We are in the same quandary we have faced for the last six months: Indeed, we could report on this or that rarity that appeared somewhere in the U.S. or Canada in the last month. For most of you however, it might be just another example of a case where you couldn't take off to "chase" the rarity.
As an alternative that we previously suggested, we would encourage you to stay close to home, and to do your best to engage in medically safe and local birding. This is still a perfect time to check out nearby under-birded parks, forests, and refuges.
Unfortunately, we often think of nature as something that we need to travel a long way to access. Fortunately, simply changing the way we think about our definition of nature can assist us in forming deeper connections with the natural world closer to home. Right outside your door there is a whole world to explore... and that includes birds! The scientific and natural history literature is studded with accounts by naturalists and ornithologists who have made outstanding discoveries by doing this very thing.
As an example, we present our usual "Tip of the Month" as a way to explore birding close to home and engage in some potential rarity-searching at the same time.
TIP OF THE MONTH: WATCH FOR HUMMERS!
Shame on us! We should have reminded you last month, but it's still not too late.
This month, and for the next few months, can be a great time to concentrate on watching for hummingbirds. If you're not traveling far from home, and most of us are not, this season is the perfect one to check out your neighborhood and local region for hummer-feeders. (And if you have hummingbird feeders of your own, keep them up... and even add another!)
Indeed, this suggestion is good for the next few months, and arguably is good advice no matter where you live in the lower-48 states or southern Canada: You'll be looking for "something different."
In much of the East, late-season hummingbirds are possibly western species. Often these outliers are Rufous Hummingbirds, but other possibilities might include Black-chinned, Anna's, Allen's, Broad-tailed, Calliope, Blue-throated, or Green Violet-Ear. For those readers living in the eastern U.S., all of these species have appeared in this region, so don't assume that a late season hummingbird is necessarily a Ruby-throated Hummingbird.
Surprises could occur almost anywhere: West Coast, Rockies, Arizona-New Mexico, Texas, Gulf Coast, Florida, Great Lakes, anywhere along the East Coast, and everywhere in between!
It's hard to have advice covering all geographic areas, but, in general, for hummer-feeder-watchers well into the colder months, we have some suggestions:
- Place your hummer-feeder up near some areas of good cover if available. As weather gets cooler, hummingbirds will seek these areas for roosting.
- If cold weather is forecasted, rig up a small heater-system for the feeders (small light bulbs can help).
- If you have any late-season flowers, those can assist in attracting late hummingbirds.
- Several websites discuss hummingbird plantings, and some can recommend which plants are hardy enough in your area to last in cold weather.
BOOK NOTES: IT'S WHAT BIRDS DO
It's one thing to identify a bird in the field as to species, subspecies, and/or sex; it's quite another to identify what the bird is actually doing at that time and place.
In John Kricher's new book, appropriately enough part of the "Peterson series" - The Peterson Reference Guide to Bird Behavior (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020) - readers can now delve into what many birds are doing - day-in-and-day-out, and even seasonally. It is "appropriate" that a book like this should be in The Peterson Reference Guide series, because it was Roger Tory Peterson who pioneered bird identification in the U.S. in the first place, but now we have a spectacular new guide that concentrates on bird behavior. The lives of birds is what you need once you have identified a bird! This awareness and skill on how to do this is presented exceedingly well between two covers in this one book.
Fortunately for readers with varying degrees of experience, John Kricher's book is focused on North American birds, and the vocabulary is largely kept "conventional." The text is eminently understandable and grandly accessible, yet is nonetheless sophisticated. And, equally delightful, the book is profusely illustrated with hundreds of explanatory and often spectacular color photos.
You can spend hours on the photo captions alone!
Each chapter covers a concise overview of a particular category of bird behavior - e.g., annual cycle, social behavior, pair bonding, nesting, and migration to name but a few.
You can't go wrong with this elegant book; it's simply wonderful, both as avian eye candy and a reference to be left conveniently on the bedside night table.
BLACK RAIL PLAN
The Black Rail is in trouble. Recent and fairly comprehensive surveys along the Atlantic coast have revealed that this species' population has undergone precipitous declines in most of the region where it once occurred, and that it appears to have sustained a range contraction of more than 280 miles. Current population estimates for this area are currently between 355 to 815 breeding pairs, with a disturbing estimated rate of decline of nine percent per year since the 1990s. This represents a loss of more than 90 percent of its former population.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed the Black Rail subspecies found on the Atlantic Coast, the Eastern Black Rail, as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act in October 2018.
Continued threats to its habitat, primarily from rising sea level and associated nest flooding, will very likely result in additional losses and population declines if immediate action is not taken. Although the range of the Eastern Black Rail extends westward to the Rocky Mountains, the Atlantic Coast states have long served as a stronghold for the subspecies.
For over a year, the Atlantic Coast Joint Venture (ACJV) Black Rail Working Group has been working with practitioners, species experts, land managers, and other partners to develop a workable conservation plan for this elusive species.
The 70-page Black Rail Conservation Plan outlines strategies needed to conserve the Eastern Black Rail throughout its former range on the Atlantic and Florida Gulf coasts. The plan sets short- and long-term population and habitat targets, with a goal of creating sufficient habitat to support a sustainable population of Black Rails within the ACJV area.
Perhaps most importantly, this plan strongly emphasizes both the short-term need to create more non-tidal habitat that is safe from the threats of sea-level rise and tidal flooding, as well as the longer-term need to facilitate marsh migration that will provide future Black Rail habitat in tidal marsh systems. Developing and implementing the strategies in this Plan as quickly as possible will be essential to halting and, hopefully, reversing Black Rail declines.
Access the plan here:
NEONICS AGAIN
We last discussed neonicotinoids in July 2017, when, in the fourth year in a row, a bill was presented to start removing from the market this most commonly used insecticide on Earth, and also widely understood to be deadly to birds, bees, and aquatic life. Each of these efforts has been thwarted however.
One seed coated with these "neonics" is enough to kill a songbird. These pesticides will deter insects as the coated seeds begin to sprout and as they grow into plants. The neonics ultimately end up in the stalk, nectar and pollen of plants, thus putting multiple species at risk.
A coalition of conservation organizations, beekeepers, scientists, and business leaders, has consistently requested, without success, the EPA to suspend the four most toxic neonics - imidacloprid, clothianidin, thiamethoxam, and dinotefuran - until a comprehensive study of their effects on wildlife and humans is completed.
A recent study in Nature Sustainability, "Neonicotinoids and decline in bird biodiversity in the United States" by Yijia Li, Ruiqing Miao, and Madhu Khanna, has only added concern to the situation. The study revealed that a 220 lb. increase in the use of this seed-coating pesticide in one U.S. county was linked to a 2.2% decrease in grassland birds. (Non-neonicotinoid pesticides were linked to only a 0.05% decrease.)
From 2008 to 2014, the researchers estimated that the populations of grassland birds declined 4% annually, and insect-eating birds fell 3% annually because of neonicotinoids. During that same period of time, over half of the U.S. counties studied lost more than 10% of their grassland birds, reportedly due to neonicotinoid use.
The researchers conclude the study stating: "This research provides compelling support for the re-evaluation of policies permitting the use of neonicotinoids by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, particularly around bird habitats."
Neonicotinoid use has increased among farmers because the handy pesticides do not have to be reapplied once plants are growing. But studies have also linked the pesticides to decreases in important pollinators, like bees and butterflies, which prompted the European Union to ban nearly all neonics.
In the meantime, the Trump administration has rolled back limited restrictions on neonicotinoids and approved a new one for use last summer.
Clearly, this entire issue needs to be revisited.
PLASTIC IN NORTHERN FULMARS
Scientists have long wondered whether ingested plastics among seabirds might release harmful chemicals. A study published in the journal, Frontiers in Environmental Science, recently pursued plastics and Northern Fulmars. Lead author, Susanne Kuhn, working at the Wageningen Marine Research in the Netherlands for almost 10 years stated, "As these seabirds ingest plastics regularly, and 93 percent of the fulmars from the North Sea have some plastic in their stomachs, it is important to understand the potential harm this could cause." Small pieces of plastic ingested by seabirds might release toxic chemicals in their stomachs and pose a threat to their long-term health. The researchers exposed stomach oil, a nutrient-rich liquid found in the fulmar stomach, to small pieces of plastic now typically found in seabird habitats.
The plastic samples were treated in stomach oil for 90 days and chemical analysis was performed at different times to see if the pieces of plastic leached chemicals over time. The researchers found evidence of 15 chemicals, added by plastic manufacturers during the production process mixed in the stomach oil. These included plasticizers, antioxidants, UV stabilizers, flame retardants, and preservatives. Unfortunately, some of these are known for endocrine disruptive, carcinogenic, and other negative effects on organisms. The researchers added that previous studies show leached chemicals from plastic can disrupt hormone release and reproduction.
The researchers also found that some stomach oil samples from Northern Fulmar chicks already had some of the plastic-derived chemicals even before the experiments began - possibly due to the young being fed plastic by parents.
Is this a situation unique to Northern Fulmars in the North Sea and European waters?
Probably not. Plastic is now everywhere at sea, available as "food" wherever Northern Fulmars roam.
SAVING THE MBTA
In early August, a federal judge in New York invalidated rule changes by the Trump Administration that allowed individuals and corporations to kill birds as long as they could show that they did not intentionally set out to do so.
The Trump Administration reinterpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), put in place in December 2017, had upended decades of bird-conservation enforcement. The administration had argued that the law only applied to intentional killing of birds and not "incidental" killing from various activities, including oil spills, electrocutions on power lines, housing development, landscaping, and other actions that kill millions of birds every year.
The reinterpretation was first put in place through a legal opinion authored by the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior and former Koch Industries employee, Daniel Jorjani. This opinion, of course, was already allowing birds to be killed across the country.
