Sunday, September 30, 2007

Franklin Grasslands

I spent the afternoon and evening at two grasslands preserves in Franklin Township. Birds were pretty sparse at Griggstown. The best sightings were a trio of palm warblers and a few savannah sparrows. One of the latter was perched on top of a mullein stalk until it was spooked by a monarch butterfly. There were quite a few hawks and vultures in the air. I am not sure if any were migrants, but a couple Cooper's hawks were soaring so high that they may have been migrating. Also, there were a yellowthroat and a black-and-white warbler in one of the back corners of the preserve.

The second stop at Negri-Nepote turned up yet more palm warblers, several phoebes, and a small group of chipping sparrows. Kestrels were out hunting tonight. One was hovering over a field, and later a pair was flying together. The last bird, just as the light was disappearing, was a white-throated sparrow settling down for the night.

BIRD SPECIES: 32

Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
Mallard
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Gray Catbird
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Blue Jay
American Crow
American Goldfinch
Palm Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Lincoln's Sparrow at Lord Stirling

Virginia creeperThis morning we returned to the Great Swamp, though this time we visited Lord Stirling Park, in the Somerset County portion of the swamp. The trails there wind through a series of fields, woods, and marshes. There is plenty of good bird habitat in the park, though its size means that flocks will be scattered widely rather than concentrated.

Starting out from the nature center, we ran into flocks of birds almost immediately. There were several swamp sparrows along the entrance causeway. Then at the end of the dike, there was a small group consisting of a swamp sparrow, two field sparrows, and a Lincoln's sparrow. I had all three in the same binocular view at one point. Lincoln's sparrows seem to be moving through in good numbers this weekend, if the postings on JerseyBirds are any indication. We spotted a second Lincoln's in another field later.

Pressing on, we encountered a patch of warbler activity just inside the woods. There were parula, black-and-white, black-throated green, and blackburnian warblers mixed in with an assortment of chickadees, titmice, and nuthatches. There seemed to be more birds in canopy, but they were hard to see because of the height of the trees and the angle of morning sunlight. A nearby meadow had some yellowthroats, yellow rumps, and a magnolia.

boardwalkAfter that, the birding quieted down for the most part. The walk was accompanied by the screams of blue jays and the cackles of red-bellied woodpeckers. In the marshes farthest from the nature center, we saw a good deal of raptor activity. A red-tailed hawk, a sharp-shinned hawk, and a northern harrier were all hoping to find a meal. The last birds for the day's list were a few ovenbirds on the return trails.

tree gallOne non-bird note for today... Somewhere along one of the far boardwalks I spotted this tree with a tremendous gall at its base. The gall appears to be about two feet in diameter, and it even has ferns sprouting from its top.

BIRD SPECIES: 39

Canada Goose
Black Vulturetree against blue sky
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Gray Catbird
American Robinturkeytail fungus
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Blue Jay
American Crow
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat
Eastern Towhee
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle

Friday, September 28, 2007

Loose Feathers #117

White-crowned Sparrow / Photo by Donna Dewhurst (USFWS)

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Thursday, September 27, 2007

Tracking Black Oystercatcher Migration

black oystercatcherThe USGS is conducting a migration study on black oystercatchers, a large, distinctive shorebird species. Since their habitat is limited to rocky coastlines and their global population is small, black oystercatchers are of conservation concern. Learning more about their movements and distribution outside of the breeding season can help ensure that critical habitat is preserved.

Government scientists captured a small number of oystercatchers and fitted them with either a satellite or VHF transmitter. Satellite transmitters were implanted in the birds' abdomens while VHF transmitters were strapped to their backs. The birds were caught on their breeding grounds at sites across the southern shore of Alaska.

As with bar-tailed godwits, you can follow the movements of black oystercatchers with Google Earth. Visit the USGS black oystercatcher site for the latest satellite tracking data. The image below shows the birds' positions as of Monday.

Magnetic Fields and Migration

A study of garden warblers in Europe suggests that migrating birds can see the Earth's magnetic field.

