Wilderness

The Week in Review for today's New York Times contains an article on remaining wilderness areas within the United States as well as the problems they face. Pollution, overgrazing (by cattle or deer), and housing developments are only some of the challenges. Bush's repeal of Clinton's roadless rule for certain wild areas does not help the situation. A map of development versus wilderness across the lower 48 states is particularly interesting. Most wilderness is in the west, while the east is almost solidly developed, with a few small exceptions like the Adirondacks in New York. This short piece is worth a look.

Trip Report: Sandy Hook, NJ

I am still out of town, visiting family in New Jersey and New York, and I will continue to be doing some occasional birding during that time. This afternoon I, along with several family members, visited one of the birding shore birding spots in Central Jersey, Sandy Hook. (The virtual tours in that link are highly recommended.)

In summer there is a $10 fee to enter Sandy Hook, but it is still free for birders who park in certain lots. (The fee is really only to cover the cost of providing life guards and other services for the swimming beaches.) So we went all the way out to the north end where there is a hawk watch platform. This platform is built on top of one of the old gun emplacements from when Sandy Hook was a military base to protect New York harbor. Now there is still a Coast Guard base at the very tip of the hook, but the rest of the bunkers that litter the hook are off-limits and in varying states of decay. The view to the beach is blocked at the parking lot for the hawk watch by a line of bunkers that are now crowned by sumacs and poison ivy rather than the naval siege guns aimed at German submarines during the two world wars. A field in the parking lot was overgrown with grasses and wildflowers, ideal for many butterfly species, including monarchs, a mourning cloak, clouded sulphurs, cabbage whites, and a silver-spotted skipper. My sister thought a viceroy was in the mix as well. When we first arrived there was a cloud of butterflies, but these slowly dispersed before we could identify all of them.

The hawk watch is only active during spring migration, but there were still raptors to be seen from the observation deck as most osprey nests were still operative. Unfortunately I could not make out any chicks in the nests, but many of the platforms had two adult osprey perched upon them. From the observation deck we were given a show by two brown thrashers who took sand baths in the dunes and then began sparring with each other.

The beach is a long walk along the Fishermen's Trail from the hawk watch. Because of the frequent foot traffic, the sand along the trail is very difficult for walking, to the point that some people have begun walking over the intact parts of the dunes as well. I hope that NJ Audubon will put up a fence to stop this; otherwise the whole dune will be destroyed sooner or later. There are ponds on either side of the trail. The one on the left had a large congregation of shorebirds and gulls. Unfortunately I could not make out much without a scope. There did appear to be some larger shorebirds, perhaps yellowlegs, but this could not be confirmed. Large chunks of the beach have been closed off with temporary fencing for nesting shorebirds and terns, but there is still plenty of room for walking in the surf and surf fishing. See, birds and people can get along no matter how much people complain about restrictions.

One of my hobby horses on this blog has been the state of certain species of concern, especially the least tern and piping plover. Well, this afternoon we saw least terns and a single piping
plover, two birds on NJ's endangered species list. The piping plover was a lifer for me. It was alone with a group of sanderlings, who later took off, leaving the plover all alone. This group was a few yards inside of the restriced area, while we watched from a few yards outside of the restricted area. The piping plover blended in with the sand quite well, and it required several sweeps with the binoculars for me to make it out. Further down the beach was an American oystercatcher, one of my all-time favorite birds. (Need I explain?) The least and common terns, both of which nest at the hook, were vocalizing in a way that I had never heard before. Now that I am home five hours later I cannot describe this call adequately; it was kind of like a gull's, except more raucous and throaty. I assume this active vocalization was related to their proximity to nesting territories. The signs marking the restriced areas also mentioned black skimmers as nesting there, but I saw none; I do not know if any actually bred there this summer.

Sanderling amaze me with the way they can run back and forth, dodging the incoming waves while snatching the bits of food washed up by the surf. I am surprised that more of them are not drowned by the waves. Terns also amaze me by their ability to dive into the waves and pick out small fish, while avoiding the oncoming waves. All such species require an uncanny sense of the rhythm of the surf greater than that of even the best human surfers.

In winter one can usually see New York from the end of the Fishermen's Trail. Today Brooklyn was barely visible and I could see only the ghost of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge with my binoculars. Manhattan was right out. Oddly enough Staten Island was invisible as well.

There are several places to stop and bird on the bay side of the hook. Today we only stopped at the southernmost cove. (I believe this is Spermacetti Cove, but I may be wrong.) We did not add much here except for a semipalmated plover, spotted sandpiper, and least sandpiper. Several heron species perched in the trees above the marsh grasses. The mosquitos were more apparent than birds along that trail, so we left before providing any more dinner for the hungry insects.

Note

I am out of town for a week or two, so the posts to my blog have been and will be a little less frequent than usual. However, I do plan to get some longer posts up at the beginning of next week, so do have patience and check back once in a while. Once I am back in Washington, I will get back to my normal posting routine.

This afternoon I saw a mourning cloak butterfly for the first time.

Bird News

The Christian Science Monitor reviews two books on birding. The first is William Souder's Under a Wild Sky, a book about John James Audubon and the beginning of American ornithology. The second is Tim Gallagher's The Grail Bird, an account of his chase after the ivory-billed woodpecker, a chase that he claims was ultimately successful when he and Bobby Harrison saw the bird from a canoe. The reviewer claims that the authors are better at portraying the strange people that their subjects encounter than the birds themselves. One ought to consider the intended subjects of the books before seeing this as criticism. Meanwhile, the Macon Telegraph has a list of the books concerning the ivory-billed woodpecker.

