Volunteers Needed!

Volunteer your time and skills and help support the Refuge! The Friends and Refuge Staff rely on volunteers to run the Friends group and to support the Refuge's programs. And, the Friends and Refuge Staff organize work parties throughout the year that help keep the refuge clean, maintain the trails of the refuge, manage invasive species, provide suitable habitat and support special projects. This page lists scheduled volunteer opportunities and work parties run by the Friends and Refuge Staff. Be sure to check our other Volunteer pages for other ways you can volunteer.

August through September

Nighthawk Survey

The 2011 edition of the SuAsCo/Nashua Rivers and Beyond Nighthawk Survey is underway. This survey attempts to document the migration of Common Nighthawks through our area that occurs between early August and early September. Our survey area extends from the Blackstone River headwaters in central Massachusetts north to the Concord, New Hampshire region and from the Connecticut River valley on the west to the Charles River basin on the east. Our first migrating nighthawks are expected within the next few days, and we would like your help in tracking their migration.

For almost one hundred years the population of Common Nighthawks has been declining in the Northeast for reasons that are not conclusively known. The purpose of the SuAsCo/Nashua Rivers and Beyond Survey is to count and record the annual fluctuations of migrating nighthawks in a defined area over time and create a longitudinal data set that might contribute to research on the long-term decline in abundance of this species.

The survey website www.borobirding.net is now open for reporting observations, and also contains general information about the project and the Common Nighthawk, instructions on how to report results, historical survey information, and a little history and news.

A big thank you to all who contributed field work and data in past counts and we hope you will join the effort again this year. New volunteers are encouraged to visit and explore the web site. New participants can register simply by clicking on the link named "Create an account". If you have already registered in years past there is no need to re-register. Just enter your user name and password.

As many of you know, project founder, veteran birder, and citizen science enthusiast Hank Norwood passed away last March. His thoughtful leadership of the SuAsCo Nighthawk survey and the Concord Christmas Bird Count, and his enthusiasm for all around birding will be missed by all of us. The Nighthawk Survey will of course go forward as, we believe, Hank would have wished.

No specific time commitments are required to participate in the survey and each participant gets to decide where, when, and how often to do the survey. Observers report their sightings via our website and receive reports back on a real-time basis of what others have seen.

Please email nighthawks@borobirding.net if you would like more information about the survey, or have any questions.