Unknown Observer Is a Very Proficient Birder

Source: The eBird Top 100

Loose Feathers #205

Pileated Woodpecker / Photo by MNH Photography

Bird and birding news

• An osprey that hatched at Martha's Vineyard this summer is being tracked by satellite tag as it makes its way south. You can view its route at the link.
• Each autumn more than one million snow geese stop at Squaw Creek NWR in Missouri. (I am linking mainly for the photo.) 
• A visitor from the United Kingdom praises the avifauna of Rock Creek Park in DC.
  
• The Bronx Zoo has added Loggerhead Shrike  to its collection to support a captive breeding and reintroduction program.
  
• A photographic exhibit on Long Island features black and white portraits of owls and poultry.
• New Jersey plans to extend its snow goose hunting season as part of a program to reduce wintering snow geese along the Atlantic flyway by about half.
• Avian botulism has killed between 25,000 and 50,000 birds in the Great Salt Lake's marshes (classed as "a moderate year" for botulism).
• Washington state will not file charges against the officers who clubbed gulls to death in Seattle.
  
• Backyard birdbaths can be especially productive in dry seasons or dry climates.
• A Tufted Puffin appeared for the first time in the U.K., off the coast of Kent.
• Researchers have found a large colony of flamingos near Abu Dhabi.
  

Birds in the blogosphere

• Net Results: How do we know what thrushes are eating? 
• Coffee and Conservation: Know your coffee birds: Violet Sabrewing
  
• Susan Gets Native: Species Profile: Rough-legged Hawk
• BrdPics: Washed-out Wilson's Warbler 
• Tails of Birding: Hawk Eyes 
• Notes from soggy bottom: Why the Rush?
• Fat Finch: Undiscovered Bird Species 
• Murmuring Trees: Northern Wheatear in DeKorte Park
  

Environment and biodiversity

• Shell was forced to halt some tar sands mining this week due to environmental protests.
• Danish researchers have mapped the changes in Greenland's ice sheet over the past 11,700 years. The map is based on evidence from ice cores.
• Arctic sea ice reached its third smallest extent this summer. Sea ice reach its summer minimum of 1.97 million square miles on September 12. Even so, the minimum was 20% below the 30-year average.
• Scientists have sequenced DNA barcodes for 25 hunted wildlife species to make it easier to enforce laws against illegal hunting.
• The Obama administration has agreed to a plan for operating federal hydropower dams along the Columbia River with improvements to salmon habitat on the north side of the river. If habitat improvements fail to help salmon sufficiently, the administration may breach dams on the Snake River.
• Global sea temperatures for August and for the summer overall were the highest since records started being kept in 1880.
  

Carnivals and newsletters

• Just Write
  
• Scientia Pro Publica #11
  
• I and the Bird #109 
• The Moth and Me #6
  

Moth and Me

The Moth and Me #6 is now online. A few of my moth posts from last week are included among the many great moth posts in this edition.

The Moth and Me is becoming a traveling carnival and needs volunteer hosts. If you would be interested in hosting a future edition of this moth carnival, click through to the current edition and contact Seabrooke.

Charges Filed in Syncrude Duck Deaths Case

Here is a brief update on the Syncrude incident from May 2008. If you remember, 1,603 wild ducks landed in a retention pond holding the toxic oil tailings that result from Syncrude's oil sands operation. The company faces charges of violating both the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act and provincial environmental laws. It just pleaded not guilty and plans to fight the case.

Robert White, Syncrude’s lawyer, later told reporters the oil company has already expressed “deep regret” and “spent a tremendous amount of money to ensure it didn’t happen again.”

“To now charge us and bring us to court is not going to bring back 1,603 ducks,” he added.

Mr. White rejected a reporter’s question about whether Syncrude thought it was above the law.

“Of course not,” he said. “However, the law has recognized for a long time that when people do their best to avoid something, then that isn’t a matter for charges. That’s a matter for fix-up.”

I am glad that the company has acknowledged the problem and apologized. The trouble for Syncrude is that this is not a single isolated incident. It has a long record of migratory bird deaths, with hundreds of bird dying in its tailings ponds annually. The company clearly needs to do more to prevent these deaths from happening, and it is right for the Canadian government to enforce its laws.

Now if only the government had a good solution for the other environmental problems with the oil sands industry.

A Man-eating Bird?

Haast's Eagle attacking New Zealand moas / Artwork: John Megahan

A recent examination of fossils from the extinct Haast's Eagle (Harpagornis moorei) found that this massive raptor could hunt large animals rather than just scavenging.

It was at first thought to be a scavenger because its bill was similar to a vulture's with hoods over its nostrils to stop flesh blocking its air passages as it rooted around inside carcasses.

But a re-examination of skeletons using modern technology, including CAT scans, by researchers at Canterbury Museum in Christchurch and the University of New South Wales in Australia showed it had a strong enough pelvis to support a killing blow as it dived at speeds of up to 80kph.

With a wingspan of up to three metres and weighing 18kg, the female was twice as big as the largest living eagle, the Steller's sea eagle.

And the bird's talons were as big as a tiger's claws.

That sounds scary. But did it actually eat humans? The answer is maybe. Haast's Eagle most likely evolved to prey on moas, as depicted in the artist's conception above. Large flightless moas inhabited New Zealand prior to the arrival of humans and became extinct soon afterward. If a Haast's Eagle could kill a moa, most likely it had the ability to kill humans as well. That would seem to confirm an ancient Maori legend about a large raptor that could eat humans. However, I find it doubtful that Haast's Eagles ate humans very frequently as it failed to outlast its main source of prey. Even if the eagles killed some humans, they did not kill enough to maintain the species.

As an aside, the image at the top of the article comes from an article in PLoS Biology (summary) several years ago that explored the genetic relationships among the Haast's Eagle and other raptors. This giant raptor is most closely related to Australia's Little Eagle (Aquila morphnoides), a species slightly smaller than a Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). (Take a look at this image comparing the feet of a Haast's Eagle and a Little Eagle.) The Haast's Eagle is more distantly related to other members of the Aquila genus, including North America's Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos). This puts Haast's Eagle among the true eagles rather than the fish eagles.

Thanks to Chris Clarke for the links.