Category: General News

Jennifer Stalec—Shelda Taylor Award Winner

Jennifer Stalec is a talented and dedicated teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High School on the Upper East Side, where she teaches world history to ninth and tenth graders. A teacher for 18 years, she finds her students to be delightful and is amazed by the fresh insights and perspectives they bring to the classroom.

She has always had an appreciation for the natural world and enjoys wild places and wild animals. She believes that plants and animals have a right to live alongside us, even in urban environments. Eight years ago when her principal invited her to become the faculty advisor for the school’s Green Team, she quickly said yes.

All K-12 schools in New York City have sustainability goals, and student Green Teams are one of the ways students can become educated about the need to protect the environment and develop leadership skills while helping their school meet its sustainability goals. The students on the Eleanor Roosevelt Green Team are especially interested in large-scale operations that support the city’s environmental goals. They have toured the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility and worked in the Lavender Field at Earth Matter Farm, a large composting operation on Governors Island. They have led composting workshops at school, created an educational  bulletin board display on water conservation, and secured the signatures of their fellow students on a water pledge.

Jennifer has also encouraged the students to become more engaged with the natural world and to take advantage of the opportunities to experience green spaces right here in the city. She reached out to the Linnaean Society last year to ask if one of us would lead a bird walk for the Green Team, and Ken Chaya accepted the invitation. The students were amazed at how many birds can be seen in Central Park and were very impressed by the app Ken created, Central Park Entire, which catalogs every tree in Central Park. Ken was invited back to lead a second walk, and Jennifer led a bird walk herself in the fall. With the support of the PTA, the Green Team has acquired five pairs of binoculars, but additional donations of binoculars and field guides would be welcomed in order to include students who are not on the Green Team in the bird walks.

Jennifer’s enthusiastic mentoring of the Green Team has inspired several students to make a long-term commitment to environmental stewardship. For example, one former Green Team member, now at College of the Atlantic, has become a dedicated birder, and another is studying environmental engineering at Cornell University.

For her commitment to educating and empowering students to become advocates for the environment and the natural world, we are pleased to award the 2025 Shelda Taylor Award to Jennifer Stalec.

Dustin Partridge—Natural History Service Award Winner

Dustin Partridge never expected to build a career as a conservation biologist in New York City, but several opportunities to do field work in the city convinced him that even urban areas can be rich in wildlife habitats.

After earning a biology degree, Dustin worked for an engineering firm restoring a marshland habitat in Alley Pond Park in Queens. From an early age he had loved the natural world and was intrigued by the ways animals connect with each other and their habitats. After graduating from college, he was hired by an engineering firm that was restoring a marshland habitat in Alley Pond Park in Queens. There he saw Black Skimmers, box turtles, and terrapins thriving in a tiny urban space and came to the realization that even small urban habitats can be important for fostering biodiversity.

A short time later, after the Jacob Javits Convention Center had completed installation of their green roof, they reached out to the New York City Bird Alliance (then New York City Audubon) requesting a survey of the species that were using their new sedum-covered rooftop. Susan Elbin, then Director of Conservation and Science, reached out to Dustin asking him to participate in the survey. He found that 14 bird species, including nesting American Herring Gulls, had already starting using the sedum roof! Recognizing the vast potential of the city’s many sterile and barren rooftops, he realized it was time to re-think how the built environment can support wildlife.

He enrolled in graduate school to study the biology of green roofs in greater depth. In 2020 he received a Ph.D. in biology and a certificate of advanced study in conservation biology from Fordham University. His dissertation, Urban Green Roofs as Wildlife Habitat, explored the ecological value of green roofs. While still in graduate school he helped found the Green Roofs Researchers Alliance, an association of researchers, educators, and policy makers working to increase the number of green roofs in the city. He continues to serve as their managing director.

Under Dustin’s leadership, the NYC Bird Alliance continues to monitor the Javits Center’s 6-acre green roof. Since its transformation in 2014, his team has documented 72 bird species, 5 bat species, and 18 orders of arthropods, including 19 native bee species and 11 native butterfly species using the space. The Javits Center roof is now home to the city’s largest nesting colony of American Herring Gulls.

Dustin also oversees the annual Harbor Heron survey, a 40-year effort that tracks wading bird populations in New York City and surrounding waters. New York City is home to the largest wading bird colony in the northeast, and the results of the annual census are used by various state and local agencies and other researchers who monitor population trends. Additionally, he manages Project Safe Flight, a program that enlists volunteers to tally the number of birds killed and injured in building strikes during spring and fall migration. Data from this program have been invaluable in convincing lawmakers of the need for dimming nighttime illumination and using bird-safe glass in building construction.

All scientists love data, but Dustin especially loves being able to use science and data to drive tangible change for New Yorkers and wildlife alike. He remains grateful for the hundreds of volunteers who do the hard work of collecting the data that help conserve wildlife and contribute to the biodiversity of New York City.

For his work that has benefited wildlife and fostered an interest in natural history and conservation among his volunteers and students, Dustin Partridge is the recipient of the 2025 Natural History Service Award.

The Linnaean Society had a great turnout of members and their guests for the 2024 Homecoming Picnic held at Summit Rock in Central Park on September 22. We were lucky to have a beautiful fall day for the gathering.

It was heartwarming to greet old friends and fellow birders after a long summer. Much fun was had by all as members competed for prizes during the birding trivia game, snacked on good food, and participated in bird walks led by Debbie Becker, Peter Davenport, Ursula Mitra, and Junko Suzuki. We look forward to seeing everyone again on one of our field trips and on the monthly Zoom meetings.

Each year, the Linnaean Society sponsors a birdathon to help raise money for Great Gull Island. The island, which was acquired by the American Museum of Natural History in 1949, is home to the world’s largest nesting colony of Common Terns and the largest colony of Roseate Terns in the Western Hemisphere. Located in Long Island Sound next to Plum and Orient Islands, it has remained uninhabited and desolate.

In 1969, ornithologist and naturalist Dr. Helen Hays made a visit to Great Gull Island and realized it was a nesting haven for terns. Since then, she has supervised the repurposing of the island to favor nesting conditions for the birds. Her work has been successful, and the most recent counts of Common Terns show more than 26,000 nesting pairs. Dr. Hays has been recognized for her contributions to bird conservation and has received a service award from the United States Department of the Interior, among other accolades for her work.

This year’s Linnaean Society birdathon raised almost $6,000 to contribute to the island’s maintenance and to help fund the interns who work to keep the island free of invasive plants that could ruin the terns’ nesting sites.

The Linnaean Society birding teams included Slow Birding Saturday ($4,037); Wandering Warblers ($431); Gnoble Gnatcatchers ($902); and Scarlet Tanagers ($194).

“A birdathon is a fun and challenging day at the office,” said Amy Chaplin, who volunteered on one of the five teams organized by the Linnaean Society.

The Gnoble Gnatcatchers observed 106 species of birds as they birded Sunset Cove Park, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, and Central Park. Some of the highlights included Blue-winged Teal, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Clapper Rail, American Oyster- catcher, Willet, Forster’s Tern, Little Blue Heron, Glossy Ibis, Red-headed Woodpecker, Yellow-throated and White-eyed Vireos, Purple Martins, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Scarlet Tanagers and a variety of warblers. These are all species that migrate through the NYC area during the month of May.

— Debbie Becker

Our annual evening bat walk in Central Park, led by Danielle Gustafson, was featured in the July 26, 2024 edition of the West Side Rag, a local paper covering the goings-on of  the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Danielle, a board member of Bat Conservation International, has been leading these popular walks for many years. Participants use electronic bat detectors to hear the bats’ ultrasonic vocalizations and are mesmerized by the sight of bats swooping through the evening sky in pursuit of insects. The article, by Bonnie Eissner, includes photographs by LSNY members Bruce Yolton and Barbara Saunders and quotes from member Savannah Conheady.

Anthony Ciancimino—2024 Shelda Taylor Awardee

Each year the Shelda Taylor award is presented to a teacher who, like Ms. Taylor herself, has made a sustained and substantial impact on educating students in the field of natural history. The recipient of this year’s award is Anthony Ciancimino. A Staten Island elementary school teacher, Anthony has extended his classroom through science-based field trips, taking students out into the natural environment so they may develop an appreciation of the ecological wonders of the world around them.

In addition to working with his own students, Anthony leads nature walks for NYC Audubon. He also devotes time to a local non-profit organization, the Children’s Aid Society, where he established a science program that introduces youngsters, some still in elementary school, to the study of birds and the joy of birding. Through these activities, Anthony is helping young people to develop a connection to nature that, ideally, will last a lifetime.

As both a formal teacher, an Audubon guide, and a volunteer educator, Anthony Ciancimino has significantly impacted scores of students and young people. In these roles, and through his commitment to broadening the ecological education of so many, he has carried on Shelda Taylor’s legacy; he clearly deserves the award that bears her name.

— Eric Mathern

Chris Allieri—2024 Natural History Awardee

This year’s Linnaean Society’s Natural History Service Award recipient is Chris Allieri. In March of 2021, while observing federally threatened and New York State-endangered Piping Plovers that were nesting on a crowded New York City beach, Chris was struck by the threats to these shorebirds from both humans and off-leash dogs. As a child growing up on the Jersey Shore, Chris had seen signage and beach closures associated with the arrival of plovers each year, and he wondered why these birds had been left to fend for themselves in New York. The day following that discovery, having decided that it was his responsibility to do something about it, he established the NYC Plover Project. The first order of business was to create an Instagram account, and the second was to build partnerships with the very agencies he had been critical of for their lack of action.

What initially started as an attempt to recruit a few friends to assist in the tiny bird’s survival eventually evolved into a broader mission. Using social media, Chris attracted a large team of volunteers to help ensure the birds’ safety as they breed along the shorelines of New York State and nearby areas.

Today, the organization has grown to a staff of four and a force of 250 volunteers who have performed some 10,000 hours of service since the organization began operation. Each spring and summer, they monitor the nesting plovers and their chicks on the crowded beaches of the Rockaways in Queens. Using conflict de-escalation training, members of the Plover Project engage beachgoers, alerting them to the nesting sites’ presence and the birds’ vulnerability. Because of their efforts and Chris’s resolve to help the Piping Plover, stretches of beach where the shorebirds had been nesting are now becoming sanctuaries for the them, protected by an army of volunteers out on the beaches, from sunup to sundown. The individuals monitoring the beaches serve as diplomatic voices for the small birds, thereby greatly increasing the odds of a successful nesting season.

Nevertheless, while plover nest productivity has recently surged on National Park Service beaches, such as Breezy Point Tip and Fort Tilden, birds on NYC Parks beaches, including Far Rockaway, Arverne and Edgemere, haven’t been as fortunate, due to nest vandalism by humans and vitriol against temporary closures. So, there is much more work to be done. The NYC Plover Project is doubling down on education efforts. In 2024, the group expanded its work in NYC public schools and will reach primary grades through high school, with arts programming and citizen science initiatives for high school students. Additionally, the organization is expanding the volunteer programs and community engagement efforts on the NYC Parks’ beaches.

While it’s impossible to calculate exactly how many chicks have survived since Chris Allieri’s NYC Plover Project first took flight in the spring of 2021, there’s no doubt that he has had a profound impact on the future of this fragile species, if only because Piping Plovers—once invisible to most—are now a part of the New York City conversation. For that he is truly deserving of the Linnaean Society’s Natural History Service award.

— Eric Mathern

A rally in support of the Birds and Bees Protection Act (A7640/S1856A) was held on November 15, 2023, in front of Governor Hochul’s New York City office. A spirited assembly of environmental activists, including a contingent from the Linnaean Society, gathered to urge the governor to sign this bill, which would ban the use of highly toxic neonicotinoid pesticides in New York State. Last June, the state legislature passed the bill with strong bipartisan support, but the governor has yet to take action on it.

The use of neonicotinoid pesticides has resulted in tremendous losses of the insects required for pollinating crops, as well as in killing grassland birds. Daniel Raichel, acting director of the Pollinator Initiative for the Natural Resources Defense Council, addressed the gathering, emphasizing that the enormous amounts of neonics applied to farmland have resulted in the contamination of lakes, rivers, and drinking water. Other speakers addressed the adverse effects of neonicotinoid pesticides on human health, especially that of pregnant women, children, and people of low-income communities.

Please write or call Governor Hochul today to urge her to sign the Birds and Bees Protection Act (A7640/S1856A) into law. Without her signature, the bill will expire on December 31

Setting the Stage: Hammers and a Landing Craft
Spring on GGI began right on schedule, and, thanks to your support, Matthew Male and the carpentry team were able to spend a month getting the island ready for the re-tern of the terns, as well as a re-tern to a full summer of research and monitoring. The carpenters built new raised walkways to move equipment from the dock to the Carpenter’s Shop, built new tent platforms to house students, and installed safety railings on some precarious stairways. We installed nearly ¼ mile of new fencing around the Big Gun and other points on the island where the Army fort presents notable “falling” hazards for the tern chicks. This is always a hurry-up operation as we thread the window between spring’s arrival, and the arrival of the terns – but all the work was completed.

There were two other major tasks to tackle before the birds arrived – battling the invasive weeds that crowd the terns out of their nesting spaces, and gathering marine debris that washed up on the island. With the help of USFWS’ Suzanne Paton, the USFWS landing craft team from McKinney National Wildlife Refuge, and University of Rhode Island students, we were able to get boatloads of marine debris off the island. That work needs to be done each year, but the result is a GGI that is safer for the adult and young birds.

Back Home
The island was Tern-Ready for their arrival on May 2, 2022, when the first birds came home. The trip for the Roseate Terns from the northern coast of Brazil, and the Commons from Brazil and the coast of Argentina, is long and difficult, and their arrival is always inspiring. The terns were not alone in this homecoming. After two years of extremely reduced staffing due to COVID-19 precautions we were able to field a team of seven students and researchers throughout the season. The reduced staffing is necessary because the old dorms are no longer usable, and the physical plant just can’t keep up with more people. This limits the scale of some of the work we can do, but we are learning how to make this work.

Egg, Chick, Band, Feed, Fledge
Nesting proceeded “as expected”, and soon GGI was covered in Common and Roseate nests. New nesting “pup tents” were occupied by the Roseates, and the Commons squeezed into every inch, as usual. Researchers and students from Mass Audubon, University of Connecticut, CEMAM/University of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil, and University of Rhode Island carried on monitoring the terns. All Roseate Tern nests were marked and counted (about 1,787 Roseate nests), and we continued to use the area “upstairs” (above the Carpenter’s Shop) as our index plot to let us know how the Commons were doing (the number was within 1 nest of the total for the same area in 2021)!

A sample of the Roseate and Common chicks were banded with metal as well as plastic bands with large, easy-to-read codes, and we looked for those chicks every other day until fledging to estimate the survival of chicks. Many of the Roseates were not possible to find regularly, so we spent hundreds of people-hours searching for them at fledging time. This gave us a productivity estimate for both species. We were able to do the “following” by watching with scopes or binoculars from blinds around the island. This reduced our time in the colony, and also lets us gather some other data, like feeding rates, as well as the type of fish delivered to the nests (spoiler alert – it was a BIG mackerel year).

During the fall, URI and UCONN students returned again to help with marine debris cleanup, and helped to close down the island. Invasive plant work continued, and, if all goes well we expect to have even more nesting space on GGI next year.

What’s Next?
In August 2022 the American Museum of Natural History, Mass Audubon, and UCONN hosted seabird and climate change experts from across the US to help build a long-range conservation and climate adaptation plan for GGI. This work is funded by the Long Island Sound Futures Fund, and will set us up with a plan for continuing the important annual monitoring and management work that the terns need to thrive on GGI. At the same time, we need to plan for the future – a future with stronger storms and rising sea levels. The planning will identify strategies for ensuring GGI is able to be a home for the terns for decades to come.

Some of these strategies will be large-scale erosion control. Other strategies will be small scale, and will be designed to provide safe nesting spaces to move terns incrementally above the ever-rising high water mark. Still other strategies will be employed to increase our vigilance for any introduced pathogens or predators, and to be able to respond to the unexpected – this is all part of the plan to ensure the island is resilient in the face of climate change.

Grants, gifts, a healthy dose of “can-do”, chocolate-covered donuts, and a dedicated cadre of supporters has been the engine that transformed GGI from an abandoned Army base, into one of the largest seabird colonies in the United States. That funding engine is as important now as it ever was. The island needs significant improvements to the physical plant (more solar power, replace the defunct dorms with cabins, install a small desalinating unit for drinking water), to the monitoring program (optics, new observation blinds, support for lab work to monitor for disease, support for the fish monitoring program), and also needs support to continue to provide the safest nesting habitat for the terns.

We are thankful for your past contributions and ask that you please consider making a donation to “Great Gull Island Project-AMNH” and sending it to:

Helen Hays, Director
GGI – Department of Ornithology
American Museum of Natural History
200 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024

Thank you very much and we look forward to the Spring of 2023 when we welcome the terns home again!

Sincerely,
Helen Hays, Director
Joe DiCostanzo, GGI Associate
Margaret Rubega, UCONN
Peter Paton, URI
Joan Walsh, Mass Audubon
Joel Cracraft, AMNH