RARITY FOCUS
We won’t highlight some North American mega-rarity this month. Instead, we’ll highlight the status of those wonderful Whooping Cranes in the “Eastern Migratory Population” (EMP). A report on their seasonal comings and goings was just produced by the International Crane Foundation for the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership and summarized nicely by our colleagues at the “Eastern Crane Bulletin.”
During the last cold month of February, most Whooping Cranes in the East stayed in place, and some even decided to move farther south. At the very end of February, the current estimated population size for these cranes was 80: 39 females, 38 males, 3 undetermined. Of these 80 individuals, 17 were wild-hatched and the rest were recorded as captive-reared. According to observations afield, at the end of February there were 2 Whooping Cranes in Wisconsin, 7 in Illinois, 34 in Indiana, 14 in Kentucky, 1 in Tennessee, 14 in Alabama, 2 in Georgia, and 1 in Florida.
There was also a Whooping Crane from the Louisiana Non-Migratory Population in Alabama, near the Eastern Migratory Population of Whooping Cranes. The remaining birds’ locations had not been confirmed last month.
Although, most of us have remained close to home during the Covid pandemic, the staffs of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Departments of Natural Resources from flyway states, the International Crane Foundation, and multiple regional volunteers continue to keep track of these cranes throughout the year.
Through these efforts you can track – in near real-time – the location of these Whooping Cranes from your own home. This fascinating map shows the last known location of Whooping Cranes in the Eastern Migratory Population over the past two months:
TIP OF THE MONTH: TO REPORT OR NOT?
The Covid pandemic has intensified the practice of “patch birding” for many birders – visiting a local area regularly and getting to know the site and its birdlife better and more thoroughly. With far-off, and even regional travel limited or severely reduced for most birders, the short-and-local visit to a few close-to-home sites is a perfect alternative.
Under these circumstances occasionally some special birds can be found, including uncommon feeder-birds, roosting owls, winter-finches, or even an unusual raptor, such as a Gyrfalcon.
These possibilities inevitably raise the question: do I share these sightings or not?
If the bird(s) is/are on private property, permission is essential. These situations especially pertain to sought-after feeder-birds in backyards. With roosting winter owls, it’s never a good idea. Even a small number of visitors can easily result in flushing the birds, an unacceptable harassment.
Recently, there was a Gyrfalcon found on semi-accessible property in a Waukegan, Illinois, industrial area, on the Lake Michigan lakefront. This was closely-held information, shared on private group-me texting pages and a semi-secret Facebook page. The concern was over the potential arrival of falconers, although it’s typically young or first-year birds that falconers pursue for capture.
In essence, caution is advised for each of these birding circumstances. Permission, counsel, and the well-being of the birds should be paramount when considering sharing information that could jeopardize the well-being of the birds.
It’s good for birding, and better for the birds.
BOOK NOTES: FLIGHT CALL ESSAYS
John R. Nelson is a professor emeritus at North Shore Community College in Danvers, Massachusetts. He is the author of Flight Calls: Exploring Massachusetts through Birds (University of Massachusetts Press, 2019), and a director of the Brookline Bird Club, the Essex County Ornithological Club, and the New England journal Bird Observer.
This delightful collection of original essays by a dedicated birder and a talented and engaging author is largely set in Essex County, MA, and many of Nelson’s artfully chosen avian encounters specifically name birding colleagues and well-known birding localities within his well-worked birding patch. The author’s grasp of literature, both ornithological and historic, make this collection of birding essays both informative and entertaining, regardless of where a reader is from. In many ways Flight Calls is a hybrid between a personal memoir, a true-life adventure, and a personal birder’s journal. Regardless, this reader-friendly collection of events is certain to please and entertain birders anywhere, regardless of their level of experience. Read it, and you won’t be disappointed!
IBA NEWS: LAGO DE TEXCOCO
Lago de Texcoco is a 10,000-hectare federally-managed wetland, almost adjacent to the Mexico City Airport. This Zona Federal Lago de Texcoco (ZFLT – Texcoco Lake Federal Zone) is currently managed by the National Water Commission (CONAGUA) as a complex of reservoirs and about 2,000 temporary/seasonal ponds. As such, it hosts a large number (100,000+) waterfowl in winter, and is a key area for shorebirds and a number of resident and migratory waterbirds.
