THE BIRDING COMMUNITY E-BULLETIN
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December 2005
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The Birding Community E-bulletin is being distributed as
a service for active and concerned birders, those dedicated to the
joys of birding and the protection of birds and their habitats.
You can access an archive of past E-bulletins
on the website of the National Wildlife Refuge Association (NWRA).
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RARITY
FOCUS
On
18 October, Julie Hart of Chester, Vermont stopped by Charlotte
Town Beach on Lake Champlain, south of Burlington, to make a cell-phone
call. She knew that the locale was one of the few places in the
area where she could get decent reception. Taking the opportunity
to scan the lake for possible loons, scoters, geese, grebes, and
other migrating waterbirds, she noticed a cluster of a dozen or
so gulls a couple hundred feet off the beach. One was obviously
darker- mantled than the others with a red-tipped bill. Seeking
backup, Julie contacted local birders Matt Medler and Ted Murin
in sequence, and the rest is history.
The
mystery gull that was associating with Ring-billed Gulls proved
to be a Black-tailed Gull (Larus crassirostris), a species normally
found in northeast Asia (breeding e. China, Korea, Siberia, Japan,
wintering southward to Taiwan). There are now more than two dozen
North American records, mostly since the 1980s, about half from
Alaska, but with an increasing number from the Atlantic Coast of
North America. (There are over a dozen records ranging from Newfoundland
to Virginia.)
Word
of the Vermont bird's discovery spread rapidly through Internet
communications and mainstream print and broadcast media. As visitors
increasingly gathered from afar (including other New England states,
Tennessee, Florida, and British Columbia) all the gulls in the area
became increasingly habituated to humans. When birders first started
coming, the gulls were very wary; by November, however, most of
the gulls in the area, including the Black-tailed Gull, would readily
approach birders, or even fly in from a distance to "investigate"
visitors. Key to this change in behavior was the introduction of
cheese puffs, popcorn, bread, hamburgers, cheese crackers, hot dogs,
donut-bread, and a variety of other gull-treats!
The
gull stayed on the lake until at least until 7 November. Visit here
to see photos of the bird.
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IVORY-BILLED
WOODPECKER GUIDELINES
There are now birding guidelines for Ivory-billed Woodpecker searchers
at Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, Arkansas. Access is being
allowed to 5,000 acres in Managed Access Areas (MAAs) of the 63,000-acre
refuge. The guidelines for five specific MAAs include required daily
permits, available on a first-come, first-serve basis, for consumptive
(angler/hunter) and non- consumptive (birder/photographer) users.
Each of the five managed units will maintain a carrying capacity
of as few as six and as many as 20 users per day, divided equally
between consumptive and non-consumptive users. Hopefully this permit-plan
will provide a fine start in getting the public to behave properly
in habitat that may be home to the rarest bird in all of North America.
More guidelines will probably have to be put in place at Cache River
and White River NWRs to responsibly integrate crowd control with
reliable citizen science.
A one-page
color map of the five MAAs is available free of charge by calling
or writing Central Arkansas Refuges, Cache River NWR, 26320 HW 33
South, Augusta, Arkansas 72006; 870/347- 2614.
You
can find more details on the access guidelines here.
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ANOTHER
WOODPECKER RARITY
The
media, of course, has been abuzz this year with the story of the
rediscovery of the Ivory- billed Woodpecker in Arkansas. While we
await further news from that area, an intriguing and, in some ways,
parallel account arrived from Mexico. The Imperial Woodpecker, a
species closely related to the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, is known
as the largest woodpecker species in the world. The bird, which
was known to inhabit mature mountain pine forests, is also presumed
extinct by many. The last convincing sighting of an Imperial Woodpecker
was in 1956. Most ornithologists have given up on the existence
of the Imperial Woodpecker because of wholesale forest destruction
in western Mexico.
In
early November, however, two professors from the biology department
of the University of California at Riverside reported seeing an
Imperial Woodpecker near Divisadero on the north rim of Copper Canyon
(Baranca del Cobre) in Mexico. They saw the bird clinging to the
trunk about 30 feet up in a pine tree, from a distance of about
50 to 60 feet in good light. They observed the bird for about two
minutes, during which time the woodpecker, reportedly a female,
turned its head, showing its distinctive crest from several angles.
Eventually the woodpecker flew off with slow heavy wingbeats (described
as raven-like). No sounds were heard.
While
this report is clearly tantalizing, it is also short of conclusive.
Needless to say, other observers have been visiting the area since,
so hopefully more news and information will soon be forthcoming
from that region.
