Evening on the Mall and Two Years of Blogging

After a week of hot and sticky weather, today was actually fairly comfortable. This evening I walked over to the Capitol to enjoy the change.

As usual, there is a contingent of mallards on the Capitol's reflecting pool. Some were guarding ducklings. Most of the males were molting, as in the photograph below. One hooded merganser was swimming by itself in the middle of the pool.

Red-winged blackbirds take advantage of the lush foliage of the Indian Museum's wetland pond. I am pretty sure they breed here, but I have yet to spot a nest.


All around the Mall, I could hear the begging calls of young birds. The mockingbirds below were in the midst of an exchange in a tree on the Capitol's west lawn.

I missed my blogiversary earlier this week. I started this blog two years ago on Monday. Now, over 900 posts later, I cannot believe the time has passed so quickly.

Loose Feathers #104

Black Skimmer / Photo by Gary Kramer (USFWS)

News and links about birds, birding, and the environment

• Climate change may threaten the breeding success of northern gannets. With dwindling fish stocks, parents may need to leave their nests unguarded for longer periods of time, leaving the chicks vulnerable to attacks from other gannets.
• A British study considered reasons why female superb starlings mate with multiple males. Results suggest that the primary reasons are obtaining extra food for their hatchlings and increasing genetic diversity.
• An international conference on raptors will be held at Hawk Mountain this September. A special session will focus on kestrel conservation.
• Hundreds of dead seabirds are washing ashore on the east coast of Florida. Biologists suspect that the cause is starvation, but are testing the birds to check for other possible causes. (More from the Orlando Sentinel.)
• Dead birds are also turning up on beaches in the Bahamas.
• Crane handlers with the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership are considering alternate wintering sites for the eastern population of whooping cranes because of last winter's disaster.
• Cirl buntings are breeding again in Cornwall as a result of a captive breeding program. This is part of the comeback of cirl buntings in the U.K., whose population had decreased to 118 pairs in the 1980s.
  
• "Trap, neuter, adopt" may resolve feral cat problems in Cape May.
• Biologists from the Pennsylvania Game Commission are banding resident Canada geese to study their movements and the impact of hunting on their population.
• New York City's Jamaica Bay has a new visitor center. The refuge (in Queens) is a year-round hotspot for various species of waterbirds.
• The fledgling red-tailed hawk mentioned in last week's edition has been set free in Central Park. (More at Urban Hawks and Palemaleirregulars.)
  
• Birders in Central Jersey are excited about a black skimmer sighting 20 miles inland from Sandy Hook.
• Fledgling songbirds are already making their appearance. If you see one, let its parents take care of it rather than attempting to care for it yourself.
  
• A new study considered the effects of climate change on public health in developing countries.
• The British government launched a new carbon footprint calculator.
  
• A panel from the National Academy of Science reports that the supply of coal in the United States may be less than advertised - 100 years rather than 250 years at current consumption rates.
• The Senate passed an energy bill to raise CAFE standards for American auto companies to 35 miles per gallon.
  

Birds in the blogosphere

• Tails of Birding: Vermont's Elusive Bicknell's Thrush
• Daily Kos: Old Friends Checking Out
• bootstrap analysis: another bad rap for the ivory-billed woodpecker searchers
• Birdfreak: Bird Blog Variety
• sphere: The Way We Treat Our Estuaries
• Snail's Eye View: Royal spoonbill
• The Bird Nerd: When Lying is a Good Thing
• The Nightjar: The End of a Grassland
  

Carnivals and newsletters

• Friday Ark #144
• Earth's Tree News #205 (produced by OLYecology)
  
• Tangled Bank #82
  
• Birds in the News #88
  
• Carnival of Maryland #9
• Oekologie #6
  

Injured Swift

Occasionally I receive a question by email about what to do with injured birds. Field of View, a blog maintained by the magazine Birder's World, offers one way to deal with the situation:

I decided to take it to the Wisconsin Humane Society. (Last month, Chuck, Ernie, Jessica, and I participated in the society's Avian Odyssey to support its Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.) Thanks to the center, I knew what to do.

The good folks at the center coordinate a program in Milwaukee each spring and fall that rescues birds that hit windows. They call it WIngs: Wisconsin Night Guardians for Song Birds. At a training session for volunteers, wildlife manager Scott Diehl described how to transport an injured bird: Put a cloth towel in the bottom of a paper grocery bag, put the bird inside, and close the top of the bag. (The towel gives the bird something to cling to.) And on the drive to the rehab center, turn the radio off to avoid further stressing the bird.

Read the rest.

Conservation in the Adirondacks

While we are on the subject of birds in New York, I would like to highlight a story from the Adirondacks. Yesterday, the Nature Conservancy announced a purchase of 161,000 acres from a private timber company. The land is spread over several tracts, pictured in the map at right, most of which lie within the larger boundaries of the six-million-acre Adirondack Park.

In the near term, the Nature Conservancy will provide access to provide access to private groups that have used the land in the past. For the next 20 years, it will allow selective timber cutting to a local paper mill. It will also renew the permits of local hunting and outdoors clubs. The tracts have not been open for public use, though that may be considered in the future.

The significance of the purchase is that it prevents valuable habitat from being destroyed through development, clear-cutting, or other uses. The Adirondacks are at the southern edge of the breeding range for boreal species, many of which are under pressure. According to a Nature Conservancy fact sheet on the property:

Biological inventories conducted by TNC in 2001 revealed 95 significant species, 37 of which are rare in New York, about 20 uncommon in the state, and 30 rare or uncommon in the Adirondacks. Also recorded were a rich variety of birds: 91 species, 12 of which are boreal specialists. Of the many vascular plants on the property, the Steller’s cliffbrake, a small limestone fern, is one of the rarest.

Unfortunately, the fact sheet does not provide a list of the birds and other species found on the property. Some of the birds that can be found within the larger boundaries of the Adirondacks include black-backed woodpecker, gray jay, the rare Bicknell's thrush, and the declining rusty blackbird.

For more on birds in the Adirondacks, see:

• Birding in Hamilton County
• Adirondacks Birding

See also the Nature Conservancy's website for more information on the purchase.

Pale Male Symposium

As some of you may know, Pale Male and Lola, the famous red-tailed hawks who nest near Central Park in New York, had their third consecutive unsuccessful nesting attempt this spring. The troubles began when the owners of the building where Pale Male had raised hawk broods for years removed the original nest to drive the hawks away. After public outcry, a new nesting structure was put in place, and the red-tailed hawks rebuilt the nest. Since then, the pair has been laying eggs but incubating without the egs hatching.

Hawk watchers in New York are concerned and wondering if the new structure might be the cause of the problems. Donegal Browne of Palemaleirregulars is looking for input on possible causes and solutions. Visit her forum to leave suggestions if you have any.