Week in Review

This was a slow posting week, but there should be more next week.

Tuesday: More Bad News for Wilson Bridge Eagles

Wednesday: Migrating Birds Nap Frequently

Thursday: Blackwater Resort Partially Blocked

Friday: Loose Feathers #69

Loose Feathers #69

News and links about birds, birding, and the environment, plus a few other things.

• Ultralight aircraft are leading 18 endangered whooping cranes on their southbound journey from their breeding grounds in Wisconsin to their wintering grounds in Florida. The population restoration program uses aircraft to train captive-bred cranes to migrate south for the winter; in the spring the cranes will know where to go without assistance.
• Little egrets, a southern species, are now breeding in London for the first time. The species was hunted nearly to extinction in the 19th century. Just as the hunting of great and snowy egrets in North America led to the formation of the National Audubon Society, the near extinction of little egrets prompted the foundation of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Britain.
• Here is a profile of the fox sparrow, one of my favorite species.
• This week Congress renewed the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act, which provides grants for bird conservation projects.
• When a rare rose-coloured starling appeared in England and then died, neighbors and news reports blamed birders who had come to see the species. The RSPB attributes the bird's death to two large ticks that were lodged into the starling's head.
• Yet another new bird species has been found in Colombia: the Yariguies Brush-Finch (Atlapetes latinuchus yariguierum). Update: The brush-finch was discovered in the Serranía de los Yariguíes, a mountain range in northern Colombia northeast of Bogota. See ProAves for more information. The site is near the Cerulean Warbler reserve.
  
• In upstate New York, former agricultural land is being reverted to wetlands in the federal and state refuge systems.
• Judges in western jurisdictions have been expressing frustration with the Bush administration over non-enforcement or reinterpretation of many statutes dealing with wildlife and land conservation.
• Check out Laura Erickson's coverage of the North American Ornithological Conference at Birderblog, including coverage of presentations related to ivory-billed woodpeckers here, here, and here. Attending the same conference, Nuthatch has a report on the River of Raptors hawk watch.
  
• Stop by and say hi to Cindy of Woodsong, who has been dealing with a major illness.
• Also, Shakespeare's Sister celebrated its second blogiversary yesterday.
• And, as always, the Friday Ark is boarding.
  

Tags:

• Bird news

Blackwater Resort Partially Blocked

The Maryland state Critical Area Commission has blocked the development of 313 acres of the proposed development near Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge, Maryland. The project would have built 2,700 homes, a convention center, retail complex, and a golf course on 1,080 acres of land adjacent to the Little Blackwater River. This river flows through the National Wildlife Refuge and eventually empties into the Chesapeake Bay. Runoff from the site could affect the resources of both. The 313 acres blocked by the commission would have held the golf course and retail complex. The developer could still build on the rest of the land, but any revised project would need to go through the local approval process again.

A five-member panel from the Critical Area Commission held hearings on the project and made a recommendation to the full commission. You can read the report here (pdf). The report sets forth the panel's concerns point-by-point and advises rejection. The main objections stem from a lack of data to support the developer's claims regarding impact on pollution, and noncompliance with watershed regulations. The commission's hearings were attended by over 100 people, and the commission received over 4,000 emails on the subject. Most responders opposed the project.

Tags:

• Blackwater
• Development

Migrating Birds Nap Frequently

During migration, birds must travel long distances between their breeding and wintering grounds. The journeys frequently are thousands of miles from start to finish, and some birds may travel over 1,000 miles in nonstop flights. Some species travel during the day. Hawks, for example, glide from one thermal or updraft to another as they make their journey; these flying conditions are strongest during the day. Most birds, including songbirds and shorebirds, use more direct, powered flight. For such flights, the best conditions are at night, when heat is less intense and winds are weaker.

For this reason, many birds need to reverse their sleeping patterns during spring and fall. Instead of sleeping through the night and staying active during the day, they need to fly all night and then rest for the next flight during the day. Unfortunately migrating birds also need to eat, so the entire day cannot be spent sleeping.

It appears the solution is to take a series of cat naps during the course of a day. A study of caged Swainson's thrushes showed that sleeping patterns change during spring and autumn.

To find out how the birds get through these tiresome periods, scientists observed caged thrushes for an entire year, recording when and how long they slept. They found that during autumn and spring, when the birds are normally migrating, they reverse their typical sleep patterns, staying awake at night and resting during day.

But instead of sleeping for long stretches at a time, the birds took several naps a day, each one lasting only 9 seconds on average.

The thrushes also mixed up their shut-eye sessions with two other forms of sleep. In one, called unilateral eye closure, or UEC, the birds rested one eye and one half of their brains while their other eye and brain hemisphere remained open and active, keeping them semi-alert to danger.

The birds also occasionally slipped into another state, one that any college student who has ever been stuck in a boring lecture can relate to. Called drowsiness, this state is characterized by a partial shutting of both eyes that still allows for some visual processing.

(Thanks to squeakysoul for the tip.)

Tags:

• Migration
• Birds
• Sleep

More Bad News for Wilson Bridge Eagles

A pair of bald eagles, nicknamed Martha and George, have nested near the Maryland side of the Wilson Bridge for several years. Despite the noise from heavy traffic and construction of a new bridge for the Beltway, they have maintained their nest and raised several chicks. Earlier in the year, Martha was severely injured in a fight with another female. As a result, she was taken to Delaware for rehabilitation, and her chicks died despite George's efforts to keep them alive. (See background here, here, here, here, and here.)

Martha is injured again, and this time her outlook is not as good.

Baker said it was unknown whether the beloved Martha, whose story captured the nation's attention in the spring, will survive her latest setback. She suffered a dislocated elbow, a grave injury for an eagle.

"The wing injury is pretty serious stuff," said Glenn Therres, eagle biologist for Maryland's Department of Natural Resources. "It's not like a broken leg, like you can put it in a cast and it will heal up." Therres guessed that she flew into a power line or tree branch during a recent storm.

She has been taken back to the Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research center in Delaware, where she recuperated from her other injuries this year. Specialists are deciding whether to send her to a special facility in Minnesota for surgery or to wrap the wing and hope it heals, Baker said.

It sounds like she may be spending the rest of her life in a wildlife rehab center. Such centers provide care and a safe home for the birds, and educational opportunities for the rest of us. Still it is sad to see wild birds unable to fly again, especially birds with the fierce wildness of raptors.

Update: Martha was euthanized due to her injuries.

Tags:

• Martha
• George
• Wilson Bridge
• Bald Eagle