RARITY FOCUS
Last month, there were a good number of interesting North American rarities scattered around the US and Canada, including, in rough chronological order, a Golden-crowned Warbler in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, a Thick-billed Vireo at the R Hardy Matheson Preserve in Coral Gables, Florida, a Tundra Bean-Goose at Arcata Bottoms, Humboldt Co., California, a pair of Pink-footed Geese at Agri-tech Park, Colchester, Nova Scotia, a Brambling at Great Falls, Montana, a Fork-tailed Flycatcher in Pasadena, Maryland, Little Egrets at St. Johns, Newfoundland, and Antigonish, Nova Scotia, a Rufous-backed Robin at the Desert National Wildlife Refuge's Corn Creek visitor center in Clark County, Nevada, a Yellow Grosbeak at the Sedona Wetlands Preserve in Yavapai County, Arizona, a White-crested Elaenia banded at Tadoussac, Quebec, a Gray-tailed Tattler at Harry Harris County Park in Monroe County, Florida, and an American Flamingo that has been continuing for months at St Marks National Wildlife Refuge in Wakulla County, Florida.
Yes, outstanding fall-migration rarities also made an expected showing in Alaska, from Spotted Redshank to Siberian Rubythroat and Little Bunting.
But perhaps the rarity of most interest was Dusky Warbler. This is an Asian species, an Old World warbler, breeding in central Siberia and central and northern China east to Sakhalin and Kamchatka in the Russian Far East. It is expected to winter from southern China and the northern Indian subcontinent through much of southeast Asia.
But at least since the late 1970s the species has been found in the western Alaskan islands, and almost annually in the fall. Since 1980, it’s also been casual much farther south in California with about 20 records… including a couple in Baja California.
Last month, there were a surprising three reported in California - in Marin, Los Angeles, and San Diego counties - and one in Oregon - a “state first” in Lane County. Except for the Los Angeles bird along Woodley Creek in the Sepulveda Basin, these were all short-term wonders, none staying any longer than four days. This is consistent for these casual Dusky Warblers, that are seemingly just “passing through.”
Still, this “cluster,” is really rare, with only one other previous set of reports – four birds – in 2017.
Could we possibly be witnessing the development of some sort of “mirror image misorientation” for some of these Ducky Warblers on our side of the Pacific. In any case, you can access a photo by Derek Hameister of the Los Angeles County bird – a bird that remained for just over a week, here:
IBA NEWS: BAHÍA SANTA MARÍA ISSUES
At the end of this summer, we should have profiled an Important Bird Area (IBA) on the central coast of the western state of Sinaloa, the Bahía de Santa María, Mexico. We’ll focus on it now however, especially since it celebrated its 20th anniversary of being designated a Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) site in August.
This WHSRN “Site of Hemispheric Importance” covers over 120,000 acres with a mix of swamps, expansive salt marshes, mangroves, islets, and a large sand bar and intertidal zone that annually plays host to more than 500,000 shorebirds and thousands of other waterbirds. Its wintering shorebirds – present there at this season - includes significant numbers of American Avocet, Snowy Plover, Marbled Godwit, Sanderling, Western Sandpiper, and Willet. Almost all of them having recently passed through our own western United State to arrive at the Bahía de Santa María.
It is also a main wintering site for Brant on the mainland coast of Mexico, and it’s an area of great importance for wintering pelicans, ducks, and long-legged waders,
Not only is it an IBA and a WHSRN site, it also considered a priority area under Mexican jurisdiction, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a Ramsar Site.
Unfortunately, the Bahía de Santa María is also an area that is highly threatened. The area is connected to the development of intense economic activities, such as agriculture, shrimp farming, tourism, and fishing. In particular, and on the margins of the Bahía, in the mixed inundation zones, many shrimp farms have been established which have fragmented the habitat and modified the hydrology of the wetland. Some locations that were previously seasonal lagoons used by shorebirds for resting, foraging, and wintering, simply no longer exist.
At the same time, work is being done to improve the extensive wetland with the installation of biofilters for the decontamination of strategic sites, especially those to the south of Bahía de Santa María.
For a general description of the importance of the Bahía de Santa María, see here:
And for an evaluation of the location over 20 years as a WHSRN site, 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:
TIP OF THE MONTH: WINTER FEEDING PLANS
As we mentioned last month, it’s about time for a bit of backyard planning when it comes to bird feeders, bird baths, brush piles, and nearby perches, especially for the opportunity to observe, identify, and even photograph birds from home.
During the pandemic, many people already became more “backyard oriented,” which all makes sense.
Also, with the change of the seasons, it’s a perfect time to consider participating in the 2021-22 Project FeederWatch season, a program run out of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The project starts mid-month, on 13 November, and it runs through 30 April. Delightfully, if you are a first-time FeederWatch participant, you will receive the classic, ever-helpful, and double-sided bird identification poster created by skilled bird-artist Larry McQueen.
The project itself has been run since the mid-1980s, and the data collected has helped scientists understand and explain the rhythms of bird irruptions, trace the course of emerging diseases, and get a handle on sudden population changes.
It still may take weeks for FeederWatch materials to arrive, but you can start getting ready for the season by reading the online instructions found here:
Most count sites are about the size of two tennis courts, but they can be as small as a single feeder. Once citizen-science participants have chosen their site, they can count birds at this same location all season.
Find more details on the project here:
BIRD DISEASE STATUS?
All this brings us, once again, to the mysterious disease impacting birds that we originally reported in July and further visited in our September Birding Community E-bulletin:
and
Fortunately, that mysterious disease, impacting backyard birds roughly from May into September, seems to have “wound down on its own,” according to many authorities and observers. The source still has not been identified, and theories abound, but the fact that it died out fairly quickly would seem to rule out an infection. It ultimately erupted in about a dozen states.
Still, after such an unfortunate event, backyard birders and feeder-watchers should continue to carefully follow some best practices at feeders and water sources for the rest of the fall and into the winter. Here are two sets of such recommendations:
and
SPACEX AND BIRDS
SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk in 2002, may have been part of the billionaire space-race news over the past year, but the conservation – and especially bird conservation – consequences are not part of the headlines.
Musk certainly wanted to site his take-off tract just off the Gulf of Mexico, and close to the Texas border with Mexico. “We’ve got a lot of land with nobody around, so if it blows up, it’s cool,” Musk reportedly said at a press conference in 2018.
But SpaceX’s site is surrounded by state and federally protected lands. Last March’s SpaceX explosion scattered rocket debris over some the delicate habitat of the Boca Chica tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge – comprising tidal flats, beaches, grasslands and coastal dunes that host a huge range of wildlife. Cleanup took three months.
Local Texas environmentalists have also grown concerned that SpaceX is dominating the local roads and refuge land, shutting roads and beaches for longer than their 300 permitted hours.
Overall, a number of species have been impacted. For example, previously, there were about a dozen nests of Snowy Plovers on the local the tidal flats on the edge of Boca Chica where the refuge abuts SpaceX’s property. Last year there were just two pairs found; this year it was only one.
According to the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program, the population of another plover, Piping Plover, in the Boca Chica region has decreased by 54% over the past 3 years (2018-2021).
“If activities like beach recreation can impact a species' overall survival, imagine how the impacts of rocket testing, launching, and explosions could threaten the health and survival of the same species, let alone the habitat it depends on,” commented Kacy Ray, the American Bird Conservancy’s Gulf Coastal Program Manager.
For more information on the SpaceX-and-birds scene, see here from the ABC:
VIRGIN-BIRTH CONDORS?
It was a real surprise a few years ago when scientists conducting routine DNA testing among captive California Condors came up with some unexpected paternity. Two birds - known by their tracking numbers as SB260 and SB517 - were not related to their presumed fathers! Apparently, they had no known fathers at all. Fully 100% of their DNA had come from their respective mothers.
This is known as parthenogenesis, a phenomenon that has been studied in invertebrates, as well as in various species of snakes (e.g., boas and pythons), lizards, sharks, rays, and some bony fish. Yes, sometimes it even occurs in birds, such as turkeys and chickens, a subject mainly studied by the poultry industry.
The condor study, led by the much-respected research group at the famous San Diego Zoo was published in late October in the Journal of Heredity.
A good summary, presented by Sarah Zhang, staff writer at The Atlantic, can be found here:
And here’s the AP-wire report:
LAST WORD
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. Note: there was a functional problem last month with our subscription link. It is now corrected, and works just fine! Here it is:
