Loose Feathers #211

Western Grebe / Photo by Kevin Cole

Bird and birding news

• As of Tuesday, the Dubai Star oil spill in the Bay Area had killed at least 18 birds and another 32 were being cleaned. The dead birds included American coot, eared grebe, western grebe, short-billed dowitcher, long-billed dowitcher, surf scoter, lesser scaup, and greater scaup. Update: According to a more recent story, the spill killed 24 birds, with another 37 in rehabilitation.
  
• Great White Pelicans have started to eat Cape Gannet chicks at a breeding colony in South Africa. Their change in diet is attributed to declining fish populations.
  
• A Californian couple, whose first date was a birding expedition, is completing a 37-year project to document the birds of Inyo County.
• The BBC has slow-motion video of the Marvelous Spatuletail Hummingbird's mating display. This Andean bird has just four tail feathers, but they are extraordinarily long. The male flexes them as part of its mating dance.
  
• A bird shut down the Large Hadron Collider by dropping a piece of bread on it. The bird species was not specified (or perhaps even known), but the article oddly chooses an oystercatcher to represent it.
• Here is a graphic illustration of why wind turbines need to be sited carefully: a video of a Griffon Vulture colliding with a turbine. 
  
• An amateur photographer captured photos of a Giant Shoebill at the San Diego Wild Animal Park picking up a duck and moving it out of its way.
  
• The Guardian has a photo gallery of starlings gathering in their winter roosts. The flocks are impressive.
• The RSPB wants British golf courses to adapt their landscaping to benefit rare and declining birds.
  

Birds in the blogosphere

• Prairie Ice: State of the Art - Greater Sage-Grouse
  
• Saw-whet Owl Research: Owl Nightlife, or... what does a saw-whet do at night?
• IBRRC: Deadly sea foam subsides, 10,000 seabirds die
  

Environment and biodiversity

• According to the IUCN, 17,291 out of 47,677 species are threatened with extinction. That includes 21% of mammals, 30% of amphibians, 12% of birds, and 28% of reptiles, 37% of freshwater fishes, 70% of plants, 35% of invertebrates. Some taxa, such as reptiles, are underrepresented on the Red List.
  
• Rising sea levels could wreak havoc on the marshes of the Delmarva peninsula.
  
• The Senate Environment and Public Works committee passed its version of the Kerry-Boxer bill to address climate change. The bill still requires reconciliation with the the Energy and Natural Resources committee's version and passage by the full Senate.
• A new study reports that deforestation is responsible for only 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions rather than 17%. However, peatlands degradation is responsible for 3% of global emissions, meaning that habitat destruction is responsible for at least 15% of human-caused warming.
• Wolves that kill moose contribute to biodiversity by enriching the soil around carcass sites with important chemicals and microbes that promote plant growth.
• A study found that indoor plants can remove harmful airborne chemicals that emanate from artificial substances such as paint or adhesives. The most effective plants tested were Hemigraphis alternata (purple waffle plant), Hedera helix (English ivy), Hoya carnosa (variegated wax plant), and Asparagus densiflorus (Asparagus fern).
  

Carnivals and newsletters

• Circus of the Spineless #44 
• Circus of the Spineless #43 
• Festival of the Trees #41 
• Berry Go Round #21
  

SkyWatch: Winged Sumac

A sumac seems like a short plant for a SkyWatch post, but it depends on one's perspective. Winged Sumac (Rhus copallinum) is one of several sumac species native in eastern North America. It is also known as shining sumac, flameleaf sumac, and dwarf sumac. Sumacs are early succession plants, common in old fields, waste areas, and highway medians. Winged sumac is especially common along New Jersey's shore, where its tolerance for dry, sandy soil and harsh conditions allow it to thrive.

Like other sumacs, winged sumac has compound leaves. In autumn the leaves turn bright red. This species gets its name from the narrow leaflets that grow along its leafstalk in between the larger leaflets.

In winter, sumacs drop their leafstalks along with the leaflets, leaving only the bare trunks and branches. At the top of each branch is a cluster of red berries, called drupes. These fruits provide a winter food source for birds and mammals. I have rarely seen birds eating sumac fruit, so I assume they eat it mainly in emergencies when little else is available.

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Public Space Question Passes

The ballot question to approve borrowing for public lands preservation passed.

With 98 percent of the state's precincts reporting as of 11:35 p.m., the ballot question was narrowly ahead - 792,336 votes for the question, or 52 percent, and 729,557 votes against it, or 48 percent.

Such a narrow margin (a little over 60,000 votes) illustrates the problem I mentioned in my last post on the issue. Leaving public lands preservation up to annual ballot issues makes future funding uncertain. While these issues tend to pass, a day may come when it fails, especially if the state's budget problems worsen under the new administration. All it would take is a major push by an opposition group in a low turnout election.

Here is what the bond will fund:

The funding includes $218 million for Green Acres open space purchases, $146 million for farmland preservation, $24 million for Blue Acres purchases of flood-prone land and $12 million for historic preservation purposes.

It's not known how much the $400 million would cost to repay, as that depends on whether the bonds are repaid over 20 years or 30 years and the interest rates obtained as the money is borrowed over the next three years. It would probably be between $600 million and $700 million, at costs of around $30 million a year at their peak.

Paying back the borrowing would amount to approximately $10 a year per household, said Tom Gilbert of the Trust for Public Land, who is also chairman of the Keep It Green coalition of 135 groups that supports the bond measure.

There is clearly majority support for land preservation in the state. It is time that the state legislature create a dedicated fund for it, so that the state does not need to increase its debt burden each time it wants to purchase land for public use.

As for the other races, I hope the NJ Environmental Federation is happy with its candidate.

Celery Leaftier

This moth is a Celery Leaftier (Udea rubigalis), also known as a Greenhouse Leaftier. Moths of this species are very tiny; this one was between 10 and 20mm long. A lot of these are fluttering around now. This was one of the few cooperative enough to pose while I fiddled with my camera's controls. Larvae for this moth feed on beans, beets, celery, and spinach.

Death of a Cicada Killer

Yesterday as I walked my usual birding route around my local park, I noticed a large wasp flying slowly in front of me. I knew at once from its size and color pattern that it was a cicada killer. These large wasps specialize in capturing cicadas as food for their larvae. A female cicada killer stings a cicada to neutralize its nervous system and then walks the victim back to her burrow, where she lays her eggs on the cicada. When the eggs hatch, the larvae devour the cicada.

Though it is unnerving to see such a large wasp, to my knowledge they pose little threat to humans.

What caught my attention about this particular cicada killer was that it landed on a large locust tree, where it was quickly joined by another cicada killer. When I looked at the ground around the tree, I saw a dozen or more other cicada killers. Some were barely moving, such as the one above. Others appeared dead, such as the one below. Still others were definitely dead, with their insides eaten out, leaving only the exoskeleton. It seemed like a cicada killer graveyard! I assume the living ones will soon join them, as I have heard very few cicadas buzzing for the past week or two.