Lauren Miller-Donnelley, Paskamansett Bird Club president, will speak about grassland birds, at the club’s next meeting on Wednesday, May 10, at 7:30 pm at the Community Hall of Friends Meeting, 739 Horseneck Road, in South Dartmouth.

The farmlands and open fields of New England would not be complete without grassland nesting birds, but they are declining rapidly.  In fact, the SouthCoast is one of the last strongholds of open habitat in the state where one can still hear the song of the bobolink in Spring.  In this interactive presentation, Lauren will highlight several grassland birds and play some of their songs.

Lauren is the property manager for Mass Audubon’s Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary, where 55 acres of farmland were restored to warm-season grasses in 2002.  She mixes delayed mowing and rotational grazing to manage over 100 acres of fields for grassland birds and will explain what she and others have learned about maintaining habitat for these challenged species. 

She also supervised a New-England survey of grassland birds in 2015, and regularly uses her expertise to help land owners identify opportunities to manage for grassland birds.  She has been an avid birder for 20 years since studying at Boston University when she saw her first downy woodpecker in a tree on campus.

The meeting is open to the public, free, and accessible.