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LAYSAN
DUCKS DOING WELL ON MIDWAY
For
yet another amazing back-from-the-brink story, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently reported that Laysan Ducks are
doing well at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.
Fearing
that a single event like a typhoon might wipe out this species,
in October 2004 biologists transferred 20 of the ducks from Laysan
Island in the Hawaiian Islands NWR to Midway Atoll NWR. Although
one duck died, five of the six original females successfully nested.
A number of ducklings survived, and a second translocation of 22
more birds to two different locations at the Midway Atoll NWR -
an additional "insurance" against extinction - took place in October
of this year. This year's translocation effort - run by the USFWS
and the USGS - included assistance from the Wildfowl and Wetlands
Trust in the UK, the State of Hawaii Division of Forestry and Wildlife,
and numerous volunteers from both the public and private sectors.
The
Laysan Duck was once widespread in the Hawaiian Islands (bones have
been found on Moloka`i, O`ahu, Kaua`i, Maui, and Hawai`i), as well
as in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It survived only on Laysan
Island by the 1800s. On Laysan Island the species was hunted for
sport and for food in the 1890s. Also, the introduction of rabbits
by humans devastated the island's vegetation, reducing the duck
population to 11 by 1911.
As
the story goes, a biologist who visited Laysan Island in 1930 found
only one pair of ducks. He was then shocked to discover that the
male of the pair had disappeared and that all the eggs in the female's
nest had been punctured by a Bristle-thighed Curlew. It looked like
the biological end of the road for the species. Astonishingly, the
female duck had sufficient semen stored in her oviduct to produce
another fertile clutch, and it is from this single female and her
eggs that the world's population of Laysan Duck is now reportedly
descended.
Numbering
about 300 individuals today, this Endangered species is still at
high risk of extinction due to severe weather, disease, accidental
introductions, and/or habitat degradation. Fortunately, there are
also hundreds of Laysan Ducks in captive-breeding facilities in
various parts of the world, thus providing a potential back-up source
population.
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SUPERBOWL
III IS COMING
The
third annual "Superbowl of Birding" will be held on 28 January 2006
in Essex County, Massachusetts, and Rockingham County, New Hampshire.
This team competition is designed to showcase the avian wonders
of the New England winter, while providing a great time for participants
of all ages.
A birding
competition in New England in January: Are they crazy?
Most
current birding contests revolve around mini-Big-Days, simply trying
to amass a large day- total of birds seen. The Superbowl of Birding
is designed to award points for each species observed, based on
the perceived rarity of the species and the degree of difficulty
of finding it. Results from the first two Superbowls produced a
total of 125 species, with a sample of point values including Dovekie
(5 points), King Eider (4 points), Glaucous Gull (3 points), Harlequin
Duck (2 points), and and Black-capped Chickadee (1 point). The grand
prize, "The Joppa Cup," is awarded to the team recording the greatest
number of points. Scouting, strategy, and luck are important factors
in winning, and antifreeze, hot drinks, and woolies are important
for everyone.
The
Superbowl of Birding is run by Mass Audubon's Joppa Flats Education
Center, Newburyport, MA. For the past two years Swarovski Optik
of North America has sponsored the event. More information, including
registration forms, rules, checklist, and prize list, are located
on this website.
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ARCTIC
REFUGE UPDATE
In
November, the U.S. House of Representatives removed from the overall
budget damaging provisions to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge, and sent the Budget Reconciliation Bill
to a conference committee to hammer out the differences between
the Senate and House bills. Instrumental in this effort was the
position of key moderate Republicans who told their party leaders
that they would not support final passage of a budget that included
any provisions to open the Arctic Refuge to oil and gas drilling.
Evan
Hirsche, President of the National Wildlife Refuge Association,
said that "while we scored a huge victory by getting the drilling
provision removed from the House bill, the Senate's version still
contains the provision - so it's not over yet! Now key members from
the House and Senate will sit down. We'll be working very hard to
make sure the Arctic drilling provision is removed in conference
- but powerful Senators are promising to keep it in."
Perhaps
unknown to some is that already about 95 percent of Alaska's coastal
plain is open to potential oil and gas development. The Arctic NWR,
an area that supports a marvelous diversity of wildlife, including
Musk Ox, Polar Bear, Caribou, and approximately 135 species of birds
- shorebirds, waterfowl, raptors, terns, and songbirds - represents
the remaining 5 percent, and is the only place on Alaska's North
Slope that remains closed to exploration and development.
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WILMA
WAIFS
Your
two editors, Wayne and Paul, have a special interest in Chimney
Swifts, and from time to time that species has actually found its
way into the E-bulletin. We never thought, however, that we would
ever have a Chimney Swift report like the one that follows.
Hurricane
Wilma passed well to the east of Nova Scotia in the last days of
October, but once its eye disintegrated, it dropped large numbers
of birds along the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, with lesser numbers
to the northeast in Newfoundland and in southern New Brunswick to
the west, with some birds even reaching Prince Edward Island. That's
understandable enough, and a fairly common occurrence where hurricanes
are concerned.
As
the remnants of Hurricane Wilma whirled past northeastern North
America, however, it also deposited a surprising number of North
American vagrants, including ducks, gulls, swallows, and shorebirds,
on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, first in the Azores. (The
Azores is a property of Portugal, located about two-thirds of the
way across the Atlantic to Europe.) Among the many birds displaced
by the storm were dozens of Chimney Swifts. Indeed, there may easily
have been more than 30 birds - given multiple counts on consecutive
days - on the Azores.
Chimney
Swifts only occur as very rare vagrants in Western Europe. In the
UK and Ireland, for instance the first record of Chimney Swift was
an individual in 1982 (Cornwall). Through last year, there were
about a dozen additional records, mostly from the southwest UK.
In 1999 alone, there was a surprising total of 14 birds reported
in different locations in the UK and Ireland. That surprising number
from 1999 was only surpassed this year, with at least 16 Chimney
Swifts in the UK and Ireland last month. Multiple trios appeared,
along with single birds here and there, all probably waifs from
Hurricane Wilma.
Reportedly,
there were even some sightings of Chimney Swifts in France.
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OTHER
HURRICANE WAIFS
When
three Hurricanes - Katrina, Rita, and Wilma - hammered the American
Gulf Coast, major damage was inflicted on multiple National Wildlife
Refuges. The USFWS reported at tab of $163.0 million for "restoration
and repair costs" from Hurricane Katrina ($93 million), Hurricane
Rita ($59 million), and Hurricane Wilma ($11 million).
These
figures represent mainly equipment and facilities costs and do not
include habitat costs, which for Rita alone were estimated initially
at $75 million. ( An especially dramatic example of habitat loss
is Breton National Wildlife Refuge, a globally important IBA for
colonial nesting birds off the Louisiana coast which, according
to USFWS testimony before the U.S. Senate, lost 50 to 70 percent
of its land mass due the effects of Hurricane Katrina.)
This
tally also does not include an additional $24 million spent on assistance
in search and rescue efforts, involving boats, heavy equipment,
and manpower. The USFWS participated in rescuing more than 4,500
people during Katrina, and their operations base at Big Branch NWR
in Louisiana provided more than 25,000 meals for the displaced.
In
response to this burden, the Administration is only requesting funds
to cover restoration and repair costs, of $61.0 million. The disappointing
figure of $61 million will obviously put a strain on the entire
Refuge System. If that figure isn't increased, every refuge in the
country will be hurting when it comes to maintaining appropriate
habitat and wildlife management and adequate visitor services, at
least in the immediate future.
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TWO
DECADES OF CRP
The
20th anniversary of the signing of the Food Security Act (Farm Bill)
of 1985 will be 23 December 2005. This legislation contained the
original Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) language, language that
initially focused on reducing soil erosion and excess commodity
production. By the second (1990) and third (1996) reauthorization
of the act, the CRP segments of the Farm Bill were developing so
that wildlife objectives were made co-equal with soil and water-quality
goals. By the 2002 reauthorization, CRP sign-ups (administered by
the Farm Service Agency [FSA]) had expanded to a include a ceiling-total
of 39.2 million acres. As a result of these gradual improvements
in the Farm Bill, waterfowl and gamebirds have greatly benefitted,
along with harriers, shrikes, sparrows, meadowlarks, bobolinks,
and other birds that utilize the mix of grasses, shrubs, and trees
that are grown and subsidized through CRP. For example, in productive
Midwestern CRP habitat, nearly 100 species of birds have been recorded
on some CRP landscapes.
Be
aware that the momentum building for the 2007 Farm Bill is tempered
by a complex interplay of issues, mixing compliance with international
trade agreements, support for corporate agriculture, the call for
expanded conservation elements, and a troublesome budget climate.
We
will continue to report on the conservation elements of the Farm
Bill as the legislation develops.