Citing To Kill a Mockingbird, U.S. District Court Judge Valerie Caproni wrote that "if the Department of the Interior has its way, many mockingbirds and other migratory birds that delight people and support ecosystems throughout the country will be killed without legal consequence."
The judge noted that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act makes it unlawful to kill birds "by any means whatever or in any manner." Therefore, the administration's recent interpretation could not be justified given the plain language of the treaty.
The judge's decision is a clear victory for bird conservationists who have fought to sustain the historical interpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to protect migratory birds from all sorts of harms. In comments after the decision, Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife, said that "At a time when our nation's migratory birds are under escalating threats, we should be creating a reasonable permit program to ensure effective conservation and compliance, rather than stripping needed protections for birds."
In the lead-up to the case, a letter signed over 500 wildlife conservation organizations and backed by 17 former Department of the Interior officials urged the Administration to return to the former interpretation of the 100-year-old treaty.
The Trump Administration has now vowed to appeal the ruling, with the support of industry groups.
For more information, and a summary from the American Bird Conservancy, see here:
IBA NEWS: ANWR AGAIN
It's been a long time - 32 months - since we've made reference to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). In case you've been following the Birding Community E-bulletin for that long, you might think that the refuge is finally secure.
No such luck!
In mid-August, the Trump Administration finalized its plans to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development. This sacred place, at least its remote coastal plain, could now be auctioned off to the highest drilling bidder.
The refuge is home to an incredible array of biodiversity. The media usually emphasizes the polar bears and the caribou. But the mix of birds includes more than 200 species - especially waterfowl and shorebirds. Odds are good that as a birder you have seen one of the migratory birds that breeds at ANWR in your very own region. That's because birds that breed at ANWR migrate from the refuge to practically every state in the U.S. Some will even venture to other continents. This remote corner of Alaska is truly connected to all of us.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge covers 19 million acres in northeastern Alaska. The struggle over drilling centers on 1.5 million acres in the refuge's coastal plain, which might contain the largest onshore reserves of oil in North America that remain untapped, although relatively little is actually known about exactly how much oil lies beneath the coastal plain.
Opponents to opening the refuge maintain that opening the refuge would be a step backward at a time when we all should be burning less oil in order to avoid drastic global warming.
It also remains unclear how much interest there will be from energy companies when many countries are attempting to lessen their reliance on fossil fuels and when oil prices are dropping during the coronavirus pandemic. Besides, exploring and drilling in harsh Arctic conditions remains difficult and costly.
We expect that there will be an attempt to begin lease sales prior to the November elections. One big unknown is how many companies might actually bid for rights to explore the Arctic refuge. Although any oil production at ANWR would still be at least a decade in the future, companies buying leases could begin the process of seeking permits and exploring for oil and gas.
Oil development is entirely inconsistent with the purpose of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and would cause lasting damage to the wildlife and people that depend on it.
For more information, see here from The Hill:
and for an associated petition, see here from the National Wildfire Refuge Association:
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:
BIRDING FESTIVAL REVIVAL
Last month in the Birding Community E-bulletin, we announced the spread of "virtual birding festivals" as the Covid pandemic has forced popular birding and nature festivals - even those with decades of continuous history - to be cancelled. We mentioned a bunch of the scheduled virtual options including some in Colorado, Washington, Texas, Hawaii, and Alaska.
And, contrary to what you might suppose, these are currently being run with various levels of success.
This month, however, we are going to predict a major birding festival revival, a burst of activity from coast to coast, a crowding of festivals especially focusing on those "bird specialties" that are unique to popular birding regions. We suspect that this will happen - big-time - but only once the pandemic is overcome.
We are so accustomed to being sequestered or in small family groupings, that when the time comes, when we are able to go out to travel and bird afield with near abandon, that birders will respond in big numbers... and festivals will benefit in a large way. Let's face it: we'll actually once again be able to enjoy being with others while birding, in groups, sharing scopes, and even traveling together in vans and busses!
Bird watching in the United States has experienced this historic phenomenon before. During WWII, with gasoline rationing, poor roads, access restrictions, regional blackouts, and other impediments, going out birding beyond one's immediate region was difficult.
It was the end of the war that gave birding a big boost. It freed up time and access. Indeed, A Guide to Bird Finding - East of the Mississippi by Olin Sewall Pettingill was conceived within two months of V-E Day as the author and his wife visited Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania. The resulting book showed birders where they could travel in 26 states (and DC) to find birds. The western version of the bird-finding guide came out a few years later, just in time for the launch of the Eisenhower Interstate Highway system.
Americans were free to find birds on their own. And it was just the start. It is probably no accident that the birding travel classic, Wild America by Roger Tory Peterson and James Fisher, chronicles a birding continental road trip in 1953 that occurred between the appearance of Pettingill's two books.
This is just a round-about way to remind the reader that this country has been here before and that what follows should be more than interesting than ever. Festivals will flourish again.
That's our prediction, and we're sticking to it!