Now work by Dominik Heyers and colleagues at the University of Oldenburg in Germany has started to unravel the mechanism at a neuroanatomical level -- and it shows the eye is key.

Magnetic sensing molecules in the eye, known as cryptochromes, appear to stimulate photoreceptors depending on the orientation of the magnetic field.

This strongly suggests migratory birds perceive the magnetic field as a visual pattern, the researchers said.

"It's a pity we cannot ask them, but what we imagine is that it is like a shadow or a light spot on the normal vision of the bird," Heyers said in a telephone interview.
The published paper is available at PLoS ONE.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Delaware's Horseshoe Crab Issue

The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control is reconsidering its moratorium on horseshoe crab harvests. A earlier moratorium was struck down by a state judge who felt that the DNREC relied too much on scientific evidence and took insufficient account of business concerns.

The issue is important for birders because the excessive harvests of horseshoe crabs have led to the precipitous decline of the red knot population. Red knots migrate every year from the Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic Circle, and back. Delaware Bay is a crucial stopover where knots feed on horseshoe crab eggs in order to have the energy to reach the Arctic and breed.

Audubon has prepared an online petition on the subject. Written comments are due by 4:30 pm on September 30. You need not be a Delaware resident to submit comments, but it would be good for Delaware's government to hear from its constituents.

Climate Change Leadership

A recent Washington Post article entitled "Bush Steps Out Front on Climate Issue" reveals that he is actually doing nothing of the sort. Well, perhaps he is "stepping out in front," if by "stepping out in front," it really means "getting in the way."

Top Bush administration officials said the president is not planning to alter his opposition to mandatory limits on greenhouse gases or to stray from his emphasis on promoting new technologies, especially for nuclear power and for the storage of carbon dioxide produced by coal plants.
And:
One European official, who asked not to be identified for fear of jeopardizing the talks, said he fears that the Bush administration's aims for next week amount to "a necessary but not sufficient agenda" for negotiators preparing for Bali.

"If it looks like this is setting a ceiling for Bali, rather than a floor, then the Europeans will have difficulty with this," the official said. "It's not yet clear how this will turn out."
In other words, Bush's intervention in this week's talks at the U.N. is likely to waste the time of leaders who actually want to accomplish some concrete results to stem climate change. Perhaps it is a good thing that his attendance at the summit will be minimal:
President Bush won't miss the dinner but otherwise will be notably absent from this week's meeting of world leaders on climate change at the United Nations--leaving the international organization once again trying to steer global action without the presence of one of the largest contributors to the climate change problem.

Instead, Bush will host his own party--a "Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change"--late this week in Washington. It's the summit Bush announced in June when he successfully blocked leaders of the eight largest industrialized nations from adopting binding targets for reductions in carbon emissions. Instead, Bush and other G-8 leaders agreed, in principle, on the need to make "substantial" cuts in the troublesome emissions caused by the burning of fossil fuels. And in the Bush administration's briefings with industry and environmental stakeholders over the past few weeks, it is clear that the president hopes to push world leaders at his summit toward a "goals-not-mandates" approach.
Whether Bush's meeting will produce real results remains to be seen. Like the New Scientist, I am not optimistic about the chances. While Bush stalls, the climate news keeps getting worse:
It seems that we could use some action. Most of the world agrees.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Winter Finch Forecast for 2007-2008

Pine Grosbeak Winter FinchRon Pittaway has posted his annual winter finch migration forecast to the Ontario Field Ornithologists webpage. Winter finches are those species of the family Fringillidae that breed in the boreal forest of northern Canada and spend the winter farther south. While some migrate south every year, others follow an irregular migration pattern. They may stay in the boreal forest if sufficient food is available; or large flocks may migrate south in an irruption in years when food is scarce. Irruptions may reach into southern Canada and the northern United States. At other times finches will wander east or west, depending on available food sources.

Overall the odds of irruptions look better than last winter. I have excerpted the accounts for a few of the species more likely to reach the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic. Keep in mind as you read that the forecast is written primarily for birders in Ontario and neighboring provinces, so the probabilities need to be adjusted a bit for readers further south.

Pine Grosbeak: This grosbeak will irrupt south of the breeding range because crops on native mountain-ashes (rowan berries) are generally poor in northeastern Ontario and across the boreal forest. However, crops are good in northwestern Ontario west of Lake Superior. Pine Grosbeaks should wander south to Lake Ontario and perhaps farther in search of crabapples and planted European mountain-ash berries, which have average crops in southern Ontario. Watch for them at feeders where they prefer sunflower seeds. After irruptions, Pine Grosbeaks return north earlier than other northern finches. Most are gone by late March. Buds form a larger part of their winter diet when mountain-ash crops are poor.

Purple Finch: Most Purple Finches will migrate out of Ontario this fall in response to the low seed crops. Currently, Purple Finches are migrating south through southern Ontario. Very few or none will stay behind at feeders in southern Ontario.

Common and Hoary Redpolls: There will be a big flight of redpolls into southern Ontario and bordering United States. Seed crops on white birch, yellow birch and alder are very poor in most of Ontario. Expect redpolls at bird feeders this winter. Far northwestern Ontario has a good white birch crop so redpolls may be common there.

Evening Grosbeak: This grosbeak will irrupt south of the boreal forest this fall because tree seed crops are generally very poor in northeastern Ontario and western Quebec. In recent weeks scattered birds have visited feeders in southern Ontario. Beginning in the early 1980s the Evening Grosbeak declined significantly as large outbreaks of spruce budworm subsided. The larvae and pupae are eaten by adults and fed to nestlings. Expect Evening Grosbeaks at bird feeders in southern Ontario and northern United States, but not in the large numbers seen during the 1970s.
The report also includes notes on a few species aside from finches.
Red-breasted Nuthatch: They have been moving south since mid-June presumably because of the poor cone crop in central Canada. Almost all Red-breasted Nuthatches will depart Ontario's boreal forest by late fall and left the province. Some will be at feeders in southern Ontario, but they will be very scarce in Algonquin Park. Algonquin Christmas Bird Counts (32 years) show a biennial (every two years) high and low pattern, with some exceptions.

Bohemian Waxwing: The poor crop of native mountain-ash (rowan berries) in much of northern Ontario will cause Bohemians Waxwings to wander south and east this winter. Watch for them eating buckthorn berries and crabapples in southern Ontario. The mountain-ash crop is better west of Lake Superior with a big crop around Kenora at Lake of the Woods.

Gray Jay and Boreal Chickadee: They are moving in northeastern Quebec east of Tadoussac along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. These movements could extend to southern Ontario and northeastern states.
There may also be an influx of northern owls and other raptors depending on what happens with the small mammal population in northern Ontario. The report predicts that rodent numbers will be low this winter, but time will tell. I have already seen several red-breasted nuthatches this fall, which I think bodes well for a passerine irruption, in any case.

Read the rest of the forecast for details on other species.

For more on winter finches:

Canal Birds

The towpath along the Delaware and Raritan Canal near Landing Lane was full of birds this morning. Most of the warblers were in a single flock that was dominated by a trio of blackpolls. One adult pine warbler sang short trills intermittently. Meanwhile, a first fall pine warbler was drab enough to be difficult to identify from memory. The blackburnian warbler, a first fall female, was a nice surprise amidst the more common migrants.

The merlin was perched on a snag near some high-rise apartment buildings.

BIRD SPECIES: 38

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Canada Goose
Mallard
Merlin
Killdeer
Great Black-backed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Carolina Wren
Gray Catbird
American Robin
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Blue Jay
Fish Crow
Warbling Vireo
Northern Parula
Magnolia Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Pine Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Birding through the Fog

The Great Swamp seemed mostly bereft of birds this morning. A thick blanket of fog depressed most avian activity, with the exception of locally common species. The one highlight was a king rail, vocalizing near the start of the boardwalk trail and another near the blind on the loop trail.