This space has perhaps been unduly concerned with piping plovers and least terns. Well, there is room for at least one more article. The Billings Gazette reports that in North Dakota, at least, piping plovers and least terns are doing well, with the former at 1756 individuals and the latter at 904, both record numbers.

The South Bend-Elkhart Audubon Society in Indiana is looking for information about bird observations in local parks. The society wants to nominate Potato Creek, Boot Lake, and Bendix Meadows as important bird areas, and needs further data regarding observations - both species seen and number of individuals, if possible. Even though this is in Indiana, and not the D.C. area, I post it because it is an example of how layman birders can contribute to conservation through their hobby. Some other examples are listed here.

A Sultry Evening Twitch

A report on MDOsprey last night noted the presence of a yellow-crowned night-heron and a tundra swan, two locally uncommon species, near the Chain Bridge. The latter is not made out of chains, nor is there anything about it that suggests instability. I presume the name comes from an earlier version of the bridge. The Chain Bridge crosses the Potomac River and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal just inside Washington's border with Maryland. The walkway on the north spot looks down upon a series of ponds and meadows created by the rock formations in the river gorge below.

I debated with myself about whether to go look for these two birds. As likely as not they would not be around, I thought, and it was hot and the trip through Georgetown to the canal can be long at times. But I decided that two local rarities increased the odds enough, so off I went in the early evening. The bus dropped me near Fletcher's Boathouse around 7 pm, and I walked the half-mile or so from there to the Chain Bridge. The evening was hot and hazy. The thermometer sat around 92°F when I left and was only down to 89°F when I returned home; the humidity was about 60%. I could see the humidity in the thick haze that blanketed the river valley. Even though the sun was above the horizon, it was barely visible through the mix of clouds and haze.

Not many birds were stirring. I heard one pileated woodpecker and saw a wood duck with three ducklings in the same place I have seen a wood duck family for the past three summers. More wood ducks awaited when I mounted the Chain Bridge and began looking down into the ponds. The land below the bridge presents lush green foliage contrasting with the deep grays of the ponds and rocks, with the dark brown ribbon of the Potomac coursing just beyond. Within the meadows, white-tailed deer browse. As often as I have seen them there, they still can be a startling sight when I see their heads sticking up out of the grasses. The trees were alive with red-winged blackbirds and American goldfinches, while one gaudy yellow warbler wrestled with a caterpillar. About five green herons and three black-crowned night-herons patrolled the ponds. One first-summer night-heron bent over holding its bill in the water, presumably waiting for some fish to swim past.

Though I checked each pond carefully, I could not find the yellow-crowned night-heron. If I had, it would have been a year-bird and a DC-bird for me. As it is, the yellow-crowned night-heron will have to wait. This is one reason I tend to be reluctant to twitch; the cost in time and energy is quite high if I fail to see the reported species.

However, I did see the tundra swan. Tundra swans are fairly common along the east coast in winter; in the Washington area they winter along the Chesapeake Bay and in the Eastern Shore in great numbers. But the swans rarely come all the way up to Washington itself. (Even mute swans are rarely seen here.) My only other tundra swan within the district was last summer, on June 17.

This bird apparently showed up around May 15 of this year. This is clearly not a breeding individual since only one has been seen during the past two months. Most likely this swan chose not to make the long flight back to the tundra of northern Canada and Alaska, its normal breeding ground, and settled for the summer along the Potomac. I tend to think this is a first-summer bird because the head and neck were somewhat grayish. If tundra swans wait several years before their first breeding, as several other large species do, then this individual may be too young for breeding, and thus did not need to make the flight to the tundra. Unfortunately I was not able to confirm this breeding pattern in any of my books, though Frank C. Bellrose, in his Ducks, Geese, and Swans of North America, speculates that tundra swans wait to breed until their third summer.

This swan certainly looked out of place. I am used to seeing tundra swans on wide bays and lakes choked with ice, when I am bundled to stave off the cold, not in a small pond on one of the hottest nights of the summer. Tundra swans have as their scientific name cygnus columbianus, "dove-like swan." The white feathers and graceful shape contrasted sharply with the muddy embankment upon which it stood while it preened itself; grayish head aside, this bird's whiteness stood out like a beacon. And the swan was big; it easily dwarfed the wood ducks and green herons with which it shared the pond.

So was it worth the trip? Yes, even if I missed the main species I wanted to see. I had the opportunity to watch some herons at work, saw a swan that is unusual in Washington, and did those things in a beautiful spot. And that kind of combination is what keeps me birding.

Before sending this post to the server, I have to register a complaint. Washington, D.C., has many wonderful natural areas in addition to the more familiar memorials of the Mall. However, many of these natural areas are difficult to reach, either requiring long rides with multiple connections, or in places that are otherwise difficult to reach without a car. The C & O Canal is a case in point. Someone without a car has basically three choices to reach the canal. One is at the start of the canal in Georgetown. The other two are bridges across the canal at Fletcher's Boathouse and Arizona Avenue. The first requires a walk down a steep winding road without a sidewalk, followed by crossing the busy Canal Road without benefit of a stoplight near a blind curve. The second requires walking down a steep hill on a road, again without a sidewalk; at the end one has to walk up an embankment to reach a bicycle bridge to cross Canal Road and the Canal, and then walk down a steep embankment on the other side to reach the towpath. Neither of these is pedestrian-friendly. A city should not be this way.

