I and the Bird

I and the Bird #104 is online at Kolibri Expeditions. The link goes to Part 1, Part 2 will appear later.

EPW Passes Revised Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act

The Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee has passed a bill to reauthorize the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act at higher funding levels.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has passed S. 690, which reauthorizes the existing Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act (NMBCA) at significantly higher levels to meet the growing needs of our migrant birds, many of which are in rapid decline. Senate Environment and Public Works Ranking Member, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), a frequent critic of providing more government funding for conservation programs raised an objection to the higher authorization levels in the bill. The bipartisan bill, sponsored by Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Michael Crapo (R-ID), now moves to debate in the full Senate. Representative Ron Kind (D-WI) has introduced similar legislation in the House of Representatives....

NMBCA supports partnership programs to conserve 341 species of migratory birds in the United States, Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean, where approximately five billion birds of over 500 species, including some of the most endangered birds in North America, spend their winters. Projects include habitat restoration, research and monitoring, law enforcement, and outreach and education. Between 2002 and 2008, the program supported 260 projects coordinated by partners in 48 U.S. states/territories and 36 countries. Projects involving land conservation have affected approximately three million acres of bird habitat.

This bill would increase funding for the program from $6 million to $20 million. Projects receiving federal money must raise $3 in private money for every federal dollar they receive. In the past, many qualifying projects have gone unfunded because the federal matching grants program had run out of funds.

If you have not done so already, please consider contacting your representatives (here or here) and ask that they support this worthy program.

US Border Wall Threatens Pygmy Owls and Bighorn Sheep

A new paper in Conservation Biology warns of the potential dangers that the southwestern border wall poses for already threatened wildlife.

"The biggest concern is that this barrier will break small populations of animals into even smaller pieces that will result in fewer animals interacting," said Clinton Epps, a wildlife biologist at Oregon State University and co-author on the study. "A major barrier such as this could lead to significant degradation of connectivity for many different species, ultimately threatening their populations."

In their study, the authors looked at the potential effects of the security wall on two species – the pygmy owl and bighorn sheep – primarily because they already had studied those animals in that region. They found that the low-flying pygmy owl made three-fourths of its flights below the height of the security wall, which is approximately four meters high, and that juvenile owls had lower colonization in areas of disturbance or areas with less vegetation.

"Connectivity" is important for keeping wildlife populations healthy. Many species migrate from one part of their range to another to take advantage of seasonal foraging opportunities, and some move from day to day. Connectivity is also important for maintaining genetic diversity. If two parts of a population are separated by a physical barrier, they will no longer be able to interbreed. For small populations, this could risk inbreeding.

The authors suggest alterations to the wall to reduce the risk to wildlife.

"Some of the potential damage to pygmy owls could be mitigated with a few tweaks to the system," Epps added. "Putting in poles near the fence could allow the owls to swoop down from a perch, and planting brush to provide better cover could help them avoid predation by larger avian species and improve their chances for colonization."

Maintaining or augmenting trees that are taller than the fence, and that are associated with patches of dense, low vegetation should not only promote permeability, agreed lead author Aaron D. Flesch, a biologist from the University of Arizona – they may be critical. "Movement of pygmy owls from Mexico to Arizona may be necessary for the persistence of the Arizona population," Flesch pointed out.

There is also a possible solution for bighorn sheep, which are linked genetically across the Arizona-Mexico border.

"The key is to have gaps in the fence that are sufficient to allow passage of animals, while at the same time meeting security needs," Epps said. "A 'virtual' fence could be an alternative to a solid wall in some places, especially in steep terrain that is ideally suited for bighorn sheep. The use of cameras, radar, satellite monitoring and vehicle barriers could provide security and be great alternatives for wildlife."

Bighorn sheep and pygmy owls are the only species covered by the study, but they are not the only species of concern on the US-Mexican border. All of them have their own habitat and connectivity needs, so each will require varying degrees of mitigation. There is also a separate issue of urban-centered walls pushing immigrants (and their pursuers) into wilderness areas, which has its own effects on the wildlife that lives there. Of course, all of these could have been addressed at the outset if a proper environmental review had been done.

Tropics Expanding

The Earth's tropical zone is expanding thanks to climate change.

Researchers at James Cook University concluded the tropics had widened by up to 500 kilometres (310 miles) in the past 25 years after examining 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles.

They looked at findings from long-term satellite measurements, weather balloon data, climate models and sea temperature studies to determine how global warming was impacting on the tropical zone.

