Thursday, December 31, 2020

Birding highlights in 2020

Goodbye to 2020

It has been a while since I posted about my own birding on this blog as it has turned into more of a birding and environmental news blog. However, I've been meaning to revive that aspect of my blog, which is how it got started. Patch birding does not really provide enough material for daily posts since I tend to see the same birds over and over. So instead I'll borrow an idea from the brewster's linnet blog and post periodic updates.

The COVID-19 pandemic has defined the year 2020. I have been fortunate not to lose anyone close to me, either family or acquaintances despite some scares. From a birding standpoint, it limited me to patch and local birding since longer trips would entail more risk of exposure. The pandemic also cancelled or altered events that I normally attend, like the birding days in East Brunswick.

Harris's Sparrow in Piscataway

My only life bird this year was a Harris's Sparrow at a friend's house in Piscataway. Harris's Sparrow had long been on my "most wanted" list so it was exciting to see one finally. That sighting left Golden-crowned as the only Zonotrichia sparrow that I have not seen (at least among ones that occur regularly in the ABA Area). I also saw four other new birds for Middlesex County: Mourning Warbler on my patch in May, Baird's and Pectoral Sandpiper in Cranbury Township in August, and Red Crossbill in Old Bridge at the end of November. All four were birds that I have rarely seen, in any location. A pair of Pileated Woodpeckers on the Raritan Estuary CBC were new for my patch (and the only ones for that CBC this year). A Nelson's Sparrow in September was another surprising patch bird.

Turkey Vultures at Davidson's Mill Pond during the World Series of Birding

The World Series of Birding was conducted under a new set of rules this year because of the pandemic. In the past, all team members were required to travel in one vehicle; this year team members could not travel together or even meet up. Normally the playing field is limited to New Jersey, but this year teams could participate in other states. My team, the Middlesex Merlins, had our best-ever result, with 148 species spread over two Middlesex Counties (one in New Jersey and the other in Massachusetts). This year's rules were branded as a "special edition," but I suspect the 2021 WSB may need to be conducted under the same rules. The pandemic shows few signs of letting up and vaccines will probably not be widely available soon enough to inoculate all participants.

Purple Finches in Highland Park

The most exciting birding event this year has been the massive flight of winter finches and other irruptive birds this fall. The first hint that it might be a good flight year came when I found a Red-breasted Nuthatch on my patch in August, which I think is the earliest I've had one in fall migration. Later in the fall I saw and heard 11 at the Phillips Preserve in Old Bridge, which I think is the most I've ever encountered in one location. Pine Siskins and Purple Finches came through in large numbers in October and November, and I even saw a pair of Evening Grosbeaks on my patch. The Red Crossbills mentioned above were the first I had seen in a decade. Most of the finches seem to have moved on, but I hope that at least a few will stay through the winter or pass through again in the spring.

Pine Siskin in Highland Park

Life birds that I hope to see in the new year: Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Hudsonian Godwit, Northern Goshawk, Bohemian Waxwing, LeConte's Sparrow. County birds I hope to see: the above plus Black Tern, Dickcissel, Connecticut Warbler, Short-eared Owl, Yellow-throated Warbler, White-winged Crossbill. I have not had a nemesis bird for a while, but Hudsonian Godwit is a candidate, and there are also some candidates at the local level: White-winged Scoter, Brown Pelican, and Snowy Owl.

Most of all, though, I hope that things are back to normal by this time next year.

Friday, December 25, 2020

Loose Feathers #781

White-throated Sparrow / my photo

Birds and birding news

Science and nature blogging

Biodiversity and conservation

Climate change and environmental politics

Friday, December 18, 2020

Loose Feathers #780

Belted Kingfisher / Photo by Scott Somershoe/USFWS

Birds and birding news

Science and nature blogging

Biodiversity and conservation

Climate change and environmental politics

Friday, December 11, 2020

Loose Feathers #779

Orange-crowned Warbler / Photo by Peter Pearsall/USFWS

Birds and birding news

Science and nature blogging

Biodiversity and conservation

Climate change and environmental politics

  • The Arctic continued its shift towards a warmer climate in 2020. Warming there contributes to changes elsewhere, including severe weather.
  • One of the insidious ways that conservatives attack environmental protections is by changing the economic assumptions that underlie the cost-benefit analysis that justifies rule-making. These assumptions are important but less visible to voters. Currently the Trump administration is trying to reduce the value of pollution regulations to public health.
  • The Trump administration refused to implement stronger standards on soot, which leaves the rules fromm 2012 in place. Soot (or particulate matter) has harmful effects on respiratory health and has a disproportionate effect on low-income and minority neighborhoods.
  • It will take a lot of work to restore the EPA's effectiveness.
  • Sea-level rise threatens New Jersey's affordable housing, which is often built in flood-prone areas.
  • Audubon suggests five places where a Biden administration could undo damage from the Trump administration.
  • Australia's record-breaking heat would be nearly impossible without climate change.
  • It appears that the Nature Conservancy has been selling carbon offsets for preserving forests that were not actually under threat of being cut. Some of the projects, like maintaining the forests on Hawk Mountain, are worth doing anyway but do little to reduce carbon emissions.
  • This year will be remembered for the pandemic, but it was also a year of climate disasters, including a record-setting thirty named storms in the Atlantic and five of the six largest wildfires in California's history.
  • Peatlands store a massive amount of carbon, so converting them for other land use would turn them into a carbon source.
  • The Break Free From Plastic campaign named Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestlé as contributing the largest amount of plastic waste found in cleanups.

Friday, December 04, 2020

Loose Feathers #778

Evening Grosbeak / Photo by Keith Ramos/USFWS

Birds and birding news

  • The new European Breeding Bird Atlas shows that European breeding birds have moved north by an average 28km since the 1980s. Forest birds have generally expanded their ranges while the ranges of farmland birds contracted.
  • An ecologist argues that making cities more bird-friendly would also make them better for people, as long as there is equal access to nature.
  • Birds are able to adjust their egg-laying date to find optimal conditions to raise chicks.
  • USFWS finally listed Black Rails as a threatened species, but they are already gone from much of their range on the East Coast.
  • Wisdom, the 60-year-old Laysan Albatross, returned for another breeding season at Midway. The refuge is home to 70% of the world's Laysan Albatrosses and 40% of Black-footed Albatrosses.
  • Flightless birds are more vulnerable to extinction but also more common than expected.

Science and nature blogging

Biodiversity and conservation

Climate change and environmental politics

  • Climate change is already affecting human health through heat waves, wildfires, droughts, and flooding. The pandemic has made it harder to ameliorate climate change because of it makes warming and cooling shelters more hazardous.
  • Addressing climate change will require work from every federal agency.
  • The Trump administration is trying to push through sales of oil and gas leases in Arctic NWR in early January before the Biden administration takes over. You can write in opposition to the proposal; comments must be received by mail by December 17.
  • It is also rushing through other approvals, like one for a flood control project the EPA vetoed in 2008.
  • The incoming Biden administration will need to decide what to do with the parts of the border wall that are currently in progress. The contracts have a termination clause that allows the government to stop construction.
  • Here is a proposed environmental agenda for the Biden administration.
  • Drone imagery is showing how the Arctic is greening in response to climate change.
  • Northeastern forests like the New Jersey Pinelands may become more vulnerable to wildfire as temperatures rise.
  • Winters in the DC area have become warmer and shorter, with fewer days below freezing.

Friday, November 27, 2020

Loose Feathers #777

Song Sparrow / my photo

Birds and birding news

Science and nature blogging

Biodiversity and conservation

Climate change and environmental politics

Friday, November 20, 2020

Loose Feathers #776

Ferruginous Hawk / Photo: Tom Koerner/USFWS

Birds and birding news

Science and nature blogging

Biodiversity and climate change

Climate change and biodiversity

  • The Department of Homeland Security and Army Corps of Engineers are pushing ahead with border wall construction even though Biden has promised to stop construction when he takes office. While Biden can stop further construction, the wall has already done long-term ecological damage. Those links focus mainly on Arizona; this one documents the environmental situation along the Texas border.
  • Burning fossil fuels contributed to the Permian-Triassic mass extinction when volcanic activity in what is now Siberia ignited oil and coal deposits
  • Greenhouse gas emissions in the US are going to drop 9.2% this year, to roughly the level from 1983. The reduction is linked to lower economic activity due to COVID-19.
  • The Trump administration is rushing to lease as much of Arctic NWR as possible before Biden takes office in January.
  • Trump's golf course in Bedminster is draining 63 million gallons of water from the Raritan Basin per year and paying less for it than normal customers. (Wasting water like this is not just a Trump problem; it is feature of golf courses and other manicured lawns.)
  • A new agreement cleared the path for removal of four dams along the Klamath River that block fish migration.
  • Hurricane Iota was the tenth named storm to show rapid intensification this year and was the second major hurricane this November. Both numbers are anomalous.
  • Maryland is studying the potential for removing sediment trapped by the Conowingo Dam, which is known among birders for its concentration of Bald Eagles in winter.

Friday, November 13, 2020

Loose Feathers #775

Red-breasted Nuthatch / Photo by Peter Pearsall/USFWS

Birds and birding news

Science and nature blogging

Biodiversity and conservation

Climate change and environmental politics

  • Climate scientists have some advice for the incoming Biden administration. Here are some other suggestions for what the incoming Biden administration should do about climate change. Here is a look at how the incoming Biden administration might affect birds and wildlife. Of course, substantive action is dependent on getting legislation through Congress, which seems unlikely.
  • It will take a lot of work to undo the damage to the environment done by the Trump administration. The New York Times has counted 104 rollbacks of environmental protections under Trump.
  • Overall the election was a mixed bag for progress on environmental issues.
  • Earlier this week, Theta became the 29th named storm in the 2020 hurricane season and set a new record for named storms. Twelve of those storms hit the U.S., which is also a record.
  • Hurricanes are staying stronger after landfall because of warmer ocean temperatures, which means inland cities face more potential for damage. Here are five other ways that climate change is making hurricanes worse.
  • NOAA will allow the Navy to kill up to 51 Southern Resident Orcas per year during military exercises off the coast of Washington.
  • Groundwater pumping is drying up Arizona's rivers. A similar dynamic is at work in the Ogallala-High Plains Aquifer, which farmers are draining faster than it can be recharged.
  • One of the problems with free-trade agreements is that they undermine labor and environmental regulations. In this case, the US plastic industry is using CUSMA to threaten legal action against Canada for banning some single-use plastics.

Friday, November 06, 2020

Loose Feathers #774

Golden-crowned Kinglet / my photo

Birds and birding news

  • A new study proposes splitting the Gentoo Penguin into four species based on DNA and size.
  • In the spring of 2021, there will be Spring Global Shorebird Counts in addition to the usual ones in the fall. The spring event will be May 7-9, to coincide with World Migratory Bird Day.
  • A study using geolocators found that Eurasian Blackcaps migrate to different wintering grounds depending on where they breed. A small number migrate north and spend the winter in England.
  • Restoration of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers to the Piney Grove Preserve in Virginia has succeeded to such an extent that woodpeckers from that site are being used to supplement populations elsewhere.
  • Stronger immune systems do not affect reproduction in Purple-crowned Fairy-wrens.

Science and nature blogging

Biodiversity and conservation

Climate change and environmental politics

Friday, October 30, 2020

Loose Feathers #773

Ruby-crowned Kinglet / Photo by Peter Pearsall/USFWS

Birds and birding news

Science and nature blogging

Biodiversity and conservation

  • USFWS is proposing a new rule to remove the Gray Wolf from Endangered Species Act protections. Because of the abbreviated comment period, the rule could be finalized by the end of the year. While the wolf populations has rebounded from its historic lows, it still has not returned to its historic range and faces the threat of unsustainable hunting.
  • Some spiders can hear by sensing airborne vibrations with their hairs and leg joints.
  • The USFWS refused again to list wolverines under the Endangered Species Act.
  • Protecting nature, both by preserving habitats and stopping the wildlife trade, could prevent future pandemics that pass from wildlife to humans.
  • Wild fruit production is falling in Gabon, which is reducing the food available for large mammals like forest elephants.
  • Fin whales sing multiple song types instead of just one as previously thought.
  • Remoras can move around on a blue whale's skin without falling off.
  • A study in Guam showed the value of endangered trees to the forests where they survive.

Climate change and environmental politics

Friday, October 23, 2020

Loose Feathers #772

Western Meadowlark / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS

Birds and birding news

Science and nature blogging

Biodiversity and conservation

Climate change and environmental politics

Friday, October 16, 2020

Loose Feathers #771

Northern Harrier / Photo: Tom Koerner/USFWS

Birds and birding news

Science and nature blogging

Biodiversity and conservation

  • Climate change is turning Central Asian steppes into desert, and there was a similar change 34 million years ago.
  • The smalltail shark population has dropped by 90% since the 1980s, going from being one of the most common shark species in Brazil to being critically endangered. Their decline has been driven by overfishing, in which many young sharks end up as bycatch.
  • Governments are not protecting enough land and ocean to stop the biodiversity crisis. The Convention on Biological Diversity recommends protecting 17% of land area and 10% of the oceans.
  • A North Atlantic Right Whale, a critically endangered species, was tangled in fishing gear off the New Jersey coast. Abandoned fishing gear is one of the biggest contributors to plastic in the ocean.

Climate change and environmental politics

  • The Earth just had its hottest September on record, and 2020 has the potential to break or tie the record for hottest year set in 2016. This extraordinary heat comes in spite of La Niña, which usually produces cooler ocean temperatures around the tropics. In addition, Arctic sea ice reached its second-lowest extent this September.
  • Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett refused to answer questions on climate change (or even acknowledge that it is real) on the grounds that it is too controversial.
  • Despite bragging about cleaning up Superfund sites, the Trump administration has cut funding for the program and reversed climate change policies.
  • Sudden intensification of hurricanes shortly before landfall has been linked to ocean heat waves.
  • Some Republicans are realizing that they need to do something (or at least look like they are doing something) about climate change. It remains to be seen if this realization will lead to concrete action.
  • The Border Patrol tear gassed Native American protests on Indigenous Peoples Day as they protested militarization of the border, which divides the homelands of several tribes.