquatic biodiversity declining?
Homes for Aquatic Animals
Freshwater Mussel Biodiversity and Conservation
Crayfish Biodiversity and Conservation
Freshwater Fish Biodiversity and Conservation
Selected Freshwater Fish Families
Frog Biodiversity and Conservation
Salamander Biodiversity and Conservation
Turtle Biodiversity and Conservation
​Freshwater Snail Biodiversity and Conservation
Aquatic Insect Biodiversity and Conservation

Even in the current COVID-19 crisis, VMN volunteers are seeking ways to remain connected to nature and to keep learning more.  Plus, many of them may have children or grandchildren for whom they are facilitating learning opportunities while schools are closed.  At the same time, our sponsoring agencies want to continue connecting to constituents and to provide research-based information about Virginia’s natural resources.

With those needs in mind, we have collected below at-home nature learning resources from each of our sponsoring agencies.  These include videos, webinars, curriculum for youth, and more.

VMN volunteers, please note that some of the content may be appropriate for Continuing Education hours and some may not be.  Please consult your chapter leaders for guidance if you are wondering about a particular webinar.

Sponsoring agency representatives, if you have additional resources from your agency that you would like us to share here, please contact the VMN program office.

• Providing educational resources related to COVID-19 to the public.  Although it is not nature-focused, it is a good compilation for consumers, food-growers, parents, etc., and it does include at-home STEM learning activities for youth from 4-H.
• Sharing content on Facebook and Twitter
• Virginia Master Naturalist program’s Continuing Education Webinar Series

Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation

• Providing interpretive and educational programming from Virginia State Parks through their social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.

Virginia Department of Environmental Quality

• Sharing environmental education curricula and standards-based activities on their Education Page
• Sharing environmental information on social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn

Virginia Department of Forestry

• Conservation Education resources, including nature activities for youth at home
• Sharing content on Facebook and Twitter

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries

• Resources for Teachers with lessons and activities for youth to do at home
• Sharing content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube
• View nature in action on the DGIF Falcon Cam or Shad Cam.  

Virginia Institute of Marine Science – Center for Coastal Resources Management

• Multimedia Resource Center with marine education materials, OspreyCam, recorded lectures and short talks, and livestream events
• Sharing content on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube as VIMS, and also on Facebook as CCRM

​Virginia Museum of Natural History

• Educational Resource Page with links and science activities for families
• Daily nature posts and occasional videos on Facebook

Relevance
Americans’ interest in nature is growing. There is a large constituency of people, both urban and rural, engaged in non-consumptive uses of natural resources such as birdwatching, and studies show this population is growing.  Research also shows, however, that Americans still face a significant gap between their interest in nature and their ability and opportunities to pursue that interest.  Individuals need opportunities to be actively involved in exploring, caring for, and observing nature in their local communities.  Furthermore, because the most impactful experiences in nature are deeply social, opportunities to connect people with nature through social groups are needed.

At the same time, the Commonwealth of Virginia is facing difficult natural resource challenges, such as loss of forestland, sea level rise, and invasive species impacts. State and local natural resource agencies need help to accomplish their missions, address these natural resource challenges, and reach more sectors of our population. Public engagement is critical to successful conservation and management of Virginia’s woods, wildlife, and waters.

Every year, more than 400 Virginians become new VMN volunteers through training and service. The process for becoming a Certified VMN typically takes 6 to 12 months. One starts by completing a 40-hour basic training course offered by one the local chapters of the program. An additional 8 hours of continuing education and 40 hours of volunteer service are also required to become certified or recertified. Volunteer service hours are recorded in four primary areas: education, stewardship, citizen science, and chapter administration. At the statewide level, the program is sponsored by seven state agencies, and on the local level, chapters partner with dozens of conservation and education organizations.
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In 2019, VMN volunteers contributed more than 46,000 hours of stewardship to improve local natural resource conditions on more than 580 sites through invasive plant management in parks, maintenance of habitats for pollinators and other wildlife, trail maintenance of hundreds of miles of trails, and litter cleanup events.  They also created approximately 60 new habitat sites through planting projects.

Volunteers also contributed more than 65,000 hours of time to more than 50 citizen science studies of birds, phenology, mammals, butterflies, stream health, and more.  Among these was the City Nature Challenge, a worldwide BioBlitz during which people use the iNaturalist app to report species observations in urban areas.  Virginia Master Naturalists in Northern Virginia were especially important to the Washington D.C. Metro Area City Nature Challenge.  They organized dozens of different events attended by more than 200 people, adding nearly 5,000 observations of more than 800 species observations to the database.  Overall, the D.C. Metro area came in 5th in the world for number of people contributing observations, and Virginia Master Naturalists contributed greatly to that success.

In addition, volunteers made more than 175,000 contacts through educational programs in their communities that totaled 47,000 hours of service. These programs included day camps and afterschool programs for youth in partnership with 4-H, talks for local community
groups, and activities at numerous special events, such as local Earth Day celebrations. In just one example of their education work, VMN volunteers led guided nature walks for the public at sites such as the Bassett Trace Nature Trail in Williamsburg, the Conway Robinson State Forest in Prince William County, the Ni River Trail in Spotsylvania County, and Powhatan State Park.

On top of their contributions to these many conservation projects, VMN volunteers also contributed more than 32,000 of time managing our local chapters.  The unique structure of the VMN program relies on volunteers to lead the day-to-day local operations of the program, including recruiting new volunteers, organizing training courses, developing local projects and partnerships, and tracking volunteer activities.  Several hundred VMN volunteers provide this local leadership, without which the program would not exist.