The findings showed it now extended well beyond the traditional definition of the tropics, the equatorial band circling the Earth between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

As usual, I am less concerned about what will happen in the subtropics than what will happen at the other ends, the Arctic and Antarctic. Organisms in zones towards the middle of the planet should have an easier time adjusting or shifting their ranges than ones at the extremes, where there is really no place to go. However, an expanded tropical zone does come with severe consequences, such as more virulent diseases (such as malaria and dengue fever) and more extreme weather patterns. So this trend is definitely disturbing.

DC Bald Eagle Nest Threatened by DHS Project

For a long time, I knew or suspected that there was a pair of Bald Eagles nesting within the District of Columbia, but I did not know the location. Well, I finally learned where it is, but for unhappy reasons. The nest is located on the grounds of the former site of St. Elizabeth's Hospital, a 19th-century psychiatric hospital located in southeast Washington. In the winter of 2001, a pair of bald eagles built a nest at the site and have nested each year since then. This pair was the first to nest in DC since 1946. I think it likely that these are the adult eagles that I often saw perched or flying along the Anacostia River, at places like Haines Point and the National Arboretum.

Now that nest may be at risk. A few years ago, the federal government decided to reuse the abandoned federal facilities as a new national headquarters for the Department of Homeland Security. That, by itself, makes some sense. Abandoned historic buildings are more likely to be maintained if they are being used actively rather than sitting empty, and a new federal building could potentially bring jobs to the surrounded neighborhoods, which are among the poorest in DC. The problem is not so much the headquarters as the access road.

The government says a centralized control center would streamline its response to a national emergency by bringing thousands of federal workers under one roof, with a new access road to handle most of the traffic.

But the road would run through 200 acres of protected wildlife habitat, wiping out a dozen acres of trees. That, some fear, could drive off the only pair of eagles intrepid enough to call Washington home. "They used to be here, they weren't here for many years and now they're back. It makes me feel better knowing something is coming back," Stephen Syphax, a National Park Service ranger, said one morning as he walked through the woods near the eagles' nest....

The two are what scientists call "urban eagles," displaying an unusual willingness to tolerate levels of human activity they avoided for decades -- understandably, considering the threat man posed.

The question of just how much more noise and habitat destruction the eagles will withstand has been simmering for months, putting the emblem of America's strength at the center of a post-Sept. 11 dilemma: balancing natural resources and national security.

That indeed is the question: how much disturbance these urban eagles are willing to tolerate before abandoning the nest. Since this pair has stayed at the site for eight years, they are clearly tolerant of human activity and have the skills to survive and breed in a dense urban atmosphere. However, given that the hospital grounds have seen very little activity for most of that time, it is difficult to predict how the eagles might react to sudden changes to the landscape, especially a change as drastic as the construction of a long access road. I would prefer not to see this question put to the test, especially when there are viable alternatives. The department ought first to try refitting one or more of the hospital's existing entrances to meet current standards. This would provide them with the security they need and avoid harming our national symbol in the process.

Even if you do not click through to read the article, make sure to take a look through the accompanying photo gallery.

Bird-friendly Architecture?

One of the problems with "green" architecture, as it is currently construed, is that it favors using a lot of glass. Now, glass has its advantages, as natural lighting is wonderful, and letting more sunlight inside can help a room feel warmer in the winter. Some glass buildings are indeed attractive. The trouble is that birds cannot perceive glass, so that a glass wall will either seem clear or will reflect back the building's surroundings. Thus walls constructed out of glass can become death traps for birds, especially during migration when many birds are tired and disoriented anyway.

Via bootstrap analysis, I learned that there is talk now of encouraging bird friendly certification to work alongside the current LEED standard.

Bird-Certified Architecture
LEED, a popular green building standard, awards only one point for bird-safe design, but it’s not a requirement. Other industries have already gone to the birds, for example, you can easily find bird-friendly coffee. In 2007, the New York City Audubon Society published guidelines to bird-safe buildings, but the techniques are still often absent from most green projects. Places such as Chicago and Toronto have bird-safe guidelines, yet there’s not a nationally recognized certification for ornithological design-excellence. If Ruiz-Gutierrez has her way, that’ll all change.

Ruiz-Gutierrez is bird crazy. She’s spent her share of time in the field researching and monitoring birds. Her research focuses on the effects of agricultural land uses on forest bird populations, as well as testing monitoring techniques to determine how land use patterns around protected areas influences their capability to maintain current levels of biodiversity. Her research has shown her that with less natural areas, birds are spending their time in urban environments. Impact of urbanization on bird populations is evident from mortalities in cities. At least 100,000,000 birds are killed every year across North America by collisions with buildings. Even more are injured.

An enforceable and evidence-based bird-friendly standard could be a major benefit to birds. As things stand now, the current LEED standards are inadequate for addressing a building's environmental impact. One of the many problems is the lack of bird-safe design. Creating a bird-friendly standard might be a step towards making "green" buildings more green.

More Midsummer Pollinators

A couple weeks ago I posted a few pictures of some local pollinators in honor of National Pollinators Week. Today's post will show a few more of the pollinating insects that I have seen recently.

As some of you may know, there are two families of flies that mimic bees and perform some of their pollinating functions. These are the families Bombyliidae and Syrphidae. The flies in the images below are in Syrphidae.

At first I thought the fly below was a yellow jacket, but it turned out to be Eristalis transversa, one of the bee flies. As you can see, this fly is quite large, almost the size of a honeybee. It is feeding on a black-eyed susan where a daddy-long-legs lies in wait. The latter did not move at all the whole time that the fly was crawling around on the flower.

I believe that this fly is in the genus Toxomerus, possibly T. geminatus, because of the pattern on its abdomen. This was much smaller than the other fly.

Finally, here is one non-pollinator, a meadow katydid. I am not sure of the exact species.

These photos and more are also available at my Flickr account. I am willing to be corrected if any insects are misidentified.

Loose Feathers #194

Atlantic Puffin caught in flight / Uploaded to Flickr by Stig Nygaard

Bird and birding news

• Scientists have retrieved DNA from 2500-year-old moa feathers and identified four extinct moa species. Their plumage was mostly drab, to avoid predation from the also extinct Haast's Eagle.
  
• The US Fish & Wildlife Service's annual survey of breeding waterfowl found 13% more birds this year than last year. You can read the full report (pdf) at their website.
  
• New Jersey will purchase 78 acres of a 96-acre tract in Cape May and protect it as a migratory bird preserve. The land had been slated to become a housing development.
• A speeding driver killed more than four dozen birds on a beach in Oregon.
• More than 500 Ring-billed Gulls were killed on the Cuyahoga River in Ohio after several hundred gallons of cooking oil leaked out of a sewer pipe.
  
• A survey of woodland birds in the UK has found sharp declines over the past 30 years. Nightingales have declined by 95%; starlings, linnets, lesser redpolls, and spotted flycatchers have all fallen more than 80%.
• Most black-legged kittiwakes are able to avoid inbreeding, according to a study of kittiwake genetics. The source of this ability is still unclear.
  
• South African birders have collected over one million bird records in their project to create a second South African Bird Atlas. The original atlas project was conducted from 1987-1991.
• Scientists are fitting Atlantic Puffins with GPS recording tags to learn why the Farne Islands population has been declining.
  
• Seed-eating birds help protect a forest in Tanzania by keeping seed-killing beetles in check. The beetles will not feed on seeds that have already passed through a bird's digestive tract.
  
• Common Terns are now nesting on a manmade island at Britain's Santholme nature reserve.
• The RSPB reports that more than 50 peregrines have been shot, poisoned, or trapped this year in the U.K.
  
• A group is trying to bring Trumpeter Swans to the Chesapeake region.
  
• An American Airlines plane hit a bird shortly before landing at La Guardia Airport.
  

Birds in the blogosphere

• 10,000 Birds: Time to Buy a Duck Stamp… or Not
• Coffee and Conservation: Research: Andean shade coffee quality habitat for birds
• Great Auk or Greatest Auk: Year of the Hoodie
• Bug Girl: Ospreys Return to Lower Michigan
• John Rakestraw: Marsh Wren Dust-bathing
• Jersey Birder: June 29 - Black Rail
  
• Bioephemera: Even pigeons can recognize "bad" art
  

Environmental news

• The Center for Biological Diversity has filed another petition to protect the giant Palouse earthworm, one of the few native earthworms in the Northwest, under the Endangered Species Act.
• Climate change is decreasing the average size of wild Soay sheep on a Scottish island since the mild winters make it easier for smaller sheep to survive.
• According to the latest IUCN report, 869 species have gone extinct in the past 500 years, and another 17,000 plant and animal species are currently threatened with extinction. The numbers may be an underestimates since only 2.7% of the world's 1.8 million described species have been assessed.
• Sea ice between Greenland and Svalbard is at its lowest level in the past 800 years.
  
• This month, various places will be holding butterfly counts, coordinated by the North American Butterfly Association.
• An invasive ladybird beetle is putting native ladybirds and many other species at risk in the U.K.
• New research suggests that much of the Mississippi Delta will disappear by 2100. Dams and climate change are the main causes of the problem.
  
• Vineyards in California are using goats and sheep to graze away invasive weeds.
• San Francisco residents and businesses are now required to compost food scraps and biodegradable materials.
• DesertBlog: Interior fast-tracks Big Solar on public lands
• The Clade: Destroying the Joshua trees in order to save them
  

Carnivals and newsletters

• Carnival of the Arid #5
• Festival of the Trees #37
  
• Birds in the News #177