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NORTHERN
BOBWHITE RESTORATION EFFORTS AND A NEW WEBSITE
Implementation
of a Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI) is moving
ahead, despite enormous and intricate obstacles. Fortunately, many
of the state wildlife agencies are committed to making progress
in this area. A number of non-governmental organizations have also
dedicated time, energy, and resources to this goal. The potential
for increased Farm Bill benefits to Northern Bobwhite (and related
songbirds) is also encouraging as the Farm Bill discussion escalates.
The
USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) estimates that about a third of the
250,000 acres allocated to the new Continuous Conservation Reserve
Program practice, CP33 Habitat Buffers for Upland Birds, has already
been committed. Enrollments are expected to increase.
Unfortunately,
the status of Northern Bobwhite and songbird population-monitoring
required for CP33 by the FSA remains in a Privacy-Act limbo. While
two dozen wildlife agencies, in collaboration with technical assistance
from Mississippi State University, are prepared to begin monitoring
quail in the spring of 2006, legal barriers within FSA are holding
up the ability to locate CP33 contracts on the ground. Since it
is essential to make personal contact with landowners in order to
gain permission to enter their properties for censusing, without
the FSA assisting with that entree, the monitoring required by FSA
simply cannot be conducted.
For
more details and for more on the Northern Bobwhite Conservation
Initiative, see the new
website.
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WETLANDS
LOAN ACT: RE-INTRODUCING A SUCCESS
Last
month, a "Wetlands Loan Act" was introduced, H.R. 4315, an effort
that would use an advance on funds from the Migratory Bird Hunting
and Conservation [Duck] Stamp to pay for conservation of wetlands
used by waterfowl and many other bird species.
The
original WLA was a novel idea, first launched in the 1960s, to help
stop the rate of wetland losses, and now it is a concept reborn.
Cong.
Mark Kennedy (R-MN) has introduced this new bill with Cong. Mike
Thompson (D-CA); the legislation would borrow $400 million against
future Stamp proceeds to secure land now at current prices. All
acquisitions and easements made possible through Stamp proceeds
are managed by the USFWS as part of the National Wildlife Refuge
System.
There
are now prime opportunities for wetland and grassland habitat protection
that may disappear unless action is taken soon. For example, in
the Dakotas alone, there are now almost 700 landowners on waiting
lists for grassland easements to be purchased with Stamp dollars
- standing by with 190,000 acres of grassland and 37,000 acres of
associated wetlands.
A new
WLA can also provide opportunities to work on creative ways to sell
the Stamp to a broader conservation constituency.
We
touched on the possibilities - and some potential drawbacks - of
this legislation in the September
2005 and October
2005 issues of this E-bulletin.
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RESIDENT
CANADA GEESE TARGETED
In
early November, the USFWS released its final Environmental Impact
Statement outlining alternatives to reduce, manage, and control
resident Canada Goose populations and reduce damages caused by these
feral geese. The Service's proposed action would allow state wildlife
agencies, landowners, and airports increased "flexibility in controlling
resident Canada Goose populations."
During
this past decade alone, the resident Canada Goose population in
the Atlantic Flyway has increased an average of one percent per
year so that currently the region supports more than a million birds.
The Mississippi Flyway has seen a growth of five percent per year
to produce a current estimate of 1.6 million birds.
For
the most part, resident Canada Geese tend to remain in the same
area year-round or migrate only short distances. There is little
evidence that resident Canada Geese will breed with migratory Canada
Geese that nest in northern Canada and Alaska. The swift rise of
resident Canada Geese populations is attributed to a number of factors
(e.g., most resident Canada Geese live in temperate climates, tolerate
human and other disturbances, have a relative abundance of suitable
habitat, and fly relatively short distances for winter.) The virtual
absence of waterfowl hunting and natural predators in many urban
and suburban areas provides additional protection to these resident
populations.
The
USFWS outlined management alternatives in response to widespread
concern about overabundant populations of resident Canada Geese,
which can damage property, agriculture, and natural resources in
parks and other open areas near water.
"Resident
Canada Goose populations have increased dramatically over the past
15 years," said USFWS Director H. Dale Hall. "These high population
levels have been shown to cause problems for natural and economic
resources, and we believe increased local management with National
oversight is the best approach to reduce conflicts and bring the
population under control."
"Resident
Canada Goose management is particularly challenging because of the
diversity of society's perspectives regarding the year-round presence
of these birds, but the growth of these resident populations causes
problems that compel population management," said John Cooper, President
of the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
The
preferred alternative consists of three main program components.
The first component creates specific control-and-depredation orders
for airports, landowners, agricultural producers and public health
officials. These new orders will permