Loose Feathers #114

Blackpoll Warbler, fall plumage / Photo by USFWS

News and links about birds, birding, and the environment

• Chimney swifts have decreased in population in recent years. Swifts need chimneys and other vertical surfaces for nesting and nighttime roosts. Their decline is linked to the practice of capping chimneys or lining them with smooth material so that the swifts cannot roost.
• Researchers in Australia compared the behavior of birds along trails where people frequently walk dogs with trails where dogs are banned. Bird numbers along trails with dog-walkers dropped by 41%, and the diversity of bird species fell by 35%. Humans walking alone caused a minor disturbance, but far less than dogs. The results suggest that dogs should be kept out of sensitive conservation areas. (Commentary here.)
  
• The federal government is testing the use of poisoned bait to kill blackbirds who eat sunflower crops in the Dakotas.
• Red-throated and black-throated divers (a.k.a. loons) have increased their breeding populations in Scotland despite losses elsewhere in Europe. The RSPB is not sure why the outcomes have differed.
• Officials in Ireland are investigating the shooting of a red kite. Elsewhere in the British Isles, red kites have enjoyed a successful revival.
• Research on the dinosaur Mahakala omnogovae found that birdlike dinosaurs evolved their small size prior to evolving the ability to fly. Previously palaeontologists assumed that the reverse was true.
  
• Malaysia has suffered a significant loss of shorebirds due to development and reclamation projects.
• The establishment of a wild breeding population of California condors in southern California has been hampered by the ingestion of human-made trash. The "junk" eaten by young vultures has included shotgun pellets (causing lead poisoning), as well as things like glass fragments, bottle caps, and pieces of plastic.
  
• The most impressive sight at this year's Bex air show - intended for fighter pilots to show off their skills - was a flock of geese and cranes flying in formation with an ultralight aircraft flown by a French filmmaker.
• Missouri Master Naturalists offers classes in bird banding for volunteer banders.
• Invasive plant control programs are most beneficial to birds when they are accompanied by a program to replace the weeds with native food plants.
• A new study indicates that offspring of birds whose nests were parasitized are more likely to have their own broods parasitized than other birds of the same species.
  
• The Independent profiles an ornithologist whose life was saved by a field guide.
• A study found that urban birds are better able to survive a wide range of differing habitats and climate conditions.
• The use of switchgrass as a source for ethanol may replace tobacco as a cash crop in Virginia.

Birds in the blogosphere

• See yesterday's I and the Bird

Carnivals and newsletters

• Friday Ark #155
• I and the Bird #57
• Birds in the news #97
• Festival of the Trees #15
• News from the BirdLife Partnership, August 2007
  

I and the Bird #57

For birders in the northern hemisphere, the change from August to September means one thing: the peak of fall migration is soon to arrive. In truth, fall migration has been underway for some time now, as shorebirds and waders have been moving for at least a month. From a broader perspective, some bird is always in migration somewhere on the planet at any time of year. This fifty-seventh edition of I and the Bird celebrates bird migration.

Birds in their Breeding Territories

Breeding birds exhibit an amazing variety of colors, especially in species that have different male and female plumages. As GrrlScientist tells us in Pretty Boys Have All the Chicks, a study of the splendid fairy-wren of Australia reveals that even in socially monogamous species, strong sexual dichromatism can be driven by extra-pair paternity.

Every birder has the experience of consistently missing some desired bird species, despite being in the right habitat at the right time. Jochen of Bell Tower Birding relates his recent unsuccessful attempts to see a yellow-crowned night heron in Genesis of a New Nemesis.

Tai Haku of Earth, Wind & Water was Tickled Pink to find a Caribbean flamingo in easy digiscoping range.

Traveling to a bird's breeding grounds is a good way to find new species. A Week in Italy leads to nine life birds for Craig of Peregrine's Bird Blog.

The Ecobirder photographed hummingbirds, finches, and other creatures during a day watching Bird Banding at Carpenter Nature Center.

Roger at Words and Pictures found a dead great tit wearing a band. He tells what he learned about the band and the bird in One Ring to find them.

Birds in Migration

To track the migration of three shorebird species, scientists in Alaska are banding the birds and fitting some with satellite transmitters while the birds are still on their breeding grounds. Kevin of NaturalVisions Photography fills in the details in Alaska Shorebird Migration Revisited.

Fall migration poses some special challenges for birders, since birds are molting into their plainer basic plumage and songbirds no longer sing. Corey of 10,000 Birds reminds us of the Perils of Posting Poor Pics while trying to nail down a difficult shorebird identification.

Migration offers the opportunity to see more birds than usual, and some birders use that opportunity to do big days. While May is a more popular month for big days, Will at The Nightjar tried a September Century Run.

Sometimes fall migration bring strange birds to strange places. Patrick of The Hawk Owl's Nest remembers his Green Violet-ear Memories.

Patrick and I searched for migrating shorebirds during a Meadowlands Morning two weeks ago.

While we in the northern hemisphere are bidding farewell to breeding birds, in Australia birds are starting to show up on their breeding grounds. Duncan of Ben Cruachan Blog wishes he had brought his camera on a recent bird walk in The things you see.

Birds in their Winter Range

Bird conservation requires that species are protected both on breeding grounds, wintering grounds, and en route between the two. To that end, Nuthatch of bootstrap analysis praises a program to help birds far away by sponsoring banding stations.

When birds from the United States and Canada reach their wintering grounds, they find other members of their taxonomic families already there. The Birdfreak Birding Blog introduces us to Mexico's Collection of Thrushes.

Other Birds

Sketching birds in relaxed locations is a good way to learn bird anatomy in greater detail. Debby of Drawing the Motmot visits a local bird rehabilitation center to prepare for Drawing the Great Blue Heron.

Birders need to be aware of our impact on the birds we love. The Bird Ecology Study Group questions whether the use of flash photography overly disturbs sleeping birds in Sleeping Chestnut-naped Forktail.

Snail of A Snail's Eye View finds some delightful descriptions of Australian birds in Edmund James Banfield's Confessions of a Beachcomber (published 1908). Read some excerpts in Beachcomber's bird concerto.

Con of Consworld takes some lovely broadtail hummingbird photos.

Some birds barely migrate at all. The Ridger finds a few such Birds at both ends of the day in The Greenbelt.

***

I hope you enjoyed this edition of I and the Bird. Try to read as many of these entries as you can and leave comments if you enjoyed them. The next edition will be September 20 at The Nightjar. Send your links to Will at hoaryredpoll AT hotmail DOT com.

IATB Reminder

The next edition of I and the Bird will be here on Thursday.

If you would like to have an entry from your blog included, please send me a link to the post by tonight.

Update (9/5): I can take a few more submissions, so if you missed the deadline and would still like to be included, send me your link.

Audubon Migration Game

Audubon has produced a new online game, Mission Migration. You have to guide birds through their migration and avoid hazards in the air and on the ground. There are four species: robin, common yellowthroat, osprey, and great egret.

Butterflies in Somerset County

As I was photographing dragonflies and wildflowers at Buck Gardens in Far Hills, this great spangled fritillary landed on my hand. My sister, Sarah, took a photo while it sat and flapped its wings in the sun. As you can see, some bird (perhaps an eastern phoebe that we saw nearby) just missed making a meal of it.


Several garden plots have stands of Joe Pye Weed. These plants proved popular with a small dark butterfly. I think it is a wild indigo duskywing, but I would take arguments to the contrary as the duskywings are mostly very similar.

Zabulon skippers were out and about this afternoon at Lord Stirling Park in Basking Ridge. (Lord Stirling Park is Somerset County's portion of the Great Swamp.) Here are a female and a male.

This large yellow spider made a meal out of a small butterfly, perhaps a least skipper (of which I saw several). (If you know what the spider is, please mention it in the comments.)

A pearl crescent was sunning itself and flapping its wings in a mud puddle on the path. It took me a lot of attempts to get a photograph with the wings open.

Several brown butterflies flitted past during the walk at Lord Stirling. I got a picture of this one, an eyed brown. We also recorded a few common wood-nymphs for the day.

The bird turnout at the two spots was rather lackluster, perhaps because of the time (late morning / early afternoon). Migration is clearly underway, as we had a magnolia warbler at the Buck Gardens and then redstart and black-throated blue warblers at Lord Stirling Park. One small mixed flock at the latter location accounts for most of the day's bird sightings.

BIRD SPECIES: 24
Turkey Vulture
Cooper's Hawk
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Kingbird
Barn Swallow
Gray Catbird
American Robin
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Blue Jay
Red-eyed Vireo
American Goldfinch
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
American Redstart
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Cardinal

BUTTERFLY SPECIES: 11
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Cabbage White
Great Spangled Fritillary
Pearl Crescent
Eyed Brown
Common Wood-Nymph
Monarch
Silver-spotted Skipper
Wild Indigo Duskywing
Least Skipper
Zabulon Skipper