The email was titled “rare birder.”
It described a woman sent to Aroostook County by Massachusetts Audubon and other organizations to survey grassland bird species.
“Look for the mud-splashed SUV with MA plates,” Alice Sheppard wrote after she befriended the birder when they met by chance in Presque Isle and thought she might have an interesting story for BDN readers.
I didn’t have to look for the vehicle because a few days later it rolled into my driveway with the “rare birder” at the steering wheel.
Emily Neil was on her way home to Westborough, Massachusetts, after conducting a month-long survey of grassland birds between Cary Plantation, south of Houlton, and points northwest of Madawaska. Sponsored by Mass Audubon, the Vermont Center for Ecostudies and the University of Delaware, the survey was designed to assess changes in the northeastern grassland bird population and to inform landowners of ways to improve bird habitat on their properties.
“Grassland birds are declining faster than any other group of birds in the region,” a brochure Neil gave to interested landowners says.
“Fortunately,” Neil said, “it seems that a middle ground, wherein farmers and birds can coexist, is possible. It’s also important to note that these birds are incredibly valuable for farms since they hunt the pests of crops and hayfields.”
A May graduate of Vanderbilt University with majors in conservation biology and opera performance, Neil, a mezzosoprano, used her ear for music, as well as her scientific knowledge to fulfill her assignment. She identified most of the birds by their songs and calls.
“Sometimes I never see them,” she said, explaining that her training enabled her to identify 80 to 90 percent of the birds by listening. “They are most vocal during the time for breeding,” she said, which is why the survey was scheduled in early summer.
As a field technician for the 2015 New England Regional Grassland Bird Survey, Neil received a list of 10 special interest species to identify and 150 survey points to be located using GPS coordinates. Each site was to be visited twice, for a total of 300 visits, between May 27 and July 7, with the two visits separated by at least 10-14 days.
She noted birds she detected within a 50- and 100-meter radius of each survey point, charting her findings with symbols identifying the species, sex and position within the site.
When she arrived in my dooryard June 24, Neil was pleased to have found eight of the 10 species on her list, including her first horned lark of the season, three northern harriers, bobolinks and American kestrels. She also found the eastern meadowlark, vesper sparrow, savannah sparrow and killdeer. The upland sandpiper and grasshopper sparrow were the two species on the list she did not locate.
As she followed dirt roads and ATV trails into the grasslands of northern Maine, Neil said she got used to being stuck in the mud, but one day she overestimated her ability to get out.
“This was probably about the eight millionth time I’d found myself in such a predicament, but until this day, I’d always been able to maneuver a way out by putting sticks or whatever under my tires,” she wrote on a blog for friends and family. “Alas, not this time! I ended up calling AAA, and a wonderful fellow came and pulled me out. He had a really hard time finding where I was, but he did eventually find me — alone and in a prairie with no real road around whatsoever! As you can imagine, he was a bit surprised to find a car out there.”
Her “crazy muddy” car drew attention thereafter, especially in the Wal-Mart parking lot, where she liked to sit and read. “Ohhh, someone’s been mudding!” a passerby remarked.
“I doubt it’s usual for people to go on a lot of these roads frequently (if at all), so I’ve had several landowners ask me what I’m doing, why I was there before,” Neil wrote, after making her second round of visits to the sites. “Luckily, they’ve all ended up being nice and interested in the project!”
In fact, friendly people, along with beautiful landscapes and dense forests, were among her best memories of Aroostook County.
“I loved northern Maine,” she said, recalling people who welcomed her in with offers of food and showers, especially appreciated because she slept in her car when she was unable to find a campground.
“And I learned to be careful of moose,” she added, impressed that she had seen more than a few, as well as a couple of bears, groundhogs, deer, fox and a porcupine who made her wait while it crossed the road in front of her car.
“Also notable about these road trips,” she wrote on June 18, “is that, for whatever reason, Ellie Goulding’s ‘Love Me Like You Do’ is on every radio station, every day, at least five times a day (the record was 12 times in one day, thus far).”
As this column goes to press, Neil is preparing for a year in Gabon, West Africa, where she will study the behavior, tool use and ecology of chimpanzees with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology based in Leipzig, Germany.
A rare birder indeed.
For information on the New England Grassland Bird Survey, visit massaudubon.org/our-conservation-work/wildlife-research-conservation/grassland-bird-program.
Kathryn Olmstead is a former University of Maine associate dean and associate professor of journalism living in Aroostook County, where she publishes the quarterly magazine Echoes. Her column appears in this space every other Friday. She can be reached at kathryn.olmstead@umit.maine.eduor P.O. Box 626, Caribou, ME 04736.