Holland Youngman, the UTC Graduate Student conducting our Cerulean Warbler research, has been out in the field since mid-May conducting point counts. Her protocol includes visiting set locations every single day and listening for birds for ten minutes at each stop. We have not heard any Ceruleans yet, but we are not giving up! We'll be adjusting Holland's protocol to determine presence/absence of the bird in a different way.
Ceruleans were last recorded in the Gorge in the late 1990s, when the last thorough bird survey was completed. If Ceruleans have left our forests in the past decade, we need to know WHY. Because Ceruleans are an indicator species, their leaving tells us that our forests are not healthy and our forest management plans need to be reworked.