New Conservation System Ready for a Vote

Tomorrow Congress will vote on whether to establish the National Landscape Conservation System by law. The new system would tie together special conservation, wilderness, and historic areas, as well as National Monuments, that are currently administered by the Bureau of Land Management. Grouping these areas under one system allows the BLM to manage them as a whole rather than as separate, isolated tracts. Such a system has existed since 2000, but Congressional action can make it permanent.

You can help make this happen by urging your representative to vote for H.R. 2016.

More on New Jersey Park Closings

There has been some continuing reactions - mostly negative - regarding the announcement that the DEP would close access for part or all of a dozen state parks. The NJ Sierra Club, for example, has started a petition drive to keep these parks open. So far I have refrained from signing it even though I would prefer to see the parks stay open. The public should have access to public land. I am especially sad to see the closing of places that I have visited, like Monmouth Battlefield, Byrne-Lebanon, and Worthington.

However, what gives me pause is the thought of potential alternatives. One recent article on the park closures featured this commentary:

"People have said they want this government cut," said Assemblyman John Burzichelli, D-Paulsboro, referring to a series of public hearings in which residents rejected a Corzine plan to raise highway tolls to meet a state budget crisis, telling him to reduce state spending instead.

"That means that at some point something has to go," Burzichelli said. "And that's going to hurt."

As for the parks, Burzichelli said: "We have to come up with a way to keep these facilities open. We may have to reach out to our county partners, to see if they can operate some of the parks."

Burzichelli said that user fees could be another way of keeping the parks open, and finding other places to cut within the DEP a third.

When faced with a budget shortfall, government agencies can either raise revenue (in the form of taxes or user fees) or cut spending. A revenue increase is not politically viable thanks to the failure of the toll hike proposal and high municipal taxes. So the DEP is faced with a cut of $59 million out of last year's $480 million budget. Given the severity of the cuts needed to meet these parameters, what alternative cuts would allow these parks to stay open? As hard as it is, I would prefer to see the cuts come from park access rather than invasive species removal, water quality monitoring, or wildlife conservation, if the choice came to that.

Best Spring Birding Spots

A few days ago, USA Today ran an interview with John Flicker about his top ten places to experience spring migration. As might be expected from the president of the National Audubon Society, his list ranges over the continent and incorporates many natural spectacles. It includes:

1. Kern River Preserve (Weldon, Calif.)
2. Francis Beidler Forest Sanctuary (Harleyville, S.C.)
3. Rowe Sanctuary (Gibbon, Neb.)
4. Waunita Lek (Gunnison, Colo.)
5. High Island (Texas)
6. Eastern Egg Rock (Muscongus Bay, Maine)
7. Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge (Oak Harbor, Ohio)
8. Central Park (New York)
9. Souris Loop National Wildlife Refuges (Minot, N.D.)
10. Tara Wildlife (Vicksburg, Miss.)

When I think of spring birding experiences, I think first of Rock Creek Park, which is as much of a migrant magnet as Central Park, but without the crowds. I also think of Hughes Hollow, Bombay Hook NWR, and Great Swamp NWR. After spending a full spring in New Jersey, I will probably be able to add some new places to that list. As you can see, my list has a much more limited geographic scope than Flicker's.

So what are your favorite places to experience the coming of spring?

The Veery-Thrush

My blogpal Greg - a poet in his own right - has been posting poetry in honor of National Poetry Month at Enchilada's Blog. I don't have Greg's talents, but I decided to join in the fun anyway by posting bird-related poems by other authors. This poem references one of my favorite bird songs, that of the Veery.

1597. The Veery-Thrush

By Joseph Russell Taylor

BLOW softly, thrush, upon the hush
That makes the least leaf loud,
Blow, wild of heart, remote, apart
From all the vocal crowd,
Apart, remote, a spirit note
That dances meltingly afloat,
Blow faintly, thrush!
And blind the green-hid waterfall
I heated for its beauty, and all
The unloved vernal rapture and flush,
The old forgotten lonely time,
Delicate thrush!
Spring ’s at the prime, the world ’s in chime,
And my love is listening nearly;
O lightly blow the ancient woe,
Flute of the wood, blow clearly!
Blow, she is here, and the world all dear,
Melting flute of the hush,
Old sorrow estranged, enriched, sea changed,
Breathe it, veery-thrush!

Loose Feathers #144

Western Tanager in Central Park / Photo by D. Bruce Yolton

News about birds and birding

• A study of Acadian Flycatchers in Columbus, Ohio, concluded that urban birds have low breeding success because they are smaller and start their nests later in the breeding season compared to rural birds of the same species. Urban flycatchers are also less likely to return to the same nest site. The study did not find higher levels of nest predation among urban flycatchers. The study suggests that flycatchers see the urban forests as less desirable habitat; future study will try to determine why.
• A large number of birds in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest suffer from bill deformities that make it difficult for them to eat. The cause of this "long-billed syndrome" is unknown, though it seems to be connected with some pollutants and genetic damage. The deformities also make it hard for a bird to preen its feathers, so they become dirty and lice-ridden. (See also this follow-up from Dateline Earth.)
• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may start killing ravens in southern California to prevent them from preying on threatened desert tortoises. They could kill up to 200 per year; the plan includes nonlethal methods to discourage predation as well.
• Michael Chertoff waived environmental and land management laws to speed construction of the border fence. Construction of the fence is opposed by a coalition of environmentalists and local landowners. The fence threatens rare and endangered species that live along the U.S.-Mexican border. The National Audubon Society describes the waiver as "unprecedented and extreme."
  
• A study offered blackcaps fruits that were alike except for their flavonoids content, a type of antioxidant. The birds favored fruits with the highest concentration of flavonoids, and had improved immune function as a result.
  
• British scientists have found evidence of cooperation among rooks, a type of crow, though the birds may not fully understand its significance.
• Seven threatened waterbird species in Cambodia have rebounded since active conservation efforts began in 2001. The recovery is partly due to the use of former poachers as game wardens.
  
• The New Jersey DEP is likely to close public access to Champagne Island in Cape May County. The uninhabited island provides nesting habitat for 1,600 black skimmers, as well as smaller colonies of royal terns and piping plovers.
• If you live in the U.K., here are some animals you can expect to find in or around cities. (In D.C., you can bird by Metro; in New York, you can bird by subway.)
• A man in the U.K. was jailed for 23 weeks for keeping a collection of more than 7,000 bird eggs - including eggs of rare bird species. The collection also included over 50 dead birds.
• Burrowing owls at the site for a planned community center saved Miami $1 million.
  
• A webcam captured a video of a red-tailed hawk chick hatching.
• Most people feed sparrows and finches in their backyards. One woman in Alaska feeds bald eagles instead.
  

Birds in the blogosphere

• birdQUIZ: Abnormal birdQUIZ
• BrdPics: Cabeza Roja
• Prairie Ice: Snowy Sage-Grouse morning
• Born Again Bird Watcher: Varied Thrush Flocking in the April Sunlight
• mon@rch: Staghorn Sumac and Birds
• Snail's Tales: Will it be the same without frogs?
  
• Also, David has resumed posting daily migration forecasts at his Woodcreeper blog.
  

Environmental news

• The EPA and Army Corps of Engineers have announced a plan to require builders to replace wetlands they destroy by creating or restoring wetlands elsewhere. A representative from NWF fears that the new rule could make it harder to preserve existing wetlands from destruction.
• The second annual Chesapeake Bay Report Card gave its lowest grades to rivers around Annapolis in Anne Arundel County. Overall, the bay's health improved from a D+ in 2006 to a C- this year, even though 88% of the watershed does not have enough dissolved oxygen in the summer months to sustain life.
  
• Climate change skeptics often claim that the earth's current warming trend is caused by variations in solar activity. A study by British scientists disproves the link.
• The Nation explores the implications of shifting to a green economy for different sectors of the work force.
  
• The Independent investigates the usefulness of carbon offset programs.
• VBS.tv will air a series on the floating plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean starting on April 7.
  

Carnivals and newsletters

• Friday Ark #185
  
• I and the Bird #72
  
• Tangled Bank #102
  
• Carnival of the Cities
• Circus of the Spineless #31
• Festival of the Trees #22
• Learning in the Great Outdoors
  
• Birds in the News #124