June 2014
The Birding Community E-bulletin
is distributed to active and concerned birders, those dedicated to the
joys of birding and the protection of birds and their habitats.
This issue is sponsored by the producers of superb quality birding binoculars and scopes, Carl Zeiss Sport Optics:
You can access an archive of past E-bulletins on the website of the National Wildlife Refuge Association (NWRA):
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RARITY FOCUS
It
started in late April in Newfoundland with a cluster of European
Golden-Plovers being reported, followed by a few more, and then there
were scores. That was impressive in itself, but the surprises in
Newfoundland continued to amaze.
At
the same time that European Golden-Plovers were being discovered, at
least two pairs of Black-tailed Godwits - another Eurasian species -
were found at Renews Harbour and at St. Paul's. Eventually more were
discovered elsewhere - e.g., Old Pelican, Goulds, and Stevensville
Crossing - with a possible total of at least nine of these handsome
shorebirds ultimately being discovered.
These
exciting Icelandic/European rarities were the byproduct of persistent
easterly winds blowing across the North Atlantic at the end of April and
into May. The entire invasion - termed a "ploverload" by Bruce
Mactavish and others - was ultimately capped by another species, a
Common Redshank.
Common
Redshank is now a common breeder in Iceland, but has only occurred
twice before in Newfoundland with five birds appearing in April-May 1995
and one in March-April 1999.
The
first Common Redshank was reported along the wrack line at Renews,
about 60 miles south of St. John's by Monte Taylor and Bruce Mactavish
on 3 May.
By the next day, two were found, and the pilgrimage began. Birders from
near and far came to see this outstanding rarity. At least one of the
two birds remained through 14 May.
For
more details on Newfoundland's Common Redshanks, accompanied by a short
narrative and multiple photos taken by Bruce Mactavish, see here:
IBA NEWS: CHESAPEAKE WATERBIRD PLAN
A
significant milestone for waterbird populations depending on the
Chesapeake Bay was recently attained. . This occurred when a
comprehensive, state-of-the-art monitoring plan for the bay was
completed and released. Coordinated by the Center for Conservation
Biology, the plan provides an assessment of more than 140 bird species
that rely on the Bay, and it addresses three issues:1) the monitoring
needs for waterbirds within the Chesapeake Bay,2) how these monitoring
needs are being addressed, and 3) what programs should be expanded or
established to address any unmet needs.
Chesapeake
Bay is one of the great estuaries of the world, and it plays a vital
role in the life cycle of many bird species. Of course the entire bay is
crucial for birds, but it also specifically has at least 15 Important
Bird Areas (IBAs) individually identified throughout the estuary in
Maryland or in Virginia. Many species that depend on the Chesapeake Bay
and the bay's IBAs are of high international, national, or regional
conservation concern. Actually nearly 30 percent of the waterbird
species using the Chesapeake Bay are believed to be declining on a
continental scale.
Nesting
species of concern include King Rail, Black Rail, and Seaside Sparrow;
overwintering seabirds including Red-throated Loon, Horned Grebe, and
Northern Gannet) three waterfowl species (i.e., Canvasback, Ruddy Duck,
and "Atlantic" Brant), and one passerine (i.e., Saltmarsh Sparrow).
While
a number of government agencies, universities, NGOs, corporations, and
private citizens participate in waterbird counts annually within the
Chesapeake Bay, there is little coordination among their efforts. This
makes it difficult to use their information to address bay-wide
questions. With the emergence of regional and national bird conservation
plans, as well as the completion of state comprehensive wildlife
conservation strategies, it has become increasingly important to
integrate efforts to identify the best conservation practices for
priority species.
The
new plan is one of the first to include seasonal integration, and it
brings the Chesapeake Bay in line with other plans that cover some of
the world's other great water bodies. This 94-page "Waterbirds of the
Chesapeake: A Monitoring Plan" can be downloaded here:
For
additional information about worldwide IBA programs, including those in
the U.S., check the National Audubon Society's Important Bird Area
program web site at:
"MOONBIRD" MAKES ANOTHER APPEARANCE
At
least one individual Red Knot has traveled from the tip of South
America to the top of Canada after passing through the famous stopover
site of the Delaware Bay for 21 years. This knot is nicknamed
"Moonbird," because the bird has already flown the equivalent distance
between the Earth and the moon and more than halfway back during its
epic migrations. The bird has been making the trip for over two decades
and this spring was observed on 25 May at Reeds Beech, New Jersey, with
its identifiable orange-colored leg-band and the number "B-95" on it.
Red
Knots feasting on horseshoe crab eggs in Delaware Bay have dropped in
numbers from over 100,000 to perhaps under 25,000 in about a dozen
years. Not surprisingly the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently
announced an extension (to 15 June 2014) for public comment concerning a proposed Threatened listing of the rufa subspecies of the Red Knot under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
You can read more on Moonbird here:
BOOK NOTES: FOR NEW BIRDERS
In 2008, Bill Thompson, III wrote The Young Birder's Guide to Birds of Eastern North America (Houghton Mifflin), which we reviewed in April of that year. A few years later Thompson upped the stakes with his The Young Birder's Guide to Birds of North America, which we also reviewed in June 2012:
Both
books are user-friendly and enjoyable. We mentioned in our short June
2012 review that the latter book was "good for anyone with a beginning
interest in birds and not just youngsters."
Thompson's latest book resumes that approach. It is The New Birder's Guide to Birds of North America,
and it is geared to the introductory birder, regardless of age. Indeed,
the book uses the previous "Young Birder's" guide as a template, with
much of the content being identical. Again, it is limited to the same
300+ species as its predecessor, but the photos (some new) are good, the
illustrations by Julie Zickefoose and Michael DiGiorgio are very
helpful, the maps are fine, and the hints and assortment of facts
blended into the species accounts are often delightful.
The
introductory content and layout are slightly different from the
previous book, which in this case is geared for a more adult audience
and a more adult eye.
It's possible that an adult just starting an interest in birds might not have noticed the previous Young Birder's Guide to Birds of North America,
but this new book, with its minor adjustments, may prove to me more
attractive and be the perfect introduction to the world of birds and
birding.
ACCESS MATTERS: OHIO'S ROCK WREN
Rock
Wrens breed across much of the western half of the United States, just
barely reaching southwestern Canada. These wrens are well-named because
they live in canyons, rocky gulches, and other stony haunts. The birds
use their slender bills to seek food in fissures and crevices. Rock
Wrens are very rare vagrants east of their normal range.
So
it was a real surprise when Michael Hershberger and his sons found a
Rock Wren while he was at work, spying the bird on a rock pile near a
concrete silo on 29 April
at Hochstetler Wood Ltd. near Millersburg, Ohio. Until then, there had
been only one previous record of Rock Wren for Ohio, a bird that
remained for a week around rocky riprap at Cleveland's Edgewater Park in
December 1963.
The
company - with about 25 employees at this location - mills a variety of
wood components and also produces 800-900 chairs per week. Under these
circumstances, the owners at Hochstetler Wood, the Hochstetler family,
might simply have kept visiting birders out of the facility grounds.
After all, work routines and liability might be at risk. Surprisingly
however, birders were welcomed. Everyone who worked at Hochstetler Wood
put up with the wave of birders seemingly with a combination of patience
and nonchalance.
Until
the bird disappeared after 7 May, it often frequented packs of wooden
pallets, and sometimes it visited the nearby farm of Dan and David
Miller, Amish folk who run a buggy shop. Birders were welcome there,
too.
Two
guest logs were begun, one at the mill and the other at the buggy shop.
Having such guest logs is a practice recommended in last month's
E-bulletin:
In
a little more than a week that the Rock Wren was present, about 450
separate visitors signed these logs. Since some people didn't sign in,
the actual visitation total might have topped 700 birders.
This
is another fine example of working out access arrangements for birders,
thus creating a situation where everybody wins. For more on this event,
read an article from The Columbus Dispatch (18 May) by Jim McCormac:
CONCERN FOR WESTERN GREBES IN CANADA
The
status of the Western Grebe in Canada was considered at the spring
meeting of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada
(COSEWIC), held in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This assessment is due to
population declines that have been observed on the species' Pacific
coast wintering grounds.
COSEWIC
listed the Western Grebe as a species of "Special Concern." Jon
McCracken, the Bird Studies Canada's Director of National Programs who
co-chairs the COSEWIC's birds subcommittee, says that what is currently
unknown is the extent to which some of the decline may just represent a
geographic shift in the grebe's wintering distribution. Still, based on
Christmas Bird Count data on a continental scale, wintering populations
have undergone a 44 percent decline from 1995 to 2010. Some of this
decline may also be the result of declines on Canadian breeding grounds.
Because
Western Grebes congregate in large numbers, they are vulnerable to a
variety of threats including oil spills, water level fluctuations,
fisheries by-catch, and declines in prey availability.
You can access recent COSEWIC findings here:
BIRD SMUGGLER ARRESTED AT CUBAN AIRPORT
Last
month, airport officials in Cuba reported on the arrest of a passenger
attempting to leave the island with 66 Cuban Grassquits in his
possession sewed into his low slung pants. The man's bulky attire and
awkward walk apparently drew the attention of Cuban customs officials at
the Ignacio Agramonte International Airport in the Cuban city of
Camaguay. The man was described simply as a "resident of the United
States."
We
have written in the past about Cuban Grassquits and Cuban Bullfinches
being reported "in the wild" in Florida, and the corresponding smuggling
between Cuba and the U.S. Importation and sales of these birds in the
Miami area is, of course, illegal. The price for these illegal Cuban
Grassquits in the Miami area can be $50 each, or more.
For more, see our stories from July 2012:
and April 2013
ANOTHER BUDGET CONCERN: NEOTROP
Last
month we profiled the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants as an important
bird-funding mechanism that needs special attention this year:
This
month, we take a look at the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation
Act (NMBCA) and its importance in supporting hemispheric bird
conservation.
The
Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act was passed by Congress in
2000 in order to promote the long-term conservation of Neotropical
migratory birds and their habitats. The goals of "the Neotrop," as it is
often called, are to:
The
first year of modest funding was 2002, and at least 75 percent of the
total funding available for grants each fiscal year must be used to
support projects outside the U.S. Moreover, the matching grant
requirements aren't easy: for every $1 received in federal grant funds,
the applicant must commit $3. Still, since 2002, more than $50 million
in grants have supported 451 projects in 36 countries across the
Americas.
Funding
for the program steadily increased from $3 to $5 million during
2002-2010. But it dipped to $4 million in 2011, $3.78 million in 2012,
and $3.58 million in 2013. It just barely made it to $3.66 for 2014 and
currently remains there, flat, in the President's proposed budget for
2015.
There are two programs currently run under the NMBCA. One is the core (traditional) program benefiting any
eligible Neotropical migratory bird, and the second is an IMPACT
program designed to focus resources on a specific set of 13 at-risk
Neotropical migratory bird species. These 13 key species are:
Reddish Egret
An
explanation of the fund-leveraging capacity of the NMBCA, and
highlighting projects involving some of the key IMPACT species can be
found here:
Ideally,
the NMBCA is expected to complement other funding sources, such as the
North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA), and the intent among
promoters of NMBCA has been to build up its funding to be a major
contributor to sustaining bird conservation for Neotropical migrants.
While the NMBCA still has the potential to serve as a major vehicle for
on-the-ground bird conservation across the hemisphere, the funding has
clearly been inadequate, and the capacity for major conservation
delivery through NMBCA has yet to be realized.
The Spring 2014 issue of The All-Bird Bulletin,
the newsletter of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative
(NABCI), is dedicated to the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation
Act, and it features profiles and highlights a number of successful
NMBCA-funded projects. You can access it here:
HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY, HAWK MOUNTAIN
Eighty
years ago, in June 1934, Rosalie Edge, her son Peter Edge, and Richard
Pough met with a realtor at "Blue Mountain" near the village of
Drehersville in Schuylkill County, in east-central Pennsylvania.
Although
Rosalie Edge lacked the personal wherewithal at the time to purchase
the property outright, she negotiated leasing the mountain for $500 per
year, with an option to buy 1,373 acres at $2.50 per acre. With this
action, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary was born.
In
September of that year, Rosalie Edge installed a warden on the
property, Maurice Broun, with his wife and bird-conservation partner,
Irma Broun. The reckless fall shooting of hundreds of passing raptors
for sport stopped immediately. The next year, Rosalie Edge opened the
site to the public as a place to watch the beautiful but persecuted
birds of prey. She purchased and deeded the 1,373 acres to Hawk Mountain
Sanctuary Association, incorporated in 1938 as a non-profit
organization in Pennsylvania. Since that time, the world's first refuge
for birds of prey has evolved into an international center for raptor
conservation, education, observation, and research.
It's time to wish Hawk Mountain a happy birthday!
TIP OF THE MONTH: USE THE STRAP
The worst thing you can do to your binoculars is to drop them. Such an accident can almost be heart-stopping.
There
is a simple and essential safety-rule to follow to avoid such
misfortune: If binoculars are in your possession, always, always, always
make sure the strap is around your neck. Of course, it's also good to
have your own strap relatively wide (distributing the weight) and
relatively short (preventing unruly swinging).
Footnote:
One curious tendency in advertising - for example, for ecotourism or
outdoor equipment - is to show people watching birds through binoculars,
but not having the binoculars secured using neck straps. This is a
tell-tale sign of advertisers or advertising companies who don't know
what they are doing. That's because real birders always use binocular
straps.
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Wayne R. Petersen, Director
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Mass Audubon
781/259-2178
or
Paul J. Baicich
Great Birding Projects
410/992-9736
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