More Spineless

Just a few days ago the circus was revived, and now we have the first edition of the Circus of the Spineless (actually #35) in several months. Great work Kevin!

I like the new logo, too, though I am still partial to the older one.

Circus of the Spineless Revived

After a long hiatus, it looks like the Circus of the Spineless will be revived. While it was running, this was one of the better blog carnivals around, so I am glad to see it is coming back. Please consider hosting one of the upcoming editions if you have an interest in invertebrates and haven't hosted this carnival before.

Upcoming: Rusty Blackbird Blitz

Rusty Blackbirds have suffered serious decline, as much as 88-98% over the past 40 years. Possible causes include winter habitat conversion and persecution from blackbird control programs. The International Rusty Blackbird Technical Working Group is seeking sightings data to find the locations of Rusty Blackbirds' wintering habitat. To that end, the working group and eBird have organized a Rusty Blackbird Blitz from February 7-15, 2009.

Volunteers are asked to visit local sites where they have found Rusty Blackbirds in the past, or that appear to be appropriate habitat, to search for this species during the nine-day period. If the blackbirds are found, report the results to eBird following the blitz protocol. It will be helpful to review the instructions before going birding, as the working group is seeking more information than the usual eBird submission entails.

The link includes other useful resources, such as identification information and links to audio recordings.

Loose Feathers #172

Golden Eagle / Photo by Donna Dewhurst

Bird and birding news

• Bird remains from the airplane that crash-landed in the Hudson are being sent to the Smithsonian's Feather Identification Lab for identification. Last year the lab processed remains from 4,600 bird strikes.
  
• China has a new bird species, the Nonggang Babbler (Stachyris nonggangensis), found in Guangxi Province. The new babbler forages for insects at ground level.
• The Emperor Penguin is likely to experience a significant decline, and possibly extinction, in the face of climate change. Current models show the colony at Terre Adelie shrinking from 3,000 birds to 400 by the year 2100.
• Electronic tags attached to Manx Shearwaters show that the seabirds often make a two-week layover somewhere along their long migration routes.
  
• The Rossmoor retirement community in California is ready to go ahead with killing 50 Acorn Woodpeckers for damaging houses.
• White eyes, birds in the family Zosteridae, diversify faster than any other birds. Most species in that family evolved fairly recently when members of the family arrived in new territory.
• Modern bird lineages may have survived the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous due to their larger brains compared to other avian ancestors.
  
• This sounds like a bird blogger's dream: a group of scientists found an unknown oasis by examining Google Earth footage. The recently-discovered forest in Mozambique provides habitat for at least seven Globally Threatened bird species.
• The 2009 Great Backyard Bird Count will begin in two weeks.
• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering removing the Hawaiian Hawk ('Io) from the federal Endangered Species List.
  

Environmental news

• A new study throws cold water on the idea of "fertilizing" the ocean with iron filings to reduce climate change. Plankton do not sequester nearly as much carbon as originally thought. (However, the BBC takes a more positive view of the study.)
• A push to restore wolves to Olympic National Park is based on the premise that the lack of a top predator has allowed the elk population to grow to unsustainable levels.
• Climate models predict a major expansion of ocean dead zones.
• Canadian scientists are studying the boundary between forest and tundra for any sign of an advancing treeline.
• NOAA reports that the effects of elevated carbon dioxide levels will linger for the next 1,000 years, even if carbon emissions are completely stopped. The higher the peak carbon levels, the worse those lingering effects will be.
  

Birding Along the C&O Canal

Last weekend, I took the train to Washington, DC, to participate in the DC Audubon Society's annual C&O Canal Midwinter Bird Survey. This is an event that I have participated in since 2004 and have helped to coordinate since 2006. Each year volunteers for the survey count birds within their assigned sections along the entire* 184.5-mile length of the C&O Canal National Historical Park. One of the attractive aspects of this count is that it crosses through multiple habitats, from the edge of the coastal plain in Georgetown, through Maryland's Piedmont, and into the Ridge and Valley region.

Of the areas covered by the count, my favorite to survey is western Maryland. The bird life is different from what one finds on the Mid-Atlantic coastal plain and the landscape is beautiful. The canal there is bordered by steep hills crowned with pines and other conifers. Moreover, the park is quiet; stand still on the towpath, and the only sounds you will hear are the wind, wild animals, and perhaps a passing train.

Western Maryland is where I headed with Jed, another former DC Audubon board member, on Saturday. Our plan called for us to cover an eight-mile section along with another volunteer. We started a mile upstream from the Paw Paw Tunnel and then worked our way downstream, alternating sections. At the south (upstream) side of the tunnel we found an active foraging flock that included at least a dozen Purple Finches. When we emerged from the downstream end of the tunnel, we were greeted by a passing Cooper's Hawk. A Barred Owl hooted softly from somewhere on the ridge above the tunnel, and several Common Ravens appeared overhead and accompanied us downstream.

A mile downstream from the tunnel, Jed and I saw a Golden Eagle! A large flock of Common Mergansers had flown past us in a hurry. As we turned to count them, I heard a audible WHOOSH as the eagle stooped in hot pursuit of one of the mergansers. It almost caught it, but when it missed, it wheeled around and started pumping towards us head-on at eye-level. It checked us out and then turned and continued upstream. Unfortunately, it was gone by the time the third member of our party caught up with us.

For the rest of the morning we counted small flocks of songbirds as we worked our way downstream. Much to my delight, each mile we covered featured at least one Winter Wren, though none were singing. We had our best results in mile 150 when we encountered one flock of sparrows after another – mostly White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos, with a few Song Sparrows and Swamp Sparrows mixed in. With that we finished a day of good birding. Results from other sections are trickling in here.

* Or at least as close to "entire" as we can manage. 80-90% coverage is typical.