*** Click here to read the 2024 Moth Night Report! ***  

Long-term monitoring of important habitats, species, and environmental conditions is crucial for land management and helps conservationists understand changes in our local ecosystems. Professional ecologists, skilled naturalists, and the public all play integral role in this work. 

New Hope Breeding Bird Survey

During the spring and summer of 2024, the Open Space Program partnered with volunteers from New Hope Bird Alliance and the North Carolina Biodiversity Project to survey breeding bird species and population in the New Hope Creek Bottomlands. These volunteers - all of them avid birders - visited the New Hope Creek Bottomlands Trail on a weekly basis to identify which species were present and map territories of breeding pairs. Geographic information system (GIS) software was used to estimate the abundance of each species from the data collected by the volunteers. These results were then compared to data from transect surveys conducted at the nearby Mason Farm Biological Reserve during the 1970s and 1980s. 

The results from the 2024 New Hope Bottomlands Breeding Bird Survey establish a baseline of qualitative and quantitative against which the results from future surveys can be compared. In addition, when compared with the Mason Farm Biological Reserve data, this year's survey suggests that trends in local bird diversity and abundance mirror those seen across North America and much of the world. On the one hand, many permanent resident species appear to be stable, with some actually increasing in abundance. On the other hand, migratory species have fared poorly, with many species seeing substantial declines over the past few decades. 

In addition to providing data that can be used to improve conservation practices and inform land-use decisions, this breeding bird survey establishes a method, adapted from similar research such as the Mason Farm studies, that can be used annually by trained volunteers to consistently monitor bird populations at the New Hope Bottomlands. 

The report is available here. To learn more about this work, contact David Bradley, Open Space Specialist, at dabradley@dconc.gov or (919) 943 - 3997. 

Moths in the New Hope Corridor

Although the 2021 - 2022 New Hope Creek Biological Survey offered a lot of good news about the success of conservation efforts throughout the Corridor, it also described significant declines in several taxa, particularly moths. Like many insect groups, moths have declined precipitously across the globe over the past several decades. Given their important ecological role - especially as a food source for migratory birds, whose numbers have also plummeted across the globe - their disappearance is cause for serious concern. Data collected during the 2021 - 2022 study suggest that moth diversity and abundance are exceptionally low in parts of the New Hope Creek Corridor, much more so than other similar sites. It is likely that a number of factors are responsible for these findings, including the proximity of artificial light, increased flooding and runoff, herbicide use on adjacent land, and habitat loss in nearby areas. 

Continued monitoring of moth populations is essential to better understand the threats they face and assess the impact of conservation measures and land-use changes. During the summer of 2024, several moth experts volunteered to collect additional data on macro- and micro-moths on County lands along New Hope Creek. In August, the Open Space Program partnered with these volunteers to host the County's first-ever public Moth Night event at Hollow Rock Nature Park. Nearly 50 people from across the Triangle attended to learn about moths and assist the researchers with documenting species at the Park. Over the next several weeks, staff worked with the event leaders to sort through the observations and data obtained throughout the evening. A report about the event, including a description of the findings, is available here. The Open Space Program is grateful to these researchers and citizen scientists for their amazing contribution to the continued care of Durham County's public lands.