BIRDS SEEN AND HEARD: 22

Great Blue Heron
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Tundra Swan
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Kingbird
Northern Mockingbird
American Robin
European Starling
House Sparrow
American Goldfinch
Yellow Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle

Birds and Heat

In several entries I have noted that on hot summer days it becomes harder to find birds to watch. The Houston Chronicle has a piece on how birds react to hot weather, which can affect them even more strongly than humans because their bodies are so on-edge. The article notes several ways birds keep cool, such as sitting in the shade, fluffing feathers to circulate air, and seeking water sources for bathing. To the recommendations for helping birds mentioned in the article, I would add that it is good for birders not to engage in disruptive behavior on very hot days, like those we had in Washington this past week. That is, we should refrain from pishing and other things that might put undue stress on the birds that we are trying to watch.

Piping Plovers

In Massachusetts, four piping plovers were stolen from a closed beach where they were nesting. There were witnesses to the heist, but so far there are no suspects and no known motive. Since the piping plover is an endangered species, the theft can be punished by fines and jail time under both state and federal law. After all the bad news regarding piping plovers, at least one location has seen a successful breeding season for the species: Brigantine, New Jersey.

More Ivory-bill News

According to the New York Times, two top American birders - David Sibley and Kenn Kaufman are expressing skepticism about the reported ivory-bill sighting:

In fact, Mr. Kaufman said, "I've actually been shocked that virtually everyone has been embracing this."

He added, "I do in fact believe that there was a bird there last year, but it hasn't been proven and we could have a more honest discussion if people accept the fact that we don't have proof."

Mr. Sibley is unconvinced. At first, he, too, was elated, and went down to Arkansas for 10 days to look for the ivory bill without success.

It was only when he returned, he said, that he began to think critically about the Science report. "It's really crushing to come to the conclusion that it might not be true, that there is room for some reasonable doubt."

He has been reluctant to speak publicly about his doubts, and described doubters as being treated as "heretics" in online discussions.

The reason he is speaking out now, he said, is that he worried that money might be diverted from other conservation efforts.

What he said he wanted, for proof, was "redundancy. Repeated sightings by independent observers of birds really well seen."

A member of the search team, Bobby Harrison, was interviewed at length for the article. He agrees with the skeptics that further documentation is needed; in particular he hopes to get clear photographs of the ivory-bill when he returns to the Arkansas swamps later this year and early next year. At the same time he maintains that he did indeed see an ivory-billed woodpecker.

Trip Report: National Arboretum

When I left my apartment this morning, the air felt dramatically cooler than drier than it did over the last sweltering week. Last night a violent thunderstorm passed through the region around 2 am; it was loud enough to get me out of bed. While it brought some relief from the heat, it also wreaked havoc on the trees in the district. The arboretum seemed especially hard hit; they delayed opening until 9 am while they cleared most of the roadways from debris. One tree split and crushed the bus stop near the entrance. While waiting to be allowed into the arboretum, I swatted mosquitos off my legs and listened to a house wren in a magnolia near the gate. By the time visitors were allowed to enter, the strong sun was already melting away the cool air of the morning. Even so, the day did not become nearly as uncomfortable as some days earlier this week.

I took a somewhat unusual route, at least unusual in terms of how I bird the arboretum. I went out to the parking lot near New York Avenue first, and circled up through the conifer area and Asian collection, before taking my usual route back to the visitor center. The area around the parking lot looks like it might be good for migrating sparrows and other field birds in the fall. Today it produced an immature Cooper's hawk. That will be something to monitor as the year continues.

As I found on my trip to Kenilworth the other day, the birds were not very active today, and most had to be sought with difficulty. It seems that we are still in the midst of the usual summer birding doldrums. I did get a rare look at a yellow-billed cuckoo, which swooped from a tree to pounce on a cicada, and then landed on a visible perch as it tried (without much success) to swallow its prey. Cuckoos are fairly common in Washington, but most of the time I only hear them, not see them. (Their call is unmistakable once you have heard it: kek-kek-kek-kek-kowlp-kowlp-kowlp-kowlp.) Another bird that usually hear rather than see is the red-eyed vireo; today I got a look at two birds of that species in one of the hemlocks near the Asian garden. Brown thrashers were plentiful all around the arboretum.

All of the dragonfly identifications are somewhat provisional at this point since I do not have a true field guide. Instead I am using a few useful websites with photographs and checklists. Two local sites are kept by June Tveekrem and Dave Czaplak. I saw great blue skimmers hovering over every pond and meadow. There were many more dragonfly species than the four listed here, but I was not able to identify all of them.

Wildflowers for today included black-eyed susans, Queen Anne's lace, chicory, yellow cinquefoil, and fleabane.

BIRDS SEEN AND HEARD: 37

Canada Goose
Turkey Vulture
Cooper's Hawk
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Chimney Swift
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
American Crow
European Starling
House Sparrow
Red-eyed Vireo
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Common Grackle

BUTTERFLIES SEEN: 12

Zebra Swallowtail
Black Swallowtail
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Checkered White
Cabbage White
Clouded Sulphur
Orange Sulphur
Spring Azure
Red-spotted Purple
Viceroy
Silver-spotted Skipper
Fiery Skipper

DRAGONFLIES SEEN: 4

Common Whitetail
Great Blue Skimmer
Blue Dasher
Black Saddlebags

Some Bird News

Over the past week, there have been a series of articles reporting a finding by biologists that certain toxic hotspots in the Arctic resulted from pollution carried in the feces of seabirds, especially northern fulmars. The pollutants left in fulmar nesting colonies include mercury and DDT. I had avoided blogging about this earlier because the report is rather depressing; even relatively wild areas are being fouled by our excesses. It is also a reminder of how pervasive pollutants are; just as the seabirds are carrying such dangerous chemicals within their systems, we too are carrying many contaminants within our own bodies.

The reason I decided to write about this story now is partly because of the hand-wringing over the ivory-bill controversy. Several people have opined that the challenge to the identification of the Arkansas woodpecker as an ivory-bill might be used as an excuse for anti-environmentalists to roll back species protection and specifically to remove some protections set in place for the areas where the putative ivory-bill was discovered. I share some of these worries. But I think that reports like this one about the fulmars represent a greater challenge to environmentalists because it appears to let humans off the hook. From this editorial it appears that those worries may be justified:

It's harder to understand the careless conclusion that the birds were in some way responsible for the contamination.

American papers tended toward the simple birds-are-to-blame angle, describing their function in terms such as "trafficking." An Irish journalist, unencumbered by logic, wrote that the findings "will come as a shock to the guilt-ridden who blame us humans for putting the planet in jeopardy by damaging the polar environment. Though long condemned, as a matter of course, for the fouling of the Arctic, we have been found not guilty."

Amazing. As if the birds were synthesizing PCBs in their gizzards, or going out of their way to forage on foods rich in DDT.

Tom Anderson has noted a similar reaction when it comes to the effects of storms and other natural phenomena on endangered species around the Long Island Sound. In both cases, the real problem is not what the storms or birds are doing, it is what humans are doing to aggravate the situation.

Speaking of the ivory-bill, the online debate over the meaning of the identification challenge continues to heat up. Nature has a free article up about the challenge, but it does not give much information. So far the search team and sponsoring institutions continue to stand behind the finding. Among bird and science blogs, there were new posts on the subject by Hedwig (here and here), Nuthatch, Laura Erickson (here, here, and here), and Jon Christenson. Many more to come, I presume. Unfortunately we will just be able to stir the pot until more information comes out.

Finally, a new report in Science suggests that birds and other animals may have populations higher than their habitats can support, or, in other words, that they are hungry much of the time. Researchers are still trying to determine what this means for how animals compete will each other for food.

Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens

This morning I braved the heat and humidity to do some birding along the other side of the Anacostia. The day was extremely hazy right from the start, and the grass in Kenilworth Park was so covered with dew that my feet were soaked for the rest of the morning despite my "waterproof" sneakers. By the time I was done, the temperature had hit 90, with the heat index somewhere above that; at least the relative humidity was "only" 41% this morning.

Kenilworth Park has a reputation for being good for shorebirds and field species. Sure enough, I found a couple of early least sandpipers mixed in with about a dozen killdeer. Those sandpipers and a few great egrets in the river near the Metro bridge are signs that fall migration is underway here. Other than that, not much was stirring in the park.

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens also seemed fairly quiet at first. The tide was high so not much was to be seen out in the marsh. There were lots of young birds, especially young American robins still in their spotted plumage. As I walked along the boardwalk, young barn swallows would land less than five feet away from me and not fly off until I was almost on top of them. I also saw family groups of eastern kingbirds in both the park and the aquatic gardens.

Since the birds were not too active this morning, I spent some time looking at butterflies and dragonflies. There appear to be about a half-dozen common local species of dragonflies; I have not learned what these are yet because I do not currently have a guide. Some are very pretty and all are rather ancient-looking. The butterflies are tricky to identify. I had one land on my foot and still could not identify until a few hours later when I looked through my guidebook thoroughly. That was the red-spotted purple. Viceroys were common along the boardwalk, and there were several zebra swallowtails along the river trail.

I had one unwelcome first-time sighting this morning. As I ascended the escalator to the Metro platform, I saw one of the advertising-wrapped cars that Metro is using. It is unfortunate that Metro had to resort to that, because it looks bad.

BIRDS SEEN AND HEARD - 39

Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Green Heron
Canada Goose
Mallard
Killdeer
Least Sandpiper
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Chimney Swift
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Acadian Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Kingbird
Purple Martin
Barn Swallow
Cedar Waxwing
Carolina Wren
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
American Robin
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
American Crow
European Starling
House Sparrow
Northern Parula
Common Yellowthroat
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle

BUTTERFLIES SEEN - 11

Zebra Swallowtail
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Spicebush Swallowtail
Cabbage White
Cloudless Sulphur
Spring Azure
Eastern Comma
Red Admiral
Red-spotted Purple
Viceroy
Silver-spotted Skipper

I and the Bird



The second edition of I and the Bird is now up and ready for reading. This week it is hosted by Charlie, the globe-trotting Englishman who writes Charlie's Bird Blog. Welcome to anyone who came by to read my post, Capitol Hill Peregrine. I hope you will come back if you liked it.

Ivory-bill Update

It appears that three biologists are about to publish a paper claiming that the bird seen in the Arkansas "Big Woods" was not an ivory-billed woodpecker, but instead was a leucistic (i.e., partial albino) pileated woodpecker. The argument centers around analysis of the film clip that was widely passed around the media and the internet, and which formed the basis for the Cornell team's proof of the bird's identity. The Cornell team is holding its ground and will publish a rebuttal.

