History

In 2001, John and Maureen Woodcock became involved in the Mo.S.I. project (Monitoreo de Sobrevivencia Invernal - Monitoring Overwintering Survival - http://www.birdpop.org/MoSI/MoSI.htm). The Institute for Bird Populations had solicited the volunteer help of agencies, organizations, and individual bird-banders working in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean to operate a network of mist-netting stations where habitat-specific over-wintering survival rates of migratory songbirds would be monitored. The inexplicable decline in numbers of many migratory songbirds sparked this project.

On their own initiative John and Maureen drove from Thunder Bay, Ontario, 4,500 miles, through 7 countries in 10 days, to Costa Rica, to explore the feasibility of opening MoSI songbird monitoring stations there. They spent 5 months investigating many possible sites. Four sites in mangrove swamps were selected in part because of the large proportion of migratory birds wintering there and also because the endangered Prothonotary Warbler is dependant on these swamps. John and Maureen collaborate with Bird Studies Canada (http://www.bsc-eoc.org/prowmain.html) investigating Prothonotary Warblers (Protonotaria citrea) wintering in Costa Rica.

Over the winter of 2003/2004, John and Maureen returned to Costa Rica to successfully run 4 MoSI stations. Their work has sparked the interest of two Costa Rican students who were trained to run one of the stations in future years.

John and Maureen return to Costa Rica each winter to continue their bird monitoring work and to seek out other dedicated, conservation minded Costa Ricans to train to run additional stations.