Colors of Late Autumn

Yesterday I was at Manasquan Reservoir in Monmouth County. There was a big flock of Dark-eyed Juncos at the entrance and some mixed flocks in the woods, but not a lot of songbird activity beyond that. Waterfowl are starting to gather. There were large flocks of Canada Geese, Ruddy Ducks, and American Coots, as well as a handful of Ring-necked Ducks. I also saw a dozen Pied-billed Grebes, which must be the most I have seen together at any one time.

A lot of trees have already lost their leaves, but the most of the oaks still have theirs. The one above is the tree in the red oak group. Unfortunately I did not capture enough detail to identify the species for certain (at least at my level of dendrology skill).

This tree is a White Oak, one of my favorite tree species. Unlike the red oak group, trees in the white oak group have rounded edges.

This and the photo below are of Post Oaks, a common tree in southern New Jersey's Pinelands. Their leaves have rounded edges and a characteristic cross shape that makes them easy to identify, unlike a lot of other oak species. Some of their leaves were still green, despite the lateness of the season.

Finally, I saw this one flower all by itself. I think it may be something in the Aster family, but I am not sure of the species. It was a pleasant surprise to see since I have not seen many wildflowers recently.

Two Gulls and a Gull

Two Herring Gulls and a Great Black-backed Gull on the shore of the Raritan River yesterday afternoon.

When I posted a link to the photo on Twitter  last night, a follower commented that the water looks terrible. The river does have some pollution problems, and the visual perception probably is not helped by the plastic hose partially submerged in the water. There are a couple of other factors at play, though. One is that the river is at or near low tide, and it often looks and smells worse at that point in the day. We also have just had two days of rain, so the river includes a lot of runoff – both road runoff and eroded sediments. I am not sure that the river in this stretch is ever really clear, but sometimes it looks dirtier than others.

Loose Feathers #263

Parasitic Jaeger / Photo by Art Sowls (USFWS)

Birds and birding news

• As the Arctic warms from climate change, Polar Bears may be able to survive by preying on a new food source, Snow Goose eggs. Such predation is unlikely to threaten the Snow Goose population since their breeding season only partially overlaps the period when polar bears are onshore raiding nests.
• Birds hit powerlines because of blind spots in their vision; when they look down for other birds or feeding areas, they cannot see what is straight in front of them.
• This is the season for spotting jaegers if you watch birds along major bodies of water such as the oceans or the Great Lakes.
• About 60 migrating songbirds crashed into storefront windows in Rehoboth Beach, DE, during a large nocturnal migration flight last Friday.
• Farmland birds with larger brains seem to be less vulnerable to ecological change.
• Three captive-bred California Condors were released into the wild in Arizona and California.
• Kingfisher numbers in the U.K. are rising thanks to better water quality in the country's streams and canals.
• Birders in Manitoba are conducting field research for an upcoming breeding bird atlas.

Birds in the blogosphere

• The Drinking Bird: A Pacific Wren dilemma
• The Birdchaser: Why I Love Audubon (and Audubon and Birds?)
• The Birder's Library: Birds of Cape May
• Not Exactly Rocket Science: The bird that cries hawk: fork-tailed drongos rob meerkats with false alarms
• NYT City Room: A Star at the Public Library: A Little Yellow Bird
• brewster’s linnet: Harry Hits the Press

Oil Spill

• National Geographic has a video on citizen science efforts to track birds in the area affected by the BP spill.
• The federal government enrolled 470,000 acres of farmland for habitat conversion to attract migratory shorebirds and waterfowl away from the Gulf of Mexico. The fields are flooded so that birds may use them as temporary wetlands.
• Beyond the threat posed by lingering oil, birds migrating over the Gulf at night can be disoriented by the bright lights on oil platforms, much like birds flying through cities can be disoriented by skyscrapers. The U.S. Minerals Management Service has failed to push oil companies to install safer lighting, even though its own study discovered the threat.
• Louisiana has decided to stop the sand berm project and convert the existing berms into barrier islands.
• Many Gulf residents continue to distrust the evaluations of industry and government scientists about the safety of the Gulf's waters.

Environment and biodiversity

• Narwhals tagged with sensors are collecting ocean temperature data in Baffin Bay off western Greenland.
• This week's U.S. election brought a lot of climate change deniers into the House and Senate, or promoted existing ones into positions of greater influence. This threatens the chances for green energy legislation and other environmental goals.
• A Malaysian court fined and jailed a man for illegally trafficking boa constrictors and other wild animals.
• The National Park Service is trying to encourage more minorities to take advantage of the country's national parks. Wilderness parks like Yosemite attract particularly low numbers of minorities, especially blacks.
• Shortly before California voters reaffirmed the state's climate change law, the state released a draft of regulations for how it will implement the law.
• Shade trees may discourage some criminal behavior by making a neighborhood look better maintained.
• Mother Jones evaluates whether it is better to turn a computer off or put it to sleep. It saves more energy to turn a computer off, but the energy savings are minimal for contemporary laptops.

Carnivals

• Berry Go Round #33
• Carnival of the Blue #42
• Circus of the Spineless #56
• Festival of the Trees #53
• Carnival of Evolution #29

Smoke in the Sky

Yesterday was a gorgeous fall day – sunny and clear, with crisp air that was not too cold. So I took another walk through my local park in the late afternoon. I did not see the weird ducks I mentioned in another post, but I did see a nice selection of other birds. A late season Osprey flew upstream along the river. Several species of sparrows were around. In one small patch of vegetation, I saw a few Song Sparrows, several Savannah Sparrows, and two Swamp Sparrows, along with a small flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Other birds included a Red-tailed Hawk being harassed by a Northern Mockingbird.

What struck me, though was a large plume of smoke rising near the Raritan River. At first I thought it was just a dark cloud, but the way it rose steadily in relation to the other clouds made it obvious that it was smoke. Apparently it was coming from a brush fire in Edison. You can see photos of the blaze here. I am not sure how much damage it did or whether it was extinguished, but fire crews were working on it.

Bad Use for a Beer Can

Someone in the San Francisco Bay Area has apparently been capturing gulls and putting beer can collars around their necks. As you might expect, this is cruel to the gulls and violates federal law. If you live in the Bay Area and see one of the gulls, let the International Bird Rescue and Research Center know by calling (707) 207-0380 Ext. 110 or emailing no_cal_center@ibrrc.org.