Since there are few birds to report, I will leave you with a few photographs.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Loose Feathers #116

King Rail / Photo by Jim Rathert (MO Conservation/USFWS)

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Thursday, September 20, 2007

I and the Bird #58

The latest I and the Bird takes a journey into science fiction. I and the Bird #58 is now available at The Nightjar.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Migration in the News

Bird migration makes it to the NY Times today:

BOMBAY HOOK NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Del. — You can learn a lot by bird-watching with an ornithologist, and not just about birds. As Russell Greenberg, head of the migratory bird center at the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park, gazed through powerful binoculars at a nondescript fence, a raspy chack-chack-chack sound like that of a cheap wind-up toy clattered off to the left.

Dr. Greenberg, 54, a tall, bearded, wryly reserved man with a lifelong passion for birds, instantly identified the caller as a clapper rail, and though the bird remained stubbornly out of view, Dr. Greenberg seized the opportunity to share the surprising back story for a beloved cliché.

“You know the old saying that so-and-so is ‘as thin as a rail?’ ” he asked. “Well, that comes from a reference to the bird.” The body of a rail, he explained, is “laterally compressed,” and looks from some angles to be almost two-dimensional.

And you know the saying, “This place is for the birds,’’ as in, “What a dump”? We spent the day whizzing past dappled lakes and lush grasses in the refuge here in Smyrna, Del., stopping instead at the bleakest, barest, beige-brownest scratchpads of land we could find. As Dr. Greenberg had predicted, it was around drying mudholes and plowed-up sod farms that we would see a rich variety of migratory shorebirds: plovers with slick, licorice-jelly-bean bellies; greater yellowlegs sandpipers tottering daintily on their cracked-pencil limbs; avocets with their dusky rouge heads and their absurdly elongated, upcurling bills; and killdeer, named for the sound of their call and famed for the way they can fake a broken wing to lure would-be predators away from their nests.

The birds were all down in the dumps poking and swishing for prey of their own — insects, worms, crustaceans, anything to help replenish their fat stores for the next leg of their long, possibly transequatorial flight.
Read the rest.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Climate Change Close to Home

One thing to remember about climate change is that it will have profound effects on local ecosystems. An article in yesterday's Washington Post highlights the effect of climate change in a place I know well, Blackwater NWR. Acres of marsh are disappearing into the Chesapeake to become open water instead.

At the Blackwater refuge, it is rising waters, not rising temperatures, that are eliminating habitat. A quirk of geology means that water rises especially fast here: Paradoxically, the land in this area is sinking as North America slowly unbends from the weight of glaciers during the last ice age.

Add that to the effect of melting polar ice, and scientists expect that most of the marsh will become open water by 2030. When it goes, there could be a shortage of habitat for the Eastern Shore's marsh animals and migratory birds, said Stone, the refuge biologist.

"Birds will return for spring migration, and they'll be looking for territory, and there just won't be enough territory to go around," he said.
No doubt the problems that Blackwater experienced with invasive nutria exacerbated the subsidence problem.

When you are done reading the article, make sure to visit the wonderful pictures from the refuge in the photo gallery.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Warblers at Noon; Rails at Dusk

Sandy Hook, a spit of sand sticking precariously out into Raritan Bay, is one of a few true migrant traps in central Jersey. It was originally occupied by a lighthouse to warn ships of its presence, and then served as a key base for the defense of New York Harbor. Now most of those functions have been replaced by beachgoers and birdwatchers. On a day following a good night for migration - like last night - the Hook is often crowded with birds of all types. So my mother, sister, and I headed out there to look for birds.

We when arrived at the Hook we went straight to the north end of the peninsula. According to reports from other birders, a total of about 23 species of warblers were seen this morning. We were not that fortunate, but we still had a good day despite a late start. There were a great number of redstarts and scarlet tanagers, and common yellowthroats lived up to their name. In addition to those, the Locust Grove held a few chestnut-sided, black-throated blue, Canada, parula, black-and-white, and magnolia warblers. While we watched a Baltimore oriole, a rose-breasted grosbeak tried to sneak up behind us - but we saw it anyway. A little outside the grove, closer to the North Pond, we spotted a Wilson's warbler, my first in three years.

