Loose Feathers #631

Long-tailed Duck / my photo

Birds and birding news

• The latest update to the IUCN Red List designates 222 bird species as critically endangered.
• A study in the Sacramento area found that birds like the California Scrub-Jay prefer native Valley Oaks to non-native oaks and will fly to areas with native oaks to feed.
• Savannah Sparrows nesting near oil and gas wells need to adjust their songs to account for noise pollution from drilling equipment. 
• The Safe Harbor conservation program has kept Red-cockaded Woodpeckers nesting on private land but has not increased the success rates of those nests.
• Great Britain's Big Garden Birdwatch takes place this weekend, January 27-29. (The Big Garden Birdwatch was an inspiration for the Great Backyard Bird Count, which will take place February 16-19 this year.)
• Female Asian Houbaras consistently choose nest sites that offer a balance between concealment and sightlines to see approaching predators to prevent nest predation.
• Golden Eagles are at high risk of electrocution from energy infrastructure, and mitigation efforts have not helped enough so far. 
• Birds may become smaller as the climate warms.
• A Spanish study looked at the potential for bird deaths from high-speed rail. 
• Great Black-backed Gulls may be the bullies of the gull world, but they play a vital role as scavengers. 
• Experiments with New Caledonian Crows show how technology evolves.
• Pittsburgh earned designation as an Urban Bird Treaty City for efforts to restore habitat and reduce collisions with windows.

Science and nature blogging

• The Birdist: Renaming Birds By Their Anagrams
• Birds and Words: Interview with the Afternoon Birder
• The Meadowlands Nature Blog: Don Torino’s Life in the Meadowlands: Watch for the Rusty Blackbirds!
• ornithologi: Melospiza Plate  
• Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography: Unusual Behavior – Ring-billed Gull Preening In Flight
• MoCoSoCo Birds: Snowy Owl and other birds – Jan. 22, 2017

Environment and biodiversity

• The US Fish and Wildlife Service officially designated the Eastern Cougar subspecies as extinct and removed it from the Endangered Species List. Other Cougar populations remain in the western US and Florida.
• At least two wolves are still present at Isle Royale, where a declining population has led to calls for introduction of more wolves from the mainland. 
• There will be a rally to save Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge from proposed border wall construction this Saturday, January 27. 
• Rain-on-snow events, which are likely to increase with climate change, are shrinking the heads of muskoxen.
• During the brief government shutdown, snowmobilers drove into off-limits areas in Yellowstone National Park. Similar problems probably occurred on other federal lands that remained open for the weekend.
• A major oil condensate spill in the East China Sea will be hard to clean up, and the effects of a spill like this are not well known. 
• Mammals wander less in areas with lots of human activity or population, partly because of obstacles like highways and partly because of extra foraging opportunities like farm fields or garbage.
• A global registry of invasive species will help identify the most problematic ones.
• Bits of plastic seem to be spreading disease among coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific.
• A nearby golf course wants to privatize a chunk of Liberty State Park (in addition to the plan to build a second private marina in the park).
• The planned solar farm at Great Adventure will be built on 40 acres instead of 92, with the other 52 acres being placed in a 213-acre conservancy.
• Cabbage Whites might not be as territorial as gardening advice suggests.

Loose Feathers #630

Bald Eagle / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• A long-running monitoring project is helping answer questions about the population status and migrations of the wide-ranging Snow Bunting.
• The NY Times has a good essay on the politics of chasing (and publicizing) owls and comes down on the side of more openness.
• More than half of the Ventura Christmas Bird Count covers areas burned by the Thomas Fire, so this year's count will provide data on how birds respond to wildfires.
• Christmas Bird Counts also went on as usual at several sites in Puerto Rico.
• Iridescent feathers, like those on grackles or starlings, seem to have evolved very early, as some were recently discovered on a fossil dinosaur.
• Birds are helping to restore the habitats around the Elwha River by dropping seeds carried from elsewhere on the Olympic Peninsula.
• Japanese Bush-Warblers living in Hawaii show signs of genetic drift since their introduction in the early 20th century. Read more about the study here.
• Analysis of bird song recordings may be a way to detect shifts in the timing of bird migration and breeding seasons.
• Rare native birds have flourished at an urban park in Wellington, New Zealand, since invasive predators like rats and stoats were trapped and fenced out. (Invasive predators are a major threat to New Zealand's unique wildlife.)
• Logging after wildfires hurts California Spotted Owls by reducing the number of snags they prefer.
• Red-capped Robin-Chats can imitate the songs of 40 other bird species.

Science and nature blogging

• Citizen Science Salon: Female Songbirds: The Latest Underrepresented Voices in Science
• Birding Beijing 北京观鸟: 2017: A Turning Point For China’s Biodiversity?  
• Vermont Center for Ecostudies: The Migratory Bird Treaty Act and bird conservation
• Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography: Standing Up For Nature Is Fighting For Our Lives
• 10,000 Birds: Five Things To Do When It Is Too Cold To Bird
• ABA Blog: THE TOP 10: Craziest ABA Vagrants of 2017 
• Avian Hybrids: Hybridization as the Engine of Adaptive Radiation
• Avithera: Bird bands and flags 
• Birding New Jersey: A “New” Iiwi?
• wadertales: Waders are long-lived birds!
• Backyard and Beyond: Owling
• The Prairie Ecologist: Why Would Bison Have Done That??
• ornithologi: North America’s Zonotrichia in Winter: A Plate of Basic and Immature Plumages
• Stokes Birding Blog: Scaup, Lesser or Greater? Tricky ID 
• Bird Ecology Study Group: Purple Heron – feeding behaviour, eel
• Feathered Photography: Northern Harrier Throwing Up A ….. Pellet?
• The Meadowlands Nature Blog: Don Torino’s Life in the Meadowlands: It’s Not Too Early to Plan Your Backyard Wildlife Garden

Environment and biodiversity

• Scientists have linked the mass mortality of Saiga antelopes in 2015 to infection from a normally harmless bacterium made more dangerous by extreme heat and humidity.
• A methane spike appears to be tied to increased production of oil and gas through fracking.
• Rapid warming in Alaska is disturbing and may be behind some of the extreme weather in the continental US. 
• Nine of the twelve members of the National Park Service's advisory panel resigned in protest after Ryan Zinke refused to meet with them for a year. 
• Ryan Zinke could do irreparable damage to the Interior Department and the lands it protects.
• Cape Town is close to running out of water after several years of severe drought. Climate change will make events like this more likely, both there and elsewhere.
• New studies are measuring how climate change affects freshwater lakes and streams.
• DC's mayor pledged to commit $4.7 million to developing Kingman and Heritage Islands for environmental education and recreation.
• Voles are among the many creatures that find a blanket of snow a hospitable shelter from extreme cold.

Loose Feathers #629

Trumpeter Swan / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS

Birds and birding news

• The blackest birds in the world are the birds-of-paradise, whose black feathers absorb almost all light that hits them (unlike North American blackbirds, which reflect a small amount to produce iridescent colors). The secret seems to be in the structure of the feathers.
• Engineered sandbars do not provide the same benefits to Piping Plovers that natural sandbars do. Part of the problem with engineered sandbars is that their relatively small size leads to too much population density.
• Noise pollution from energy operations in western deserts is causing Western Bluebirds to have fewer chicks.
• Here is a guide to studying bird tracks in the snow.
• Rat poison used on marijuana plantations could put endangered Northern Spotted Owls (and other predators) in further danger.
• Meanwhile, a federal appeals court is allowing the US Fish and Wildlife Service to kill Barred Owls to reduce competition with Spotted Owls in northwestern forests.
• Here is a follow-up on conditions in the Saemangeum Estuary since much of it was enclosed by a seawall in 2006.
• Westerly winds during the recent nor'easter worked to the benefit of Snowy Owls wintering on the New Jersey coast.
• An Ivory Gull was discovered in Illinois last week.
• Botulism deaths among waterfowl in the Great Lakes are linked to warm waters and algae.
• Emperor Penguins that breed near the coast may shorten their fast by taking short foraging swims before eggs are laid.

Science and nature blogging

• Rigor Vitae: Life Unyielding: Poorwills: A Novel Strategy For Surviving Winter's Cold
• Avian Hybrids: Hybrid Bird Species: A Big Bird on the Galapagos Islands and a Small Manakin in the Amazon Basin
• The Prairie Ecologist: The Diversity, Beauty, and Secret Lives of Grasshoppers
• awkward botany: What Bugs Can Tell Us About the Value of Vacant Urban Land
• The Afternoon Birder: Join Me on a Big Year of Bird Reading  
• ABA Blog: 2018 AOS Classification Committee Proposals, Part 1
• sunshinecoastbirds: Captive Breeding Programs for Endangered Species Under Scrutiny
• The Bruce Mactavish Newfoundland Birding Blog: Bald Eagle on The Run
• 10,000 Birds: Bird Litigation: Sonoran Desert Bald Eagle
• The Meadowlands Nature Blog: Good Morning From A Fish Crow  
• Anything Larus: Slaty-backed Here. Slaty-backed There.
• Feathered Photography: Peregrine Falcon Coming At Me

Environment and biodiversity

• Last year was the third-warmest year ever in the US and set temperature records in five states. The year also was the most expensive in terms of natural disasters.
• If you think the Trump administration is following a blueprint from the coal industry, you are correct. A coal executive sent the administration a wishlist with 14 desired regulatory changes last spring, and most of those changes have been implemented. 
• Florida received an unexpected exemption from offshore drilling, which led other states to wonder why they were not exempted too. 
• The Endangered Species Act may be in danger of repeal or weakening, even though it has worked well for most of its existence.
• The deputy director of the National Park Service will be the employee who helped Daniel Snyder cut down trees in C&O Canal NHP so that his mansion would have a better view.
• Scientists have found evidence that proboscis-bearing moths and butterflies, or something like them, existed as early as 200 million years ago, before the rise of flowering plants.
• Freshwater waterways are becoming saltier thanks to heavy use of road salt, which washes off roads as the snow melts. Excess salt makes water more basic and more corrosive and harms ecosystems in nearby wetlands.
• Cold snaps like the one that recently struck the eastern US are becoming rarer as global temperatures rise.
• Hydropower dams are altering the flood pulses that are ecologically important for parts of the Amazon watershed.
• Even moderate levels of pollution can cause alarming drops in the mayfly population. 
• Too many Florida Panthers are dying from being hit by cars for births to replenish the population loss.
• Ohio is banning 38 species of invasive plants from being sold in plant nurseries.
• New Jersey's DEP has restarted a plan to create wildlife habitat in a contaminated section of Liberty State Park and open it to the public.

Loose Feathers #628

Mallards / Photo by Jacob W. Frank/NPS

Birds and birding news

• National Geographic, in partnership with Audubon, CLO, and BirdLife, is declaring 2018 the "Year of the Bird" to honor the 100th anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. 
• An economic analysis found that the benefits outweigh the costs of restricting ORV use on beaches like Cape Hatteras that provide habitat for nesting coastal birds.
• A breeding colony of endangered Band-rumped Storm-Petrels was discovered at 7,000 feet on Mauna Loa.
• The Southwestern Willow Flycatcher will remain on the Endangered Species List for now.
• The Bureau of Land Management will no longer prioritize fossil fuel development outside of sage grouse habitat, despite the guidelines created to keep the species from being listed as endangered.
• New Jersey's Peregrine Falcon breeding population remained stable in 2017, with 32 active nests producing 52 young. The core of the state's breeding population nests on artificial structures, while falcons nesting at natural sites have struggled.
• Sora migrate from early August to late October, with a peak in late September. (For some background on the study, see this Twitter thread.)
• A study confirmed that Bullfinches maintain their pair bonds over multiple years.
• A Long-eared Owl was treated and released in Manhattan last week after being found lying on its back.
• Planting wildflowers and protecting nests in areas with intensive agriculture can help some bird species recover from long-term declines.
• A genetic study explored how Yellow Warblers might adapt to climate change. (See the paper here.)
• A small bird delayed a flight from Detroit to Atlanta when it got trapped inside the cockpit.

Science and nature blogging

• Birding New Jersey: The 2018 ABA Bird of the Year Stinks
• Anything Larus: Ivory Gull - Lake County Illinois
• Feathered Photography: The Little Things That Can Make Or Break Our Images
• Birding the day away !!: Wallcreeper ~ Alquezar, Spain - 28.12.17
• Natural Newstead: White-breasted Woodswallows #2
• Wanstead Birder: Top ten bird images from 2017 

Environment and biodiversity

• The severe cold and intense snowstorm that affected the eastern US this week should not be taken as signs that climate change is not real, as cold snaps of this type could be related to changes in the Arctic. 
• While this week was cold, New Jersey's cold snaps used to be colder. Past cold snaps in DC allowed residents to skate on the Potomac.
• A memo leaked late last year shows that the Interior Department is incorporating more political calculations into its decisions on endangered species.
• The Trump administration announced this week that it would expand oil drilling to almost all parts of the US coastlines, including in states where drilling faces strong local opposition. 
• Even if we do manage to keep warming below 2°C, many climate change effects are likely to happen anyway because of the delay in action, though they will be less bad than they could be.
• The fungus that causes White Nose Syndrome in bats appears to be unable to withstand exposure to ultraviolet light, which opens the door to a possible treatment. 
• New Jersey's DEP is moving ahead with plans to build a private marina on the south end of Liberty State Park. 
• Former New Jersey governor Brendan Byrne, who died this week, considered preserving the Pinelands region his greatest legacy.
• A new state park has been proposed on the Brooklyn side of Jamaica Bay in New York.
• Finally, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has suggestions for what to do with natural Christmas trees at the end of the season.

Best of 2017

My favorite photos from each month of 2017 (links go to larger images at my Flickr account):

1. Winter Wren, 2. White-breasted Nuthatch, 3. Song Sparrow, 4. Yellow Trout Lily, 5. Black Vulture, 6. Tawny-edged Skipper, 7. Tree Swallow fledgling, 8. Barred Owl, 9. Pandora Sphinx caterpillar, 10. Staghorn Sumac, 11. Snow Bunting, 12. Myrtle Warbler

My favorite sighting of the year was probably the Barred Owl pictured above, which was exceptionally cooperative — one might say confiding — to the delight of many refuge visitors that day. My best bird of the year was probably the Wood Stork that showed up at Sandy Hook and that I was lucky enough to see shortly before it left. The year also included another Middlesex Merlins run in the World Series of Birding.

Happy new year and good birding in 2018!