YA Eco Mysteries, Memoirs, Novels & Travel
Wehle Land Conservation Center
Deep in the woodlands of Alabama, there’s a field station monitoring the amazing passage of Neotropical birds migrating from Central and South America. Far from human eyes, in the dark of night, birds swarm over this place. Unbeknown to them, a high tower receives signals that feed their distinctive calls into a computer monitor system for human eyes to decipher. Some birds come down to rest and feed before continuing on.
This extraordinary place is the Elhew Field Station, located within the Wehle Land Conservation Center in the heart of Bullock County, Alabama. When we received an invitation from Eric Soehren, the zoologist who manages the field station, to visit Wehle, we jumped at the chance to see first hand the banding of birds for the MAPS program—Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship Program—a continent-wide network of hundreds of mist netting stations for identifying and banding migrating birds.
Entering Wehle, we crossed a handsome covered bridge built of old Cypress, which gave us the first inkling of the treat we were about to experience.
Coasting down the road, winding through rolling pine hills and verdant hardwood bottoms, we came to a “village” of old log cabins set on a grassy knoll over looking a peaceful lake. Eric Soehren and John Trent greeted us with cheerful smiles, and took us on a tour of the property, which includes the late Mr. Robert Wehle’s house, stables, log cabins, a blacksmith shop and carriage house—some of the authentic historic cabins were moved here by Mr. Wehle. In the long shadows cast by the translucent light of the setting sun, the place seemed to vibrate with history of the people who once lived and died on this fertile land.
More recently, this property belonged to Mr. Wehle from New York, who spent his winters in Alabama. A true conservationist, he generously made provisions in his will to endow a trust for maintenance and capital improvement of the Wehle Land Conservation Center—Forever Wild bought most of the tract from Mr. Wehle at a discounted price.
The next morning we were up with the first birdcalls, and off to the mist nets to monitor birds. In the silvery dawn light, we hiked to the nets that Eric and John had set to gently snag birds flitting through the woods. In the first net, we were thrilled to find five beautiful birds.
We admired the way in which Eric and John so deftly and gently removed the birds from the nets without harming them in any way.
The birds were then placed int sturdy cotton bags especially created by students at Gwin Elementary School under the tutelage of their outstanding teacher, Traci Ingleright. Next, the characteristics of every bird, including weighing and measuring were meticulously noted on a chart. After inspection, the birds were banded with a unique number according to MAPS protocol.
It was a joy to watch the released birds fly swiftly away, many of them to nests where they are hatching eggs or feeding hungry chicks. For the next six hours, this procedure was repeated every thirty minutes. This work is not for amateurs. Eric and John had to complete special training before they were issued permits to participate in this painstaking and delicate work. Eric and John are dedicated to MAPS, knowing that the analyses of banding data from Alabama will provide critical information about the migration survival rates and breeding success of these birds. Data from field stations around the country are fed into a central system at Point Reyes, California.
Before departing later that afternoon, we drove around Alligator Lake, covered in a profession of pastel pink fragrant water lily as beautiful as any Monet painting. Crossing back over the covered bridge, we felt infused with a renewed appreciation for the beauty of Wehle and for the significant work being done to promote bird conservation.
For more Information visit these links:
Wehle Land Conservation Center
Forever Wild Wehle Land Tract
Forestry and Wildlife for Youth
Wehle Nature Center
Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship
Alabama Birding Trails
The Adventures of The Sizzling Six
Alabama Outdoors/Whele Conservation Center