Pintails in Highland Park

Saturday's snowstorm was followed by a strong cold front that pushed some migratory birds southward. Other bloggers who got out yesterday morning will probably have more birds to report than I do. In the afternoon I walked around Donaldson Park, my local patch. Despite not bringing my binoculars, I saw five Northern Pintails in the park's pond. I see pintails at that location only once or twice a year, and only during fall migration. These birds most likely arrived on the previous night's cold front and will probably depart in the next day or so.

Snow in October?

Yesterday, New Jersey had a highly unusual October snowstorm, the first since 2008. Usually the state gets its first significant snowfall in mid-December. With a wet snow and leaves still on the trees, there were a lot of reports of limbs breaking (though I did not see any limbs down myself). Some of the trees, like the dogwood above, looked extra colorful with the combination of red or orange leaves with a white frosting of snow.

Flowering Dogwood in Autumn

In autumn, the leaves of flowering dogwoods turn red, ranging from a bright red to a dark purplish red. These two photos were taken on separate days. The one above is from Thursday when it was raining. The one below is from yesterday, when it sunny.

Loose Feathers #314

Merlin / Photo by Bill Thompson (USFWS)

Birds and birdwatching news

• About 103 Spoon-billed Sandpipers were recorded recently in China at a site north of the Yangtze Estuary. The site was only recently discovered to be an important shorebird staging area and is currently not protected.
• The West Nile Virus has done so well in North America because it mutated to be spread more easily by the local mosquitos and found a reservoir among American Robins. 
• A new study on how woodpeckers avoid brain injury argues woodpeckers' brains are protected by the looping shape of their hyoid bones, a lower mandible longer than the upper mandible, and a spongy bone structure to distribute the force of the blows.
• One unexpected effect of oil exploration in the Arctic is that predators use the infrastructure for dens and nesting and then use that as a base to prey on the nests of migratory birds. The rise in predation has particularly hurt Laplan Longspurs and phalaropes.
• Conservationists are trying to remove the house mouse population from Farallon Islands because the mice are causing Burrowing Owls to stay longer on the islands through the fall and winter, which in turn puts stress on Ashy Storm-Petrels.
• Tests on Bald Eagle eggs show that the species has benefited greatly from the regulation of dioxin discharged in paper mill wastewater.
• Two birders are competing to set the new big year record in New Jersey.
• Duke Farms is restoring a 500-acre wetland to provide more suitable habitat for marsh birds, especially the Northern Harrier.
• A scientist tells of sampling bird populations at Yanaba Island in Papua New Guinea.

Nature blogging

• Sibley Guides: Does technology make birders lazy?
• The Drinking Bird: Birder Jargon Project: Along came a Sparrow
• Round Robin: See the Only Known Images of the Lost Imperial Woodpecker [Video]
• Greg Miller: Who’s The Best Birder In The World?
• The Nemesis Bird: Photo Study: Yellow-rumped Warbler
• Extinction Countdown: Please Don’t Feed the Endangered Eagles?

Environment and biodiversity

• A new study has officially linked white-nose syndrome in bats to the fungus Geomyces destructans and demonstrated that bats can pass the fungus to each other. The finding opens a way forward for combating the disease, perhaps through a vaccine. There is some evidence that the fungus originated in Europe and spread to North America, where bats had not evolved resistance to the fungus.
• The federal government has designated 140 square miles of critical habitat for endangered black abalone snails along the Pacific coast of California. Their numbers crashed during the 1980s due to disease. 
• The Obama administration wants to impose a 20-year ban on new mining claims around the Grand Canyon.
• The Condit Dam on Washington's White Salmon River became the second-largest dam to be removed to restore fish passage. The dam blocked the annual migrations of salmon, steelhead, and Pacific lamprey for spawning.
• A new study confirms interbreeding between the eastern population of coyotes and wolves in the Great Lakes region. The study also showed that coyotes colonized the east via two routes: one around the Great Lakes and the other through southern states. The coyotes in Northern Virginia followed the northern route.
• Poachers killed the last living Vietnamese rhinoceros, a subspecies of the Javan rhinoceros.
• There are fewer American martens in California than in the past, which may be linked to a reduction in suitable forest habitat.
• Here are the results of another environmental photography contest.

American Oystercatcher Banding

Banded shorebirds at Cedar Key, Florida

The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey is participating in a multistate banding project to monitor American Oystercatchers.

The oystercatcher is an especially easy bird to survey during fall migration due to its distinct features. Not only do they stand apart from other shorebird species with their unique orange bill and striking coloration, but color bands help us determine individuals as well.  Banding efforts have been underway in New Jersey since 2004 in order to give insight to researchers regarding the
oystercatcher’s breeding habits, pair behavior, and migration patterns. About 300 oystercatchers have been banded in New Jersey to date, including a significant percentage of the state’s estimated 400 breeding pairs.

Adult oystercatchers are captured every year during their breeding season using a trap called a noose carpet.  This flat trap, which is covered in noose knots, is partially buried under the sand near the oystercatcher’s nest. A wooden decoy is placed in the middle of the trap.  When the breeding pair catches sight of the decoy imposter, they approach it to defend their territory and get caught in the trap.  Once trapped, researchers place two orange bands with a two letter/digit code, denoting that they were caught in New Jersey, and one silver U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service band on their legs. They also take a variety of body measurements and obtain a DNA sample from a feather for further research.  Chicks are also banded a few weeks after hatching and before they are able to fly.

The process of banding oystercatchers, while time consuming, has taught us many important things.  Among many other findings, banded birds have helped us confirm that oystercatchers are long living, and exhibit strong site fidelity and pair bonds.  Individual color bands have also shown us their migration route, as well as how long they stay at their migration stopover sites and wintering grounds.

Oystercatchers banded in each state covered by the project are given a different color band. If you happen to spot a color-banded oystercatcher, you can report the observation to the American Oystercatcher Working Group.