Lake Texcoco is considered an Area of Importance for Bird Conservation and, since 2007, has been designated as a site of regional importance within the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN).
The area is an especially important site for more than 30 species of shorebirds. As many as 62,000 Wilsonʼs Phalaropes have been recorded in a year, as well as large numbers of Least Sandpipers, Bairdʼs Sandpipers, and Western Sandpipers. The site also hosts a number of resident shorebird species such as Black-necked Stilt, American Avocet, Killdeer, and Snowy Plover. The locality is one of the principal Mexican breeding areas for Snowy Plover, a species that is threatened in Mexico.
Unfortunately, Lago de Texcoco has faced several significant developmental pressures, especially a recent conflict over the creation of the New International Airport of Mexico (NAIM – Nuevo Aeropuerto Internacional de México) that threatens the ecosystem and has generated great national and international controversy. The airport, started under a previous government administration, was cancelled. In its place, the Lago de Texcoco Ecological Park (Parque Ecológico Lago de Texcoco) has been proposed, with the idea of maintaining the site for conservation and building environmental support from local residents.
Plans are still in development, but they should include special restoration to benefit waterfowl and shorebirds. It is expected that the creation of the ecological park will include social, educational, cultural, and recreational benefits for the people of the area while at the same time being compatible with the conservation of the lake system.
As colleagues at the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network reminded us last month, “Lago de Texcoco reminds us that all is not always lost. With concrete actions coordinated between diverse stakeholders, it is possible to recover this habitat, for wildlife and human communities. Its rescue and restoration provide a fresh vision of what is needed for conservation, and allows us to reflect on the fact that the conservation of sites is possible with controlled and coordinated management and when people stand-up for these places.”
See here for the recent WHSRN assessment:
See here for a WHSRN summary on the importance of the site:
For an IBA summary on Lake Texcoco and its status as a Mexican IBA, see 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:
RED-COCKADED WOODPEKER FUTURE?
In our November 2020 Birding Community E-bulletin we described the actions then in motion to “downlist” the Red-cockaded Woodpecker from “Endangered” to “Threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. The proposal was published in the Federal Register, with a 60-day public comment period ending on 7 December. See here:
Indeed, it was in the final months of the Trump administration that the down-listing process was started. At the same time there were a number of conservation groups who claimed that the action might undermine gains made in part with the aid of public-private partnerships that had taken decades of work to put in place and accounted for millions of dollars spent.
There had been success, of course. In the early 1970s, near the time when the woodpecker was first listed as Endangered, there may have been no more than 1,500 clusters (groups of cavity trees used by one or more woodpeckers) of the birds. By the mid-1990s there were perhaps 4,600. Today, there are almost 7,800 such clusters ranging across 11 states from southern Virginia to eastern Texas.
But these same increased numbers also can be viewed differently: they are located in 124 distinct populations, and 108 of those populations have fewer than 100 clusters, usually with low or very low “resiliency.” Moreover, many of these locations are in or near coastal regions, vulnerable to increasingly common and powerful hurricanes, ready to potentially snap pine trees with woodpecker cavities.
A number of observers see the as-yet-unresolved listing proposal as simply part of a Trump-administration holdover effort to erode environmental protections. It is no accident that the down-listing is still under consideration even with a new administration in Washington.
Others are less pessimistic, yet are concerned that a rush to down-list may still put in jeopardy previous gains.
Mike Lynch, formerly on the leadership team at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, overseeing training areas where Red-cockaded Woodpeckers were a serious wildlife-management issue, summarized an ongoing concern: “[I]f we don't [stay focused], we'll just relive history again, in 10 years… [I]t doesn't take long for a forest to choke itself out, or a species to be on the brink if it is not properly managed.”
Stay tuned for more on this issue, but you can hear a good summary of options here on WUNC, North Carolina Public Radio:
LAST WORD
This month’s Birding Community E-Bulletin was a little late. Your co-editors were engaged in Covid-related activities - like finding and getting vaccinations - as well as other tasks that had us preoccupied. We expect to be closer to schedule in April!
This issue is also shorter than most. We rejected a few stories that we felt were simply of local interest. But if you have a timely news item to share – especially if it has to so with “birding access,” a seasonal “tip,” or “birding in the time of Covid,” feel free to send it to us.
Also, if you have any friends or co-workers who wish to join the monthly Birding Community E-bulletin mailing list, you can simply refer them to this link:
