RARITY FOCUS
Late-summer stay-put rarities are always a welcome treat – and almost a sure thing in some cases. These phenomena are particularly valued during this pandemic-time, making trips to see the birds more reliable, easy-going. and rewarding. For westerners, there are sometimes Mexican hummingbirds that may show up at feeders somewhere near the U.S./Mexican border. For easterners, sometimes stay-put rarities are late-summer surprise shorebirds or exciting long-legged waders.
At this season, Little Egret in the East is a possible species. It’s an Old-World egret that occurs as an occasional vagrant to eastern North America (including, in the past, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Delaware, and Virginia) as well as on a number of Caribbean Islands, including most notably Barbados where the species has established a breeding toehold. (There is also one accidental record for Alaska.)
Curiously, in a few cases these records include more than a dozen possibly involving returning individuals for multiple years. For example, Delaware is a virtual Little Egret “hot spot.”
So, it was not much of a surprise when a Little Egret was photographed at Shearness Pool at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge during the last days of July. The bird was seen virtually throughout the month of August to the delight of regional birders.
The fact that wandering post-breeding Roseate Spoonbills were sometimes also present at the NWR in August, made the trip an added bonus for many. (FYI: Seasonal wandering spoonbills and ibises were the topic of this piece by Randi Minetor from the North American Bird Field Ornithology pages:
Photos of the Little Egret, taken by Erik Nelson at Bombay Hook NWR, can be found here:
ACCESS MATTERS: LOCALITY BUILDING
We will skip our usual “Important Bird Area News” feature this month, to present to you the very opposite of an established and identified key site (IBA) for birds and bird conservation.
Sometimes, it’s important to consider a site where people are, rather than where the birds are! In this time of continuing pandemic, it’s important to realize that folks are “discovering birds” close to home, often at small parks, ponds, community gardens, and vegetated river-walks. Some city-folks will purposely seek out birds near where they live, rather than venture farther afield, either because of a pronounced comfort-level or simply the inability to travel far.
Today, and related to this, there is a growing call for urban park accessibility. And this also means creating or enhancing modest, bird-friendly sites that are also designed to be very people-friendly.
No less an organization than the Trust for Public Land has raised the standard that “Everyone deserves a park within a 10-minute walk of home.” If one in three Americans lacks a park or meaningful green space – with birds we would add - within a 10-minute walk, this should heighten our awareness over the need to provide this amenity for virtually every neighborhood in every urban-zone in the country.
One such variation on this theme is the unique 570-acre Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge, which sits on land at the edge of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is land that once was a dairy farm. This small NWR was designated as an “urban wildlife refuge” a little more than a decade ago as a way to connect with new and more diverse segments of the community by actually meeting people near where they live. It’s still a project in development, as this thoughtful recent article in Yes! magazine attests:
Indeed, access is a prime concern, and as the popular adage – from the classic, Field of Dreams film- declares: “If you build it, they will come.” “They,” in this case, would be both the people and the birds.
You can find more on the Valle de Oro NWR example here:
BOOK NOTES: MIGRATION!
Scott Weidensaul’s latest book A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds (WW Norton & Co., 2021) is almost certain to become an ornithological classic. Using both extensive personal experiences, as well as informative descriptive material on the increasing use of research technology (e.g., miniaturization of satellite transmitters, geolocators, Motus tagging, audio recording, etc.) readers are presented with a marvelous collection of some of the most current and sophisticated research technologies currently being used to study bird migration. Extensive descriptive scenarios of important migration findings, and also chilling descriptions of conservation bottlenecks, will inform and enlighten readers about some of the most current discoveries in bird migration research, as well as providing entertaining personal anecdotes from the author’s global experiences.
This is a wonderful, one-stop-shopping overview of the current state of how bird migration is studied these days, along with offering much information on what’s new in the world of avian research. We can’t recommend this new release highly enough. It’s a must read!
AGGRESSIVE BLACK VULTURES?
Over the past year or so, there has been a flurry of popular reports of Black Vultures preying on live calves, lambs, and goats. These reports have come from mostly the central and southern states, and some have become somewhat disturbing.
When farmers and ranchers report on Black Vultures preying on young or small livestock, it’s a bit of a surprise. But because the large birds are protected by federal law, farmers and ranchers have been largely unable to eliminate the birds to protect their livestock. Of course, this prohibition can be reversed, as long as the landowner has acquired a federal permit.
Still, the question remains, how serious is the problem? Are vultures getting a bad rap?
Some of the news reports are nearly sensational, such as “Vultures eating cows alive.” And since Black Vultures have continued to expand north in recent decades, there are increasingly more of these sorts of alarmist reports. “I’m not surprised,” says Katie Fallon, author of Vulture: The Private Life of an Unloved Bird. “Every few months it seems like somebody writes something stretching the truth or just including false information or descriptions that certainly don’t strike me as being good journalism.”
A typical article - one from late July, describing the scene in Arkansas - can be found here:
Yes, Black Vultures have in fact been known to engage in some predation. The birds may prefer small or weak targets (e.g., newborn piglets, injured livestock, and turtle hatchlings), and one extensive study in the 1990s followed 115 reports of Black Vulture attacks on various livestock in Virginia.
As Jason Bittel, writing on Black Vultures for the Natural Resources Defense Council summarized, “Headlines about birds eating big animals alive do get clicks and comments and shares, but they also do a disservice to species that are no more unnatural or nefarious than owls, hawks, or any other bird that eats flesh.”
Harassment of roosting vultures – sometimes with pyrotechnics – may work. And when it comes to protecting young or newborn livestock, penning expectant cows, goats, and sheep near human activity can work or simply putting them in barns would reduce the problem. Also, livestock guard-dogs are an effective and long-term deterrent.
When proof of Black Vulture depredation is obtainable, producers can also apply for reimbursement through the Livestock Indemnity Program under the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA).
Farmers and ranchers certainly need to protect their livestock. But we can also appreciate that vultures have been on the landscape a lot longer than farmed cattle or sheep. If some vultures have found a way to take advantage of our farming and ranching practices, then we ought to also be able to find ways to pull the birds away from vulnerable livestock.
DUCK STAMP RULE ANNOUNCEMENT
It’s back to the drawing board – literally – with the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, also known as the Duck Stamp. In the July issue of the Birding Community E-bulletin, we explained the proposal to eliminate the “hunting heritage” art- requirement for the waterfowl art in the stamp. We also touched on the missed opportunity to adjust the rules to deliver more nuanced messaging on bird and habitat conservation. See here:
Last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the final regulations governing these standards in the annual Duck Stamp Contest – beginning with the 2022 contest. Yes, these changes basically revert to the old rules, but they also provide artists more flexibility when designing their art. And, yes, the recent “hunting heritage” art- requirement is being dropped.
The new rules still require the live portrayal of one of the eligible waterfowl species as the dominant feature for the stamp’s artwork. Hunting accessories and scenes, such as dogs, decoys and blinds will now be optional components and their inclusion will be left to the artist’s discretion. (The 2020 regulations are still in effect for the 2021 Federal Duck Stamp Contest. Entries must include one of the five eligible waterfowl species and the waterfowl hunting theme.)
The funds from the stamp – having reached a total of $1.1 billion since the mid-1930s - are used to protect wetland and grassland habitat in the National Wildlife Refuge System. Beyond waterfowl, many other birds and other wildlife benefit from the habitat protected.
Here is the press release on the subject:
TIP OF THE MONTH: CONTINUED BIRD SAFETY
You may recall the mysterious disease impacting birds that we reported on originally in July:
It had been widely recommended that people in affected Eastern states temporarily bring in their bird feeders and scrub their birdbaths in the hopes that such actions might reduce the spread of the unknown infection or disease.
Thankfully, reports of ill birds generally decreased over the past month - so much so that in some locations, authorities announced that it was safe to resume feeding birds. For example, in mid-August the Pennsylvania Game Commission, the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection all made similar such announcements.
So, our tip to those in the general area of the mystery disease is that you can probably get back to cautious backyard bird feeding and bird bathing. Regular cleaning of feeders and bird baths is still very much warranted, however.
Meanwhile, the actual cause of these bird sicknesses and deaths has yet to be identified. Testing has ruled out avian influenza, West Nile Virus, Newcastle Disease Virus, Salmonella, Chlamydia, herpesviruses, poxviruses, and Trichomonas parasites. Toxicology tests have also been negative for heavy metals, common pesticides, and herbicides.
Additional investigation is ongoing. Stay tuned.
WOTUS RULING
We will start to close this Birding Community E-bulletin with hopeful news on the “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS). Last month we reported on the importance of this issue for birds:
Now, the Biden administration and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may get some breathing room after a federal court ruling in Arizona in late August effectively eliminated a controversial Trump-era Clean Water Act rule that had pulled back federal protection for streams and wetlands across the country. The Trump-related interpretation had significantly narrowed the law's reach, reducing what wetlands and streams were to be covered by about 51% for streams and 18% for wetlands.
Of course, the EPA earlier this year had announced it would pursue a double-pronged approach of conducting rulemakings, first to remove the Trump rule and then to craft a replacement. But now the EPA will not have to go through the process of repealing the 2020 rule; it may move immediately to draft a new rule.
As we wrote last month, what the EPA will have to address can be crucially important for birds. These will include not just well-established wetlands, which are hotspots for bird life and which filter and provide drinking-water sources, but also intermittent streams and seasonal wetlands that can eventually be sources for major waterways and more.
For more on the recent district court ruling and its implications, see here:
LAST WORD
Last month’s story on the Lake Erie Piping Plovers neglected to add that the celebrated plover adults - "Nish" and "Nellie"- had both snow-birded in Florida this past winter on the Gulf Coast on two separate coastal islands north of Clearwater. These two, plus their offspring, will probably spend their winters in that general area, fully 1,100 miles south of Lake Eire.
Finally, 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:
