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RARITY FOCUS
There were some exciting individual rarities across North America in October. These included Tufted Flycatcher in Arizona, Ruddy Ground-Dove in Arizona, Thick-billed Vireo in Florida, a returning Little Stint in California, a Northern Jacana in Arizona, a Blue Bunting in Texas, a Golden-crowned Warbler in Texas, as well as a cluster of Asiatic vagrants on the edges of Alaska (e.g., Pacific Swift, Red-backed Shrike, Wood Warbler, and Pine Bunting).
But our choice for the month is a rarity that reveals a developing pattern of occurrence with lessons for all observers. This involves three Pink-footed Geese found in the first week of October at the Campus Pond of UMass in Amherst, Massachusetts, and appearing later about eight miles away, at nearby South Deerfield.
We’ve covered Pink-footed Geese before, and, as you will see, it’s no accident we are highlighting them again. They nest in Greenland, Iceland, and northern Norway (Svalbard), and they normally winter in the British Isles and northwestern Europe. In the 1960s there was only an estimated population of 50,000 Pink-footed Geese wintering in the UK; but by the turn of the century there were approximately 200,000 birds. Additionally, the breeding populations in Greenland and Iceland have increased dramatically over the past quarter century, from about 10,000 pairs to well over 150,000 pairs. This increase in population has undoubtedly contributed to the increase in sightings of this species in North America over the past quarter century.
In fact, we even covered this species’ occurrence in our January issue, in a report on “goose checking,” where we looked at almost a half-dozen reports of Pink-footed Geese from the previous month, with geese found in Kentucky, New York, New Hampshire, Delaware, and Newfoundland.
https://conta.cc/3Cmx1zk
It’s getting so that Pink-footed Geese are almost seasonally regular – at least generally in the Northeast – although mostly as single individuals. These birds almost always appear with flocks of Canada Geese. So, the three geese appearing in Massachusetts in early October were noteworthy, and they remained at least through the end of the month.
Curiously, in March of 1922 there were four Pink-footed Geese in the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts that had apparently spent the winter in Connecticut , so this month’s trio may be returnees from a previous year. This is another lesson for astute observers to be on the alert for recurring rarities.
You can see a typical photo of these three geese by Sara Griesemer from the last day of October:
https://cdn.download.ams.birds.cornell.edu/api/v1/asset/610604757/480
ONE THAT DIDN’T MAKE IT
As an addendum to the “rarity of the month” report described above, there was a Little Bunting from Asia found on the afternoon of 27 October at Hobuck Beach in Clallam County, Washington.
According to the North American Rare Bird Alert (NARBA) “the bird was quickly captured and eaten by a Merlin, so it is not continuing.” (The emphasis is added in case you had any doubts.)
IBA NEWS: EVERGLADES-TO-GULF PROPOSAL
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has been working on an ambitious proposal to create an Everglades to Gulf Conservation Area (formerly known as the Southwest Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Area) in Florida. This could allow the USFWS to work with willing landowners to protect important habitat and related wildlife species in an area spanning four-million acres in 12 counties west of Lake Okeechobee from Lakeland to Naples, including the watersheds of the Peace River, Myakka River, Fisheating Creek, and Caloosahatchee River.
These habitats include wet prairie, freshwater marshes, forested wetlands, dry prairies, pine flatwoods, scrub/shrub, agricultural lands, and associated pastures.
Public review and comment submission have already occurred for the proposed Conservation Area which, if approved, would weave together public and private land protection opportunities like ones already established. The Service could pursue conservation easements or fee-title acquisitions from willing sellers. The easements would provide landowners the opportunity to maintain their working lands in their current configuration with no further subdivision or development. The Service could also acquire up to 10% (400,000 acres) of the Conservation Area in fee-title acquisitions where wildlife-dependent recreation opportunities, including birding, would also be available.
This proposed Conservation Area is no stand-alone Important Bird Area (IBA), but it would embrace some already in existence (e.g., the Babcock-Webb Ecosystem, the Fisheating Creek,Watershed, the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, and the Bright Hour Watershed). Moreover, while some sites are already conserved by state and national parkland, wildlife management areas, and Tribal lands, crucial wildlife corridors connecting these unique areas currently lack protection.
Some of the iconic bird species that would benefit include, Swallow-tailed Kite, Short-tailed Hawk, Snail Kite, Crested Caracara, Sandhill Crane, Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Florida Scrub-Jay, Brown-headed Nuthatch, and Bachman's Sparrow.
For more on the proposal, see these pages from the National Wildlife Refuge Association: https://www.refugeassociation.org/news/2023/9/28/proposed-everglades-to-gulf-conservation-area
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
MORE BIRD FLU NEWS
We have regularly reported on the bird flu scene, most recently in our June issue, when we focused on Bald Eagles:
https://conta.cc/43nSpzG
Yes, there are continual reports from North America and also from around the globe. So, in which large regions of the world might you guess there have been no reports of bird flu?
If you are thinking of Antarctica, you’d be wrong.
The very first cases of bird flu have recently been detected in the Antarctic, raising fears that the disease could spread rapidly through dense bird colonies. Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has now been confirmed in Brown Skua populations on Bird Island, South Georgia. These are the first known cases in the Antarctic region, according to information released by the British Antarctic Survey in late October.
Clearly, when it comes to bird flu, there is seemingly no place to hide.
You can read a summary of the Antarctic situation here:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/25/world/antarctic-region-bird-flu-first-case-intl-hnk/index.html
BOOK NOTE: EXTINCTION BIRDING?
We should have drawn your attention to Martin Painter’s Birding in an Age of Extinctions (Whittles Publishing, 2021) earlier, but we only caught up to it recently. Basically, it is a book packed with a combination of wonder and contradictions: the joy of encountering birds all over the world, while realizing that some are tragically disappearing.
Painter is perhaps ideally situated to address the contrast. This is not because he is a biological scientist, which he is not, but probably because he had the unique opportunity to travel the world with work and the “advantage” of coming to birding later in life. Curiously, it may be these combined elements that make Painter more of an objective observer than an engaged participant.
Painter, a British ex-pat, had the good fortune to live and work at length abroad (e.g., Australia and Hong Kong) while discovering birds and birding in the process and in his related travels.
The book escorts us through birding in places like Indonesia, the western Himalayas, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and the Galapagos, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Thailand, and over ocean waters. These travels are presented with more than 90 photographs, all his. Almost all of these are of sumptuous birds, but a few with people are exceptions, sometimes of birders and bird guides in their “natural habitats,” preparing us for the flip side of Painter’s story.
All the while, Painter pulls us into his paradox of international birding, but not necessarily in a depressing way. He eases us into the wonder of those “David Attenborough moments,” experiences when special birds and special experiences are etched in memory. He credits the positive aspects of ecotourism and avitourism where local people are countering some of the worst aspects of biodiversity loss.
But even some of these exceptional bright lights – of lodges, NGOs, reserves, education campaigns, and entrepreneurial creativity – are, indeed, exceptional. And Painter doesn’t dismiss the mix of awe and privilege of seeing some species on the brink of extinction with a “good deal of sadness.”
Painter also reminds us that if we all transformed ourselves into contemplative and dedicated locality-birders, staying close to home, that given what we know about the world, it wouldn’t necessarily mean a net gain for the wildlife and birds.
Martin Painter wraps things up smartly in the book’s last two chapters.
In the penultimate chapter he describes a trip to Grenfell, a small country town (c. 2,000 inhabitants) 230 miles west of Sydney, where he does find a couple of lifers, but it is a trip where he revels in “slow birding.” This does not suggest that there are few birds, but where the pace is leisurely and the experiences – birding and otherwise - wholly satisfying.
The final chapter is simultaneously sobering and thoughtful. Yes, the very chasing in “extinction birding” reveals a not-so-hidden looming tragedy He reminds us of our carbon footprint in traveling – especially in his category of world birder – but doesn’t necessary scold the participant. (And while touching on a system of carbon-offset birding, he doesn’t give it much weight.) Painter does suggest that thinking hard about what to offer “newcomers,” appreciating birds for what they are “rather than for what individual ambitions they can satisfy.”
His final chapter does not give us all the answers. That’s just fine. He has already described some of the wonders of birds and international birding while at the same time raising some valuable questions. And for now, this may be good enough.
ONE NIGHT’S BIRD DEATH TOLL - CHICAGO
By now, you might have heard about the major bird-collision event that occurred on the night of 4-5 October in Chicago. And you may have also seen the grim photos. At the time, a peak estimate of 1.5 million birds were probably in the air over Cook County, home to the Chicago metropolitan area.
At least 1,000 birds died from colliding with one Chicago building, McCormick Place, the largest convention center in North America. Since the building is largely covered with glass, it can be a lethal obstacle for migrating birds. This event appears to be the result of a set of factors: high intensity migration, adverse weather conditions for flying, bright light, and glass. A storm before dawn probably pushed the birds lower in the sky while they were migrating. The McCormick Place building is low, large, has long glass windows, and is located right at the Lake Michigan lakefront. These all added up to a potentially deadly mix.
Curiously, a study done two years ago at McCormick Place, the same core site of the 4-5 October bird deaths, found that turning off just half the lights in large buildings could reduce collisions by six to 11 times.
The early October losses were not limited to the convention center. Elsewhere in Chicago, high numbers of bird collisions were also documented. One volunteer with Chicago Bird Collision Monitors (CBCM) is said to have picked up 200 birds herself downtown. Another collected 50 more. In total, about 450 dead birds (and 300 more injured ones) were recorded through CBCM.
An early report on the overall situation– written by Benjamin Van Doren and Andrew Farnsworth and slightly updated since the event - appeared on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s “Birdcast” almost immediately. Replete with telling photos, this report summarized the conditions, the risks, and the ways to address future collision situations:
https://birdcast.info/news/major-collision-event-in-chicago-4-5-october-2023/
By the way, among the top species-casualties that night were Palm Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, and Northern Waterthrush.
For more details, you may wish to check this page from National Audubon:
https://www.audubon.org/news/more-1000-birds-collided-single-chicago-building-one-night
and this article from The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/07/chicago-mccormick-place-building-bird-deaths-windows?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1
GOODBYE COOPER’S HAWK!
Get ready to say farewell to Cooper’s Hawk, Anna's Hummingbird, Gambel's Quail, Hammond’s Flycatcher, Lewis's Woodpecker, Bewick's Wren, Brewer’s Sparrow, Bullock's Oriole, and a good many more birds.
No, these birds are not extinct. Their names are being changed.
The governing Council of the American Ornithological Society (AOS) recently announced three important commitments related to English “common names” of birds:
1 The AOS commits to changing all English-language names of birds within its geographic jurisdiction that are named directly after people (eponyms), along with other names deemed offensive and exclusionary, focusing first on those species that occur primarily within the U.S. or Canada.
2 The AOS commits to establishing a new committee to oversee the assignment of all English common names for species within the AOS’s jurisdiction; this committee will broaden participation by including a diverse representation of individuals with expertise in the social sciences, communications, ornithology, and taxonomy.
3 The AOS commits to actively involving the public in the process of selecting new English bird names.
Judith Scarl, the Executive Director, and CEO of AOS, said in a statement that there has long been historic bias in how birds have been named, and scientists should work to eliminate that bias. “Exclusionary naming conventions developed in the 1800s, clouded by racism and misogyny, don’t work for us today, and the time has come for us to transform this process and redirect the focus to the birds, where it belongs.”
The elimination of all eponyms makes this a sweeping project. The process, rationale, and opportunity are all explained here:
https://americanornithology.org/about/english-bird-names-project/american-ornithological-society-council-statement-on-english-bird-names/
The project will begin in earnest next year and initially focus on 70 to 80 bird species that occur primarily in the United States and Canada. That's about 6% or 7% of the total species in this North American geographic region.
Stay tuned!
BYE TO BACHMAN’S WARBLER
Related to the previous news item, it’s time to say goodbye to the Bachman’s Warbler.
In this case, it’s not necessarily because Lutheran minister John Bachman condoned slavery and was a slave owner, was an unyielding defender of states’ rights, championed the secession of South Carolina, or worked vigorously to support the Confederacy. It’s because the Bachman’s Warbler was “delisted” last month from the Endangered Species Act due to the Fish & Wildlife Service’s determination that the species is extinct.
Although this Southern species was first described in 1833, it remained relatively unnoticed for roughly the next 50 years. Populations were probably never large and seemed to have been “very low” after the 1920s, according to the official findings of the USFWS. The last confirmed nest was documented in 1937, and a dramatic decline occurred sometime between the early 1900s and 1940 or 1950.
Awareness of this situation resulted in the 1967 listing of the species under the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966. In fact, and according to the USFWS, subsequent reports of the Bachman’s Warbler in the U.S. “have not been officially accepted, documented observations.” And in Cuba, no wintering records have been verified since the 1980s.
You can source the information from the USFWS press release of 16 October, found here:
https://www.fws.gov/press-release/2023-10/21-species-delisted-endangered-species-act-due-extinction
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
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