RARITY FOCUS 

There were a few wonderful rarities last month, but most of them were only one- and two-day wonders, birds that did not stick around for many birders to observe over multiple days. These nonetheless deserve mention and they included the following two individuals:

1.           One rarity was a male Blue-black Grassquit on 15-16 July, at Cluff Ranch Wildlife Area near Pima, Arizona. The bird was observed foraging in a weedy patch with Lucy’s Warblers, Lazuli Buntings, and Lesser Goldfinches, and will probably be a first record for this species north of Mexico.

 2.          The other rarity last month was a Swallow-tailed Gull, found in the morning of 19 July at Goleta Beach County Park in Santa Barbara County, California, associating with a flock of Western Gulls. This was only the third-ever record for California (previously 1985 and 1996) and the U.S. This species nests mainly in the Galapagos Islands and, when not breeding, is largely pelagic. A number of mostly California birders observed and photographed the bird almost all day, but toward the end of the day it flew off and was not to be re-found.

So, this brings us to the “official” monthly rarity of choice.

On the last day of June, a White-winged Tern was reported and photographed from Point Mouillee State Game Area on the western shore of Lake Erie, Monroe County, Michigan. This bird was the first record for Michigan. It was observed at the Point Mouillee SGA most days through 13 July, although on 5 July, a White-winged Tern, possibly the very same bird, was seen and photographed at Point Pelee National Park in Ontario, just 30 miles to the East as the tern flies.

White-winged Terns normally frequent freshwater marshes from southeast Europe across to Central Asia and the Russian Far East. In the fall, they migrate to Africa, southern Asia, and Australia.

White-winged Terns are very rare in spring or fall on our Atlantic coast (with, perhaps, 35 records), are extraordinary in the West (e.g., Alaska and a couple of times in California), and are truly exceptional in the interior of the continent during spring and summer anywhere from the Great Lakes to Manitoba. Interior records (e.g., Indiana, Ontario, and Manitoba) are particularly enigmatic.

This raises the question: What is the origin of these Eurasian vagrants?

Regardless of the answer, here is a report by Jerry Jourdan on the individual in Michigan, with kudos to the intrepid trio that discovered the bird along with plenty of photos:

https://birdingthroughglass.blogspot.com/2023/06/white-winged-tern-30-jun-2023.html

Note: Peak timing for North American records seems to be July and August, particularly in the mid-Atlantic States, so observers should remain on the alert!

ACCESS MATTERS: RESERVOIR NEGOTIATIONS

Depending on the location, reservoirs often have restrictions when it comes to access, and that, of course, includes birding access.

The folks at the Howard County Bird Club – affiliated with the Maryland Ornithological Society (MOS) - have recently been proactive when it comes to accessing areas by the local Triadelphia and T. Howard Duckett Reservoirs. These are sites that can be good for waterfowl, turkeys, raptors (especially Bald Eagles), some shorebirds, and a wide variety of woodland songbirds.

The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) has recently granted to all current MOS members limited access for the purpose of birding on reservoir property through the end of November. Birders need to hold a valid WSSC permit, available online or at the local Brighton Dam Visitor Center office. A one-day permit is $5, and a yearly pass costs $70 for anyone under 65 years of age. Those over 65 still need a permit, but it is free for them. All birders, as a safety precaution, are also asked to wear an orange safety vest or an orange hat when birding in the area.

If this procedure goes well, it is expected to be renewed next year. You can find a lot more details here:

https://howardbirds.website/birding/birding-howard-county-md/site-guides/wssc-mos-permissions/

  and here;

https://www.wsscwater.com/watershedregs

Importantly, this is the kind of negotiated access that can serve as a model for other birders and clubs, wherever they are.

IBA NEWS: NEW WHSRN SITE IN PERU

As we have indicated before, Important Bird Areas (IBAs) and Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) sites are sometime overlapping, sometimes parallel categories. In either case, they are vital classifications, and when considering WHSRN sites in South America, they regularly protect “our birds” as they migrate or winter beyond our usual North American range of preoccupation.

Here is another case of that situation, where we recognize the inclusion in July of the fourth WHSRN site in Peru. Tumbes Mangroves National Sanctuary in Peru has been designated a WHSRN Site of Regional Importance for the presence of more than 20,000 shorebirds (migratory and resident) and for maintaining more than 1% of the biogeographic populations of the Wilson’s Plover, Whimbrel, and Least Sandpiper. Other common shorebirds found at this national sanctuary include Black-necked Stilt, Lesser Yellowlegs, and Semipalmated Sandpiper.

This protected coastal site covers 11.47 square miles of mangrove, close to the border with Ecuador. In fact, the sanctuary is the only natural protected area in Peru that protects the country’s mangrove ecosystem, which covers approximately 12,355 acres. Some 60% of the mangroves are found within the sanctuary itself.

The other three WHSRN sites in Peru are San Pedro de Vice Mangroves, Virrilá Estuary, and Paracas National Reserve, all of which are recognized IBAs.

For more information on the WHSRN status of Tumbes Mangroves National Sanctuary, see here:

https://whsrn.org/whsrn_sites/tumbes-mangroves-national-sanctuary/

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:

https://www.audubon.org/important-bird-areas

BOOK NOTE: BETTER LIVING!

Christian Cooper has provided us a page-turner of a book, Better Living Through Birding (Random House, 2023). He tells the story of his experiences in birding and in life leading up to the now-infamous racially-based incident with a white female dog-owner in New York City’s Central Park in May 2020.

His book shows how six decades of life spent looking at birds prepared him, in unique ways, to be a gay Black man in America today. It takes us inside a perspective of bird appreciation probably known to most of the readers of this E-bulletin, while at the very same time opening us up to other important and telling experiences that few of us have ever lived.

For a start, it begins with a summer cross-country trip in the family’s VW camper-van with a young Chris Cooper memorizing birds from two available field guides, and it continues through involvement in his local Audubon bird club with generous mentors. Thereafter, Chris was simply hooked on birds.

But when he couldn’t connect with the outdoor natural world, he escaped in the opposite direction, to the world of science fiction and creative fantasy. And that combination - along with being a successful academic nerd - became part of his identity, all the while trying to deal with his emerging gay self-awareness.  

Getting through Harvard, moving to Manhattan to begin professional work at Marvel comics, becoming part of the birding scene - with an emphasis on Central Park – and experiencing exceptional trips to such places as Australia, Tibet, and East Africa, are all intertwined with his 11 creative “Birding Tips” and seven thoughtful “Birding Pleasures.”

The book is serious, but there is also irony, humor, and joy. On the serious side, and with luck, readers will simultaneously learn much about Black and gay birders as well as about Black-and-gay birders among us. Yes, buy this book, and read it all, including the parts that you think don’t relate to your own experiences or parts that might even make you somewhat uncomfortable.

MORE ON FEDERAL BIRD-SAFE WINDOW STANDARDS

As most regular E-bulletin readers know, collisions with glass windows, walls, and other structures kill up to a billion birds a year in the U.S. alone.

Fortunately, several major American cities have recently enacted some visionary measures to make buildings safer for birds in recent years, including New York City in December 2019, Chicago in April 2020, and Philadelphia in March 2021.

The Federal Bird-Safe Buildings Act would add to the effort and reduce bird deaths by directing the General Services Administration to incorporate bird-friendly design and materials into the construction of new federal buildings or “significantly altered” existing ones, wherever they are.

This kind of bill was actually introduced in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021 (specifically, 17 March 2021 as H.R. 1986/S.971) and there is currently an ongoing effort to promote it again.

For more details, and a letter-writing opportunity, see the American Bird Conservancy:

https://act.abcbirds.org/a/take-action-bird-safe-buildings?utm_campaign

LAST LAUGH: MAGPIES IN EUROPE

In a study published last month in Deinsea, an online journal of the Natural History Museum of Rotterdam, four researchers from the Netherlands described the surprising practice of Eurasian Magpies using anti-bird spikes as parts of their large nests.

Those rows of sharp metal spikes, often installed on rooftops and ledges to discourage birds from perching or nesting on buildings, were documented as being used as either “structural support” or “nest defense” at nesting sites in Scotland, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

Arguments explaining this unconventional nest material seem to favor “use as protection,” an alternative to the birds seeking natural thorny plant material for such use when living in urban areas.

It is unclear whether these strips of anti-bird pins were loosened naturally in the environment or were simply pried from their moorings by the magpies. In either case, what we have here is a real case of irony. Or…the repurposing of iron- y spikes.

You can access an article on the situation and discovery here, from Scientific American:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cities-use-spikes-to-keep-birds-away-birds-are-using-them-in-nests/

And here’s the original Deinsea article:

https://www.hetnatuurhistorisch.nl/fileadmin/user_upload/documents-nmr/Publicaties/Deinsea/Deinsea_21/Deinsea_21_17_25_2023_Hiemstra_et_al.pdf

LAST WORD

Finally, if you have friends or co-workers who might wish to receive the free monthly Birding Community E-bulletin, you might forward this issue to them and suggest that they sign up via this link:

https://bit.ly/35Xd3hO