For now, at least, I tend to trust the Cornell team's judgment. They were the ones on the scene who saw the bird(s), and appear to be well-regarded scientists and birders who would be risking their reputations if they were proved wrong. So I am sure that they were careful in their analysis. But there needs to be some arguments back and forth, and perhaps further exploration of the area.

Hedwig was the first among bloggers to break the news, but nuthatch has a longer analysis at the moment. I share the latter's concern that otherwise healthy skepticism regarding the sighting of the ivory-bill will be used as an excuse to halt habitat acquisition in the south. The current administration barely acts to help endangered and threatened species that are known to exist. And whether or not there really is a breeding population of ivory-bills in the "Big Woods," there are plenty of other species, such as the prothonotary warbler, that could use the habitat anyway. The public reaction will be key to what happens next.

National Mall Birds

This evening I took another walk along the southern side of the Mall through the gardens that are interspersed with the museums there. Right now there are five principal gardens along the south side of the Mall: Bartholdi Park (behind the U.S. Botanical Garden conservatory), the garden surrounding the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), the sculpture garden in front of the Hirschorn, Ripley Gardens (between the Hirschorn and the Arts and Industries building), and the Enid Haupt Garden (behind the Smithsonian Castle). There are a couple others on the north side and several larger ones west of the Washington Monument, but I have not explored those as thoroughly. With the recent addition of the NMAI garden and the future opening of the new garden between the Botanical Garden conservatory and NMAI, this group of gardens forms a more or less continuous line of greenery with only one or two long interruptions.

Now most times only common birds will be in these gardens, but occasionally something exceptional will show up. Tonight was not one of the exceptions; the house sparrow - starling - rock pigeon triumvirate continues to rule the roost on the east end of the Mall. One unexpected sight was a killdeer standing in a puddle on the lawn of the Capitol. As I looked at it, a second one flew in. I imagine that they must have nested somewhere close by, perhaps on the roof of one of the office buildings. A song sparrow sang in Bartholdi Park. The wetlands portion of the NMAI gardens continues to turn up some good birds. Several red-winged blackbirds called from the trees, while an eastern kingbird flew from its perch on a three-foot-high baldcypress to snag insects close to the water. Though these are all quite common birds for D.C. in the summer, I am quite pleased to see them all downtown in the midst of busy streets and federal buildings.

Mallard
Killdeer
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Eastern Kingbird
Barn Swallow
Northern Mockingbird
American Crow
European Starling
House Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird

Problems for endangered (and near-endangered) species in New Jersey

Even though the title of my blog is A DC Birding Blog, I do have a strong interest in birdlife in New Jersey. This is because I grew up there and frequently return there for visits due to continuing connections. Such visits usually include a bit of birding.

Anyway, two reports have come out today in the Asbury Park Press about the future of two rare shorebirds, the red knot and the piping plover. The red knot has become threatened in recent years due to the loss of hermit crabs in the Delaware Bay, which red knots feed upon while in transit from their wintering grounds in southern South America to their breeding grounds in the Arctic. (This is one of the longest migrations known.) The New Jersey Audubon Society and concerned lawmakers, such as Frank Pallone, are pushing for expedited listing under the Endangered Species Act, which will not be possible if the Bush administration is able to change the law.

Piping plovers have had low success in nesting in New Jersey this year, partly due to habitat loss and partly due to predation by foxes. The breeding population at Sandy Hook was the lowest since 1991. Similar problems face least terns, another species endangered in New Jersey. The piping plovers also face problems in Prince Edward Island and North Carolina.

I was very glad to spot a red knot near Bombay Hook in May. But so far I have not seen a piping plover. Perhaps I will this migration or next?

Freak Storm Report: Central Jersey

In the last week or so we have seen erratic thunderstorms due to the hot and humid weather. Southern Middlesex county in New Jersey was hit with a torrential but localized thunderstorm on Sunday. It was centered around Jamesburg, and left flooding and sinkholes in its wake. The Home News Tribune reports that the communities are seeking state and federal aid.

Eagles and Humans in Conflict

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, a state eagle survey found that the breeding population of bald eagles in Virginia has risen from 33 nests in 1977 to 428 last year and 453 this year. This year 657 chicks hatched from those nests. The growth in population has been great, but eagles are running out of places to nest, because development has increasingly taken away prime nesting habitat. The situation is especially critical along the shores of lakes and rivers, where eagles prefer to nest. One good sign is that some pairs of eagles seem to be adapting to the developments by nesting close to homes, at least in areas where tall trees have been left in place.

Eagles have become a fairly common sight inside the Beltway, especially in winter. I know of two nests: one near Little Falls and one just inside the Wilson Bridge. That the latter nest can stay in operation with all the construction going on there amazes me. The second spot is also the first place I saw bald eagles, but that is another story.

Capitol Hill Peregrine

One January a couple years ago – a few months after I had started birding – I was suffering from another bout of a chronic illness. About an hour before sunset I was feeling well enough to go out, so I took a short walk from my apartment down past the Capitol to Bartholdi Park. It was very cold and windy but sunny.

As I walked along the drive in front of the Capitol building, I watched ring-billed gulls and European starlings fly around overhead. Gulls tend to cluster in that area because they get easy pickings from the tourists that pass through every day. Suddenly I saw a bird that I realized was not a gull, and soon I realized that it was a falcon, violating restricted airspace. As I watched it soar overhead, it suddenly stooped over one of the congressional office buildings, and then sped in hot pursuit of a flock of starlings. It came close but did not catch any. I then watched it overhead some more until it disappeared behind the dome of the Capitol.

This was a most spectacular way of seeing my first peregrine falcon. In the time since then, I have seen many more, both in the District and on field trips farther away. But that first sighting is strongly etched into my memory, for the way it lifted my spirits after a trying day, and for the place where I saw it.

Trip Report: National Arboretum

This morning I took the bus up to the National Arboretum to try to get in a walk before the day became oppressive. During this past week, it has been difficult to muster the energy to go birding since the temperature has been pushing 90 almost every day, while the humidity has been around 80%. And then there have been threatening clouds almost every day. But this morning I did go out.

The birds on the whole were a bit quieter than the last time I visited the arboretum. House wrens, some northern cardinals, eastern towhees, red-eyed vireos, indigo buntings, and wood thrushes were still singing. A few other species were vocalizing, but using contact calls instead of their songs. Even the red-shouldered hawk refrained from its usual screaming and general carrying-on.

On a day like today, the birds tend to be harder to find, so I have started to pay more attention to the butterflies that sit and fly out in the open. I am slowly learning the species that can be found in this area. Cabbage whites, of course, are ubiquitous, and clouded sulphurs are quite common, too. I was surprised to see tiny spring azures fluttering in one of the large fields; somehow I had the idea that they only appeared early in the year. Skippers are still giving me trouble. They are the LBJ's of Lepidotera; actually they might be even harder than the avian LBJ's because the colors and patterns are frequently very subtle.

Last time I was at the arboretum, I saw my first yellow-breasted chat. Today I was dismayed to find that the meadow where I saw it had been cleared of vegetation. Even more dismaying was that the area was treated with pesticides. I hope that any birds that were nesting in there managed to get their babies hatched and fledged before that was done.

After the walk, I gladly sat under the A/C vents in the back of the bus on the way home.

BIRDS SEEN AND HEARD: 35

Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
Red-shouldered Hawk
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Chimney Swift
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Acadian Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
House Wren
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
Eastern Bluebird
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
American Crow
Fish Crow
European Starling
Red-eyed Vireo
American Goldfinch
Northern Parula
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Brown-headed Cowbird

BUTTERFLIES: 10

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Palamedes Swallowtail
Cabbage White
Clouded Sulphur
Orange Sulphur
American Copper
Spring Azure
Viceroy
Silver-spotted Skipper
Fiery Skipper

Two Bird Articles

A week ago, I wrote a post about seeing a common moorhen in New Jersey's Meadowlands. This weekend, the New York Times has an article on the rise of ecotourism in the Meadowlands. As birds, fish, and other wildlife have returned, there has been a greater interest in visiting the marshes along the Hackensack River. The article mentions two areas: the Saw Mill Creek WMA (which I have visited), and the Mill Creek Marsh (which I have not visited). A reporter travelled on a pontoon boat that transports ecotourists through the marshes; I think he sums up the Meadowlands birding experience fairly well:

During recent trips with each group, the noises of the highway and airplanes competed with the chortling riffs of the marsh wren, but when the captain of one of the boats cut the motor back in the deeper marshy reaches, a lulling silence took over. Great egrets flew above the spartina grass framed by the smoggy outlines of the Empire State Building, about seven miles away. A black-crowned night-heron waited for baitfish next to a culvert under the turnpike.

Closer to my town, the Chesapeake Bay provides some major birding attractions. This article describes some of the avian highlights of the Eastern Shore along the bay. Because of transportation-related reasons, I have not birded very frequently along the Chesapeake. But I have seen some wonderful sights - and recorded some lifers - in the state and federal refuges along both shores of the bay.

National Mall Walk

I repeated last night's walk tonight, but this time I did it without getting drenched. Many of the museums along the Mall have gardens associated with them. These gardens frequently may provide bird habitat despite the large numbers of people that pass through every day, especially during the summer. Last summer a new garden was added with the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian, and another garden will soon open adjacent to the U.S. Botanical Garden building. (The latter is in addition to Bartholdi Park, across Independence Ave from the Botanical Garden building.)

The garden at the National Museum of the American Indian has improved substantially since I first saw it last summer. The plants are all looking full-leaved and healthy. The gardens are supposed to represent four habitats present in eastern North America before the arrival of Europeans: woodlands, wetlands, agricultural lands, and meadows. The first and last are the least well-defined at this point. The "woodland" areas need some time to grow. At this point the woodland section is dominated by blooming phlox and cardinal flowers (?), as well as some short birch trees. The marsh is covered with cattails and waterlilies, which are about to bloom.

A few mallards seem to have taken up residence in the "wetlands" area. I still would like to see a few less common species turn up in the garden during migration, or perhaps stay to breed. A song sparrow was singing from the shrubs tonight, so that is a start, but it sure would be nice to see this garden become a source of biodiversity in downtown DC.

As of tonight, the house finches in my neighborhood were still singing.

Mallard
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
American Robin
Fish Crow
European Starling
House Sparrow
House Finch
Song Sparrow
Common Grackle

Washington Post: Report Details Environmental Harm to Fetuses

A report by the Environmental Working Group found a staggering amount of contaminant in umbilical cords. The contaminants, which include mercury, pesticides, and fire retardants, appear to have gotten there via pollution in the mother's environment. The report was based on testing of 10 newborn babies. Several members of Congress, including Louise Slaughter from New York, are calling for new legislation to control the pollutants cited.

I think it would be helpful to have a larger set of data to get a better sense of how pervasive these chemicals are among newborns. My main question is where these pollutants enter the mother's bloodstream - e.g., is it a city problem or a suburban problem primarily? That will help answer the question of what, if anything, should our legislators do. (Good luck getting any regulatory action through the Republican-controlled Congress - even if the party is supposedly pro-life / pro-family.)

I also think this shows the importance of environmentalism. It is not just about preserving pretty places for rich people to visit in the country and preventing rare species from becoming extinct, although those are aspects of it. The environment is all around us. It is the air we breathe, the water we drink, ... and the chemicals that we absorb in the process. This affects everyone - rich or poor, city-dweller or suburbanite. As such, it really ought to be a greater political issue than it has been. Perhaps reports like this will make people wake up.

Evening Mall Birds

This evening I walked down the National Mall despite the threatening rain. (Last night it threatened to rain, too, but I did not see any fall from the sky.) Not too many birds were in evidence tonight. The commoners (common grackle, European starling, house sparrow, northern mockingbird) have fledged and the youngsters were begging for food. I watched a few parents feeding their young in the garden behind the Smithsonian Castle. Then the rains came. This was not your ordinary drizzle. This was a full-fledged summer downpour. At first I tried taking shelter under the overhang from a doorway, but eventually it became clear that even that was not shelter enough. So I walked back. The rain did not stop until I had reached my apartment. At least the exercise was worth the trip.

Rock Pigeon
Chimney Swift
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
House Sparrow
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird

Tangled Bank

The latest edition of the Tangled Bank, a carnival for science and nature bloggers, is up at TechnoGypsy. Welcome to anyone who is visiting here for the first time via the post linked from the carnival.

North Dakota White Pelicans in Trouble Again

Last year a large colony of white pelicans in North Dakota caused a great deal of consternation by not showing up at their normal breeding grounds. This year the white pelicans did arrive at their normal breeding grounds at Chase Lake NWR in North Dakota. But now it appears that some 8,000 pelican chicks have died, leaving only about 500. The cause is still unknown, though disease and bad weather are cited as possible culprits.

Some Interesting Bird Studies

I recently came across a website called Science Daily that collects and publishes articles on scientific studies and related issues. This includes, of course, birds. The link is now over on my steadily lengthening sidebar. Currently there are two interesting bird-related stories.

The first is that birds that migrate early increase their chances of reproductive success. This is not in itself surprising. Male birds that arrive early in the spring get a head start on setting up territories, which is a key component of finding a mate. The interesting part of this study is that birds that finish their breeding early and molt before heading south have an increased chance for reproductive success the following season. The reason seems to be that molting while still on territory, instead of in the midst of migration, leads to brighter plumage. Other studies have shown that female birds prefer brighter plumage in their mates. One of the birds studied was the American redstart, whose display includes fanning its tail feathers to show off the bright red markings on its tail.

The second avian sex story comes from central Asia, where researchers have found a species of eagle whose pairs mate for life. The species is the eastern imperial eagle. Researchers proved that the eagles mate for life through analyzing the DNA found in tail feathers left behind at nesting areas. The technique allowed the research to proceed without capturing the birds, which is important because human interfere can frequently discourage birds from breeding. While many raptors are least somewhat monogamous, not all bird species are.

Chickadees and Song Sparrows

A week or two ago, a report on the sophistication of black-capped chickadee alarm calls made headlines after an article on the subject was published in Science. The Seattle Times followed up this week with an interview with the graduate student behind the study, Chris Templeton. In addition to chickadees, his research includes song sparrows. As other birders well know, song sparrows are highly variable birds, both in plumage and in song. (I have had many song sparrows almost trick me into thinking they were another, less common, species.) Preliminary results suggest that song sparrows use different songs on different territories depending on what their neighboring sparrows sing.

Tropical Storms and Bird Life

Hurricane season seems to have gotten off to an early and active start this season. It is only the first week of July and already the fourth storm - Hurricane Dennis - is ripping through the Caribbean. The last storm, Cindy, disrupted breeding colonies of least terns and black skimmers along the Mississippi coast. Natural disasters are common in nature and bird species ought to be able to recover from them, but habitat loss and other human pressures will make it harder for these species of special concern to recoup the population hits. One also has to wonder about the effect humans have on the storms themselves. Granted, there are many factors that influence the frequency and intensity of hurricanes beyond human control. But everything that I have read indicates that as the earth warms, we can expect more frequent and stronger storms. This is not good news for anyone living on the Caribbean rim - bird or human.

Not-so Common Moorhen

Over the extended weekend I travelled out of town to visit family in New Jersey and New York. While there, I had the opportunity to bird with some family members in the Hackensack Meadowlands. If your experience of New Jersey is limited to the New Jersey Turnpike, wildlife viewing in the Meadowlands might seem a crazy idea. Many of the industrial sites and landfills that provide the "scenery" for the upper Turnpike are still there, but the state has been trying to preserve and expand the marshland set aside for wildlife refuge refuges and for wildlife viewing areas. (Here is a map.) Currently there are several locations accessible to birders; the best are described in William Boyle's Guide to Bird Finding in New Jersey. Birding in the Meadowlands is somewhat disconcerting, as it is hard to get away from the sound of heavy automobile traffic on the Turnpike, train traffic on the various railroads crisscrossing the marshes, and airplane traffic landing and taking off from Newark International Airport. The human hand has obviously fallen very heavily upon this area. But there are also some very beautiful spots; in some places there are vistas of acres of marsh grasses bending before the frequent breezes.

The Meadowlands provides important habitat for migrants and breeding birds. In the spring and late summer it becomes a stopover point for migrating shorebirds and herons. The Sawmill Creek mudflats, visible from De Korte Park, fill with these wading birds during the month of August. Early July is a little too soon for migrants, but a solitary greater yellowlegs may have been an early migrant. A few snowy egrets were also probably part of a post-nesting dispersal.

Because of its unique habitat combination, the Meadowlands is home to several birds, particularly waterfowl, that breed there and in few other places in New Jersey. Ruddy ducks are annual breeders; on Sunday a large flock was at De Korte and a few others were in Kearny Marsh. The latter site also held a female gadwall with several chicks in tow. Mute swans, an invasive species, are found reliably in the Meadowlands; about two dozen were at Kearny Marsh, and a few others were at De Korte. Empidonax flycatchers are not uncommon in New Jersey, but worth mentioning anyway. I saw one empidonax in Kearny Marsh. It was silent the whole time I watched it, so I cannot be certain of the identification, but given the habitat the bird was most likely a willow flycatcher. At Kearny Marsh, a least tern (endangered in New Jersey) patrolled the river and the impoundments.

Another Meadowlands specialty is the common moorhen. Someone else spotted it first as it crossed the path between two impoundments in Kearny Marsh. Later I got to see it while I was walking back along the same path. It emerged from the reeds on the left side of the path, and then stood in the middle of the path for some time before disappearing into the reeds on the right side of the path. It later walked out onto the path again. This was not my first sighting of a moorhen; my first was on the same day I saw my first purple gallinule, at Hughes Hollow near Washington last summer.

Since the first time I saw an American coot, I have considered coots to be very amusing birds. The same is true for moorhens. Their call is unusual; moorhen vocalizations sound a bit like squeaky toys, while coots make a clucking sound. Their head-bobbing gait - both on land and in the water - exaggerates the effect of the oddly-shaped frontal shield on their heads.

Unlike coots, moorhens are difficult to see. Their cryptic coloration (brown wings with a slate-gray body) makes it easy for them for disappear among marsh grasses. More importantly, even though they are found throughout the eastern United States, their distribution tends to be very local. The Meadowlands is, in fact, one of the few locations in New Jersey where moorhens breed. See Walsh et al., Birds of New Jersey. (The old edition of the Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Maryland and the District of Columbia also found few locations for breeding moorhens in Maryland.) The reason is that moorhens require specialized habitat that is found in very few places. While not endangered, this species' future survival depends on preservation of sufficient wetland areas.

Weblog Survey

I and the Bird




Today marks the first issue of I and the Bird, a new blog carnival begun by Mike at 10,000 Birds. Blog carnivals are meant to showcase some of the best writing on a given topic around the web, in this case birds and birding. I am happy to say that one of my previous posts was included in this week's issue.

If you are visiting for the first time, welcome. This blog is a collection of field trip reports, thoughts on encounters with birds, and commentary on news and events that affect brids and the environment. I am still finding my blogging voice, so this may change. I am also not an ornithologist (or a scientist), just someone who loves watching birds.

Bird Songs

MaineToday.com has a special section on Nature Watching, which includes a birding column by Herb Wilson. This week's column is Learning to identify birds by ear. He includes links to a number of helpful websites, so it is worth a look, even if you do not bird in Maine. I am not entirely sold on the Feith CD. The audio samples seem very short, and many species fly past without making a lasting impression on my brain. I much prefer the Birding by Ear CDs by Walton and Lawson for learning calls. Still, the Feith CD can be a useful resource to have while travelling, as it gathers 189 species on one disk that is easily transported.

Wind Farms and Birds

One problem that has emerged in the search for alternate, renewable energy sources is that wind turbines kill birds, especially when the turbines are placed on migration corridors. A new Dutch study suggests that the death toll may not be as high as previously estimated. That study found an average of 28 deaths per turbine; earlier studies predicted about three times that figure. This is good news for renewable energy fans, but there is still cause to worry. I am a little concerned that this study was co-sponsored by an energy company; that makes it difficult to trust the results. And even 28 deaths per turbine is high, considering that wind farms have hundreds of turbines each. Wind power is a promising energy source, but bird mortality still needs to be reduced before it is truly environmentally friendly.

On the subject of wind power, the new design for the coming replacement for the World Trade Center in New York has eliminated the wind turbines envisioned for the upper stories in earlier designs. It is unfortunate that this element of green design was lost in the midst of political haggling over the project. The planners had an opportunity to set an example for future building projects, but it appears that this opportunity has been lost.

Interesting Website

I just added a link to the sidebar for an interesting birding website I heard about recently called Little Birdie. It is a summary of bird stories from around the web, with links and audio/video files where appropriate. I am not sure if the site designer was deliberately following this model, but it has the appearance at least of a "Drudge Report" for birders. Among other things there is an audio file to go with the story report earlier in the week about how chickadees use variations in their calls to reflect different levels of alarm, and a National Geographic story on using flourescent droppings to study bluebird flight patterns.