Sabal Palm Sanctuary to Close

The Sabal Palm Audubon Sanctuary in Brownsville, Texas, will close to the public from at least May 15 to June 15 due to poor economic conditions and uncertainty caused by the border wall.

The sanctuary's original mission of preserving one of the nation's last oases of healthy sabal palm habitat had been augmented in recent years by nature education efforts that expanded its role to that of a community nature center. Regrettably, donors buffeted by the recession have significantly cut back support and there is uncertainty about the Homeland Security border fence that threatens to cut off the facility from the community, effectively decimating the sanctuary's operating budget....

The 557-acre property, owned by The National Audubon Society, is home to the last remaining largest stand of native sabal palms in the nation; and is among the most biologically diverse regions in the Lone Star state. Aside from being a birder's paradise, rare plants and animals are seen here in this unique sub-tropical habitat.

Audubon will focus its resources on protecting and managing the sanctuary through a new schedule that includes months with limited access to the public. The following schedule will be in effect until further notice:

May 15 – Oct. 15 CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC

Oct. 15 – Dec. 15 OPEN WEEKENDS ONLY (Saturday & Sunday)

Dec. 15 – May 15 OPEN Tues – Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The center will offer private tours while the center is closed if arranged in advance.

It is unfortunate that such a unique and valuable habitat might be shut off from the rest of the United States due to hostility to immigration. This possibility (perhaps probability) is no doubt hampering the sanctuary's efforts to raise funds to continue serving the public. The heavy-handed tactics of the border wall builders, at least in this case, may end up hurting wildlife and American citizens much more than preventing illegal immigration.

Skywatch Saturday: After the Rain

Since Skywatch Friday conflicts with other scheduled posts on this blog, I usually do not participate. Today, though, I have some sky photos left from a walk after yesterday's rain storm. When I looked at radar maps in the late afternoon, the storm seemed to be ending, so I walked down to the nearby park to do a little birdwatching. Apparently I misread the radar because shortly after I arrived, the clouds opened and rain started pouring down. I had worn my rain-proof shell, so I did not get too wet, but the downpour dampened my birding prospects.

Soon enough, the rain stopped, and instead of birds, I started watching the light. When the rain clouds parted, the sky became a mix of grays, whites, and blues – in some cases dramatic and in others subtle. There were, of course, birds at the park; robins and juncos were singing all around me when there was no rain. The usual Canada Geese and Mallards patrolled the waterways, and I saw a Tree Swallow zip past along the river. There were no rainbows that I could see. but I heard of them appearing elsewhere.

Below are a few sky photos from the walk.





There are more park photos at my Flickr account.

Loose Feathers #181

Steller's Eiders / Photo by Laura L. Whitehouse (USFWS)

Bird and birding news

• The Obama administration plans to rewrite the Bush administration's Spotted Owl recovery plan and not defend it against lawsuits filed by environmental groups.
  
• The NY Times has an interview with a woman who studies penguins in Argentina. The penguins are threatened by the decline of South Atlantic fisheries since they have to travel farther to find food during the breeding season.
• The Fish and Wildlife Service may restrict some subsistence hunting of waterfowl to protect Steller's Eiders, which are sometimes shot along with the Brant and White-fronted Geese that Inupiat prefer.
  
• The RSPB is challenging London birders to photograph birds within a five-minute walk of a Tube station. The contest is open until May 31.
• The Spanish Imperial Eagle population has increased from 38 to 253 pairs in the last thirty years.
  
• Here is a video of a turtle grabbing a pigeon and dragging it underwater.
• Planting some types of flowering trees may attract birds to drink nectar or feed on insects.
• Forests along Old Mine Road have been designated as an Important Bird Area on the basis of its population of breeding warblers.
  

Birds in the blogosphere

• Field of View: 21 wintering Whooping Cranes die; numbers drop for first time since 2001
  
• Hawk Owl's Nest: My first regional editor experience
• Birdfreak: The Future of Birding and Conservation: Predictions and Wishful Thinking
• Tetrapod Zoology: Passerine birds fight dirty, a la Velociraptor
• Round Robin: Let’s Go Birding!… At Night… Blindfolded
  

Environmental news

• Many Bush administration environmental policies are quickly getting overturned on the basis of documents and policy proposals drafted by the EPA's career employees before Obama was elected.
• Concrete manufacturers are experimenting with new materials to reduce concrete's environmental impact.
• Florida's plan to buy U.S. Sugar's Everglades properties has been cut in half due to the state's budget crisis.
• An eruption of Alaska's Mount Redoubt (or associated earthquakes) could cause oil storage tanks on the Drift River to release their contents.
• The National Audubon Society and Natural Resources Defense Council created a map to show energy companies the public lands where they would be most likely to try to block energy development. The implication is that they would not try to fight development elsewhere.
  

Carnivals and newsletters

• I and the Bird #97
• Festival of the Trees #34
• Birds in the News #165
  

I and the Bird

The 97th I and the Bird is now online at Great Auk or Greatest Auk.

New Boreal Forest Preserves

Photo credit: Innu Nation

Quebec's premier recently announced that the province would set aside another 4.5 million acres distributed over 14 new national parks.

The Quebec government has added 18,000 square kilometres of land to the amount already protected in the province, bringing the total to 135,326 square kilometres - the size of new Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island combined.

The increase, announced yesterday by Premier Jean Charest and Line Beauchamp, minister of sustainable development, environment and parks, brings the percentage of protected land in the province to 8.12 - just over the eight-per-cent goal the government set in 2003.

The latest protected swaths comprise half of Quebec's Boreal Forest in the northern part of the province, including more land around George River and eight sites in Nunavik.

The new preserves in Quebec's boreal forest are especially important given the sizable bird populations that call it home. According to the Boreal Songbird Initiative, the province plans to preserve more land within the next few years. This move, combined with Obama's signing of the major public lands bill, makes for a very encouraging week for land preservation.