The trail south along the north pond held a few other nice birds, including a yellow warbler in the reeds and a white-eyed vireo vocalizing somewhere in the dune shrubs. The aerial cover of hundreds of tree swallows was truly impressive! I spotted my first ruby-crowned kinglet of the fall. Shortly after that sighting, a sharp-shinned hawk emerged, as if startled, from the bottom of the shrub. That's about the last thing I would expect to see at the base of a bush! There was also a marsh wren creeping in the reeds on the opposite side of the pond. Finally, a bay-breasted warbler near the hawkwatch rounded out the list.

Mostly gulls - herring and great black-backed inhabited the North Beach. (Some photos of the gulls disputing who would eat a seafood dinner are included below with the sightings list.) A little south of observation deck, there was a small gathering of shorebirds. The bulk of this crowd were sanderlings, mostly juveniles, with a few fall-plumaged adults in the mix. One bird towered over the rest. It was a black-bellied plover in winter plumage. I was hoping it would be a golden-plover, but the black axillaries and white-rump gave away its true identity.

We closed out the day with stops at the Scout Camp and Horseshoe Cove. The songbirds were mostly the same as before, except for a great look at a brown thrasher. Closer to the camp, a merlin rocketed past in pursuit of something; its quarry was not clear. We waited for dusk in the marsh at the cove. A common nighthawk was hunting above the treeline. On both banks of a creek there were clapper rails - an adult and a juvenile. (This is my first actual sighting of one; previous clapper rails on my life list are all heard records.) The last bird for the day was an American bittern that flew up from the marsh and turned up along the shore.

It was a great day for birding despite a late start and despite missing some great sightings reported earlier in the day. Successive cold fronts have kept southbound migrants pouring in over the last few days. If you have time to get out to a local patch in the next few days, do it. The birds are coming through.

BIRD SPECIES: 53

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
American Bittern
Canada Goose
Osprey
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Merlin
Clapper Rail
Black-bellied Plover
Sanderling
Great Black-backed Gull
American Herring Gull
Laughing Gull
Mourning Dove
Common Nighthawk
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Tree Swallow
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Cedar Waxwing
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Marsh Wren
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
American Robin
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
White-eyed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
American Goldfinch
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Common Yellowthroat
Wilson's Warbler
Canada Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Baltimore Oriole

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Birds at the Movies

An op-ed piece in tomorrow's Washington Post wonders why movie directors devote much effort to getting period costumes right but routinely botch the natural settings, especially when it comes to birds.

In James Mangold's new blockbuster Western "3:10 to Yuma," the first time we meet Ben Wade, played by tough-guy actor Russell Crowe, he is making a natural history sketch of a bird just minutes before carrying out yet another murderous stagecoach robbery. The scene establishes Wade not only as a complex character, but as a savvy birder who takes the time to document what is surely the first and only sighting in the United States of Africa's augur buzzard.

[...]

Alas, the entertainment industry knows no shame. Moviemakers' attention to period detail in costumes, props, sets and dialogue grows ever more sophisticated, and the budgets for high-end productions regularly top tens of millions of dollars. Imagine how hard directors worked to equip Ben Wade with the right spurs and pistol. But they apparently think that getting the right bird is, well, for the birds.

Take a gander. European hooded crows in the soundtrack and in the trees, and the directors of "Cold Mountain" want us to believe we're in Appalachia? If "Apocalypto" takes place during the Mayan era, then why do cattle egrets flap by majestic temples -- 400 years before their arrival in the Americas from Africa?

"Raiders of the Lost Ark" features birds from three continents, impossibly sharing the same habitat. "Pearl Harbor" gives us the first recorded sighting of a Western scrub jay outside the mainland -- on a golf course in Oahu. Set in Sierra Leone, "Blood Diamond" features at least four birds from the Western Hemisphere, including a bobwhite.
Getting the right birds into the right place at the right time should be fairly easy to research since reference publications on birds exist for almost all areas of the planet and for most bird families. There are also extensive repositories of bird sounds and images. Cornell is probably the most prominent example in the United States, and it is hardly the only one.

The essay cites a recent Harry Potter film as an example of careful attention to authentic bird sounds. Historical accuracy may be a bit harder, but recently The New World made an attempt to incorporate extinct Carolina parakeets and other creatures of precolonial eastern North America.

The essay mentions one website loaded with example of bird mistakes in movies, How did that bird get there? What is the most egregious example that you have seen?

Friday, September 14, 2007

Loose Feathers #115

Wilson's Warbler / Photo by Donna Dewhurst (USFWS)

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Thursday, September 13, 2007

Migration in Full Swing

bird migration radarLast night all signs indicated that a major push of migrant songbirds was underway. For one of the first times this fall, we had a strong cold front with north or northwest winds. The NEXRAD radar also lit up along the east coast after dark. (The picture at right is from about midnight; the blue circles represent flocks of migrating birds.) So early this morning my mother and sister and I went out for some birding.

We went over to a stretch of the Delaware and Raritan Canal nearby. The canal towpath along this stretch is a narrow embankment with edge/woods habitat in between the canal and the Raritan River. While it is not a classic migrant trap, it provides enough habitat to attract songbirds and good angles for viewing them.

No sooner were we on the towpath than Belinda spotted a red-breasted nuthatch; these seem to be quite numerous in central Jersey this fall. A few warbling vireos were warbling in the same vicinity. On the rest of the walk, we ran into a few mixed flocks of tufted titmice, Carolina chickadees, and white-breasted nuthatches, which passed overhead in noisy fashion. The neat thing about fall birding is that these noisy commoners often travel in the company of less common migrant warblers. Such was the case today.

With one of the mixed flocks, we found a trio of American redstart, blackpoll warbler, and red-eyed vireo. Farther down the towpath, we encountered another noisy mixed flock. This time the warbler action started with a first fall female black-throated green and a Nashville warbler. They were followed by more redstarts, a black-throated blue, and a magnolia warbler.

Then I spotted a warbler I could not quite place. At first I thought magnolia because it had streaks down the sides, but the tail was not right. It sort of looked like a pine warbler, but the streaking was black, not olive, and too crisp; the habitat was wrong, anyway. Then I thought Cape May, but that seem quite right, either. So I committed the field marks to memory and moved on. When I got a chance to consult my Dunn and Garrett later, I realized that it was indeed a Cape May warbler, probably a first fall male. The reason I dismissed that possibility at first is that I am more familiar with the spring adult male form that has chestnut cheeks and bold white wing patches. Other forms have olive cheeks and less bold wing bars.

Later on, a common yellowthroat rounded out the warbler list for the morning. After we walked about a mile down the path, it was time to leave. Eight warbler species, with one being a Cape May, is not bad at all for a local patch. It was the best migrant day I have seen so far this fall.

BIRD SPECIES: 36

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Canada Goose
Mallard
Osprey
Ring-billed Gull
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Carolina Wren
Gray Catbird
American Robin
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Blue Jay
American Crow
European Starling
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Nashville Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
American Redstart
Common Yellowthroat
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
American Goldfinch

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Number of Threatened Species Increasing

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species for 2007 was released this week. The Red List for 2007 includes 41,415 species, of which 16,306 are threatened with extinction, 785 are extinct, and 65 exist only in captivity. This year's list contains many more species than past lists because the status of several taxa, including corals and North American reptiles, were fully assessed for the first time. Only about 3% of the world's species have been assessed. (See the Guardian for video and images of some species on the list.)

BirdLife International, which maintains the bird portion of the Red List, reports that 1,221 birds are threatened, of which 189 are critically endangered. There are a total of 9,956 bird species on the list, which means that about 12% of the world's birds are threatened. This year's highlight is the decline of vultures in Asia and Africa. Several species moved to higher threat levels this year; most notable were the Red-headed Vulture, Egyptian Vulture, White-headed Vulture, White-backed Vulture, and Rüppell’s Griffon.

Mauritius ParakeetThe bird list contains the one Red List species to be downgraded this year. The Mauritius Parakeet (pictured right) was shifted from critically endangered to endangered thanks to successful conservation action.

Mauritius Parakeet Psittacula eques –a green parrot, males of which have a bright red bill - was once down to just 10 birds in the 1970s, but today saw the World Conservation Union (IUCN) announce its move from Critically Endangered to Endangered. ...

For Mauritius Parakeet, these threats included introduced nest predators (in particular Black Rat), decline of the native fruits on which the parakeets feed (itself outcompeted by invasive non-native plants, and eaten by feral pigs), and a loss of suitable nesting sites.

“These parrots only naturally nest in old canopy trees, which are disappearing across the island,” Vikash [Tatayah of the Mauritius Wildlife Foundation] explains. “Many years of hard work went into tackling the shortage of nest sites and finally we’ve come up with a design acceptable to Echo Parakeets and requiring less maintenance. The parakeets now nest in artificial cavities more than the traditional nest cavities.”

“The artificial cavities also control for invasive nest predators – another long-term threat to the birds,” Vikash continues. “The boxes are rat-proofed, overhanging trees are trimmed, we poison for rats on the ground, and staple plastic sheeting around trees to reduce predation of eggs and chicks by rats. These are simple but essential measures to help get the population back on its feet.”
If you want to check on the classification of your favorite species, you can use the IUCN search page. The Cerulean Warbler, for example, is listed as vulnerable, with the following threats:
Degradation of habitat through land use change is the major threat to this species. Conversion of mature deciduous forest to agricultural or urban areas, fragmentation and increasing isolation of remaining mature deciduous forest, the change to shorter rotation periods and even-aged management, and loss of key tree species to disease are all breeding season constraints. Wintering habitat is also threatened by conversion to other land uses such as pastureland and farms, and is converted into coca plantations which have a detrimental effect on suitable primary forest habitat. Attempts to eradicate coca plantations will also potentially damage forests. Mountaintop mining constitutes a known but as yet uncontrolled threat.
As Bug Girl comments, the current Red List seems weighted in favor of taxa from North America and Europe, and towards large organisms like birds and mammals. I suspect this is less because of outright bias than a result of where the resources (money and trained observers) are located, and which organisms are easiest to study. Future editions of the Red Lists will need to assess more of the species that so far have been omitted. Unfortunately this is likely to produce an even more depressing picture of the planet's loss of biodiversity.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

September Showers Bring... Mushrooms

The heavy rains that fell across New Jersey today brought a fresh crop of mushrooms. The photo above is the stump of a dogwood tree. It bears two different fungi.

The first, above, is Trametes versicolor, or Turkey Tail. That fungus has been growing on the stump for some time now, without much indication of disintegration. It seems remarkably durable.

I do not remember the second of the two being on the stump yesterday, so it probably sprouted today. I believe it is Hypholoma sublateritium, known as Brickcap. To me it resembles another species, H. capnoides, more than H. sublateritium, but H. capnoides grows on conifer rather than hardwood stumps.

There was also a stinkhorn elsewhere in the yard. This one looks a bit like a lobster claw. It may be the rudely-named Phallus rubicundus, or perhaps one of the Mutinus species. This is another new arrival; one of the sources I checked mentioned that stinkhorns are known for appearing very rapidly in the wake of rain.

No doubt more mushrooms will appear in the next few days. Feel free to argue with my identifications.

Melting Artic Sea Ice

This scary story comes courtesy of ABC News:

An area of Arctic sea ice the size of Florida has melted away in just the last six days as melting at the top of the planet continues at a record rate.

2007 has already broken the record for the lowest amount of sea ice ever recorded, say scientists, smashing the old record set in 2005.

Currently, there are about 1.63 million square miles of Arctic ice, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. That is well below the record of 2.05 million square miles set two summers ago and could drop even lower before the final numbers are in. ...

Scientists say the rate of melting in 2007 has been unprecedented, and veteran ice researchers worry the Arctic is on track to be completely ice-free much earlier than previous research and climate models have suggested.
Since it is already in the ocean, sea ice does not raise ocean levels when it melts. However, the melting exposes greater areas of dark ocean water to sunlight. Instead of reflecting sunlight, like ice, the ocean absorbs the energy and warms more quickly. The loss of sea ice is a matter of concern for conservation of polar bears and other arctic creatures. It also increases worries about the possibility of reaching a tipping point when warming will accelerate.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Bar-tailed Godwits on the Move

One of the posts submitted to last week's I and the Bird discussed a project to map the migration tracks of three shorebird species: long-billed curlew, bristled-thighed curlew, and bar-tailed godwit. The mapping relied on fitting a handful of each species with satellite transmitters, which broadcast each bird's location every 36 hours. At the time Kevin wrote that post, the two curlews had left, but the godwits were still in Alaska.

As of yesterday, the first of the bar-tailed godwits, designated E7, had reached her winter home in New Zealand after competing the longest recorded nonstop migration flight.

E7 is the first godwit to have her full annual migration monitored by satellite. It included a southern return leg of more than 11,500km -- the longest non-stop flight by a bird to be recorded.

"From the speed that she was going, I'm absolutely confident that she came direct," said Massey ecologist Dr Phil Battley, who tagged 16 bar-tailed godwits to identify how they made their way to and from Alaska.

The south side of the Firth of Thames, near Miranda, was a muddy spot with difficult access, so it had not been possible to photograph the bird, which arrived l ate on Friday night.

Her transmitter switched itself on for six hours every 36 hours and on Friday afternoon she was south-west of Ninety Mile Beach in Northland. By 3am on Sunday morning she was back at Miranda where she is expected to stay " resting and refuelling" until about March, when she will make her way back to Alaska to lay eggs.

Dr Battley said E7 took off from the Yukon delta and could have shortened her journey by moving down to the Alaskan Peninsula to take off from about 500km further south.

"But she didn't do that," he said. "This indicates the long journey is not such a problem to her".

"It's quite amazing that even on a journey of 11,500km she's not trying to make it any shorter. She's got enough in reserve to cope.
You can view the updated migration tracks for bar-tailed godwits at the USGS Alaska Science Center. If you download the update, it should open in Google Earth. I have posted screen grab for today's update below (click to enlarge). E7's track is in red.

The route passes close to a few islands, such as the Hawaiian archipelago. But as you can see from the image, E7 flew that distance mostly over open ocean. Such a migration route leaves birds with very little margin for error. According to BirdLife, bar-tailed godwits often live more than 20 years. That they can survive that long while flying over 29,000 km annually is amazing.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Griggstown Birds


This morning I visited some of the open space preserves in Franklin Township with my mother and sister. Our first stop was the Bunker Hill Natural Area. That wooded tract was fairly quiet, with the exception of a few patches of chickadees and white-breasted nuthatches, along with ubiquitous blue jays.

The Griggstown Grasslands Preserve was much more birdy. We found field and savannah sparrows fairly close to the parking lot. The latter seems a bit early too me; I am not quite sure of their timing of their fall appearance in central Jersey. The meadows deeper into the tract were full of butterflies, such as hairstreaks, skippers, and swallowtails. I saw my first common checkered skipper today. Two hedgerows separated by a meadow held small mixed flocks that included three redstarts, a phoebe, and a great-crested flycatcher, as well as the more common species. Finally, there was a small flock of bobolinks near the parking lot. About seven flew over the path and settled on top of some forbs for an easy view.

There will be some hunting in the area during fall and winter for the purpose of deer control. The hunting application (pdf) explains where and when it will occur.

BIRD SPECIES: 30

Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Ring-billed Gull
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Barn Swallow
House Wren
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Blue Jay
American Crow
European Starling
Red-eyed Vireo
American Goldfinch
American Redstart
Field Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Bobolink
Common Grackle

BUTTERFLY SPECIES: 14

Black Swallowtail
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Cabbage White
Clouded Sulphur
Cloudless Sulphur
Gray Hairstreak
Red-banded Hairstreak
Eastern Tailed-Blue
Mourning Cloak
Red Admiral
Monarch
Common Checkered-Skipper
Least Skipper
Zabulon Skipper