Final Report on National Audubon Collaborative Grant

Chemung Valley Audubon Society (CVAS) installed a Motus station utilizing funds from an Audubon collaborative grant which covered its partial costs. The chapter held a fundraising drive that was a matched by a local Sloan-Dugan Foundation, and with the Audubon collaborative grant, it allowed the chapter to fully fund this project in 2024.

The Motus Wildlife Tracking System (Motus), a program of Birds Canada, is a collaborative global research network that uses automated radio telemetry to track flying organisms, including birds. Data collected by the Motus stations is used by scientists to answer questions on bird migration on the global scale. The local Audubon chapter feels they are contributing to Audubon’s Flight Plan for ‘habitat conservation’ by using the Motus data to build a network of lands and waters to provide safe migratory passage for migratory and resident birds. In addition, they contributing data to Audubon’s Bird Migration Explorer. Knowing the migratory routes will assist scientists and land managers in locating the critical habitat needed for the migratory birds. CVAS members hope their station, in a small way, will engage actions that will help reduce the decline in birds as reported in Audubon’s “Survival by Degrees”.

The CVAS Motus station is located on our Northrup Hill Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary in Rathbone, Steuben County, New York. This is an ideal location with a 1700 feet elevation with unobstructed 360-degree view. The nearest Motus stations are 25 miles away to the west and 50 miles away to the east. The station 50 miles away is located in Ithaca, New York on Cornell’s Mt Pleasant property maintained by Cayuga Bird Club. CVAS members met with members of the Cayuga Bird Club to learn about the installation and maintenance of their station. A Cayuga Bird Club member Bryant Dossman, who installed their station, offered to assist us. Bryant’s help was invaluable! With his experience and knowledge, we ordered all the components for the station.

On September 21, 2024, the station was installed by eight CVAS members under the direction of Bryant Dossman. The four antennas were assembled and erected on the antenna pole attached to our Motus shed by noon. Our antennas track two frequencies (166.38 MHz and 434MHz). The next step was mounting the Cellular Tracking Technologies’ “SensorStation” inside the shed and hooking up all the antenna wires. A 200-watt solar panel is mounted on the shed to provide the power to the station. By 3:00pm, we had an operational Motus station! On the Motus website, one can find details on our station (ID# 11291).

Northrup Hill Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary has hiking trails and is open to the public. With the Motus shed on the hiking trail, educational signage was mounted to inform the visitors of Motus and how the data is utilized for bird conservation.

To celebrate the new Motus station, a morning bird walk was held on October 19, 2024 at the sanctuary with members/attendee viewing the station and all the components. It was a beautiful sunny day with good birding plus an education opportunity to see the new Motus station and learn about the wildlife tracking systems.

Members contacted the local TV station (WENY) and a reporter came out to interview two CVAS members on site and filmed the Motus station on November 13, 2024. The report aired that evening on the evening news (6pm and 11pm). CVAS members thought it was well presented and provided CVAS and National Audubon with good local publicity.

The News clip can be found at WENY.

The CVAS members are excited to see what bird species their station will detect. As of February 2025, no detections have been received. With spring migration coming soon, CVAS has high hopes to get its first detection!! CVAS Board of Directors is appreciative of the members, Sloan-Dugan Foundation and National Audubon Society for making this exciting project possible. They also expressed thanks to the members who donated many volunteer hours planning, organizing, and installing the station, with a special thanks to Bryant Dossman for his guidance and on-site help installing the station.