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.