LCNP designated as an IBA

Lake Conestee Nature Park has been recognized and designated as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by Audubon South Carolina.  A press conference celebrating this designation was held at LCNP at 1:00pm on Wednesday, March 3rd.  Last summer, Dr. Paul Serridge, Greenville County Bird Club, submitted a nomination to Audubon South Carolina requesting that LCNP be designated a South Carolina Important Bird Area.  Dr. Serridge had been compiling data regarding Rusty Blackbirds over the past couple of years in which he submitted reports to Ann Shahid, SC Audubon Society, raising awareness of LCNP’s IBA potential.  Consequently, these reports attracted the interest of Patti Newell, a University of Georgia Ph.D. student, to get involved in further researching the Rusty Blackbirds at Lake Conestee Nature Park.  The ongoing research conducted by Paul Serridge, several members of the Greenville County Bird Club and Patti Newell yielded the conclusion that LCNP has the largest wintering population of rusty blackbirds east of the Mississippi River.

Dr. Serridge, in collaboration with Dr. Jeffery Beacham, LCNP Executive Director, completed the IBA application. Upon review by the Technical Committee of the South Carolina Important Bird Area, LCNP was unanimously selected as a South Carolina Important Bird Area in September of 2009.

The IBA Program is a global effort to identify and conserve areas that are vital to birds and other biodiversity by setting science-based priorities for habitat conservation and promoting positive action to safeguard vital bird habitats.  Specifically, IBAs are sites that provide essential habitat for one or more species of bird.  They usually are discrete sites that stand out from the surrounding landscape as special bird habitat.

Lake Conestee Nature Park is a wildlife sanctuary of approximately 400 acres containing ecological diversity that supports both breeding and wintering populations for a wide variety for birds and other wildlife.  This rich ecological diversity includes extensive wetlands and bottomland forest associated with approximately four miles if the Reedy River basin.  This bottomland habitat is the haven for the largest known wintering population of Rusty Blackbirds east of the Mississippi River.  The Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) breeds in swampy wooded areas of Canada and Alaska and winters in swampy areas of the southeastern United States.  This species has undergone a steady population decline since the mid-1960s.  With estimates of population decline at a rate of 10% per year, this species is listed on the Audubon Society’s WatchList.  The important habitat for wintering Rusty Blackbirds at Lake Conestee Nature Park, together with the amount and diversity of bird and other wildlife habitat, distinguish the Park as an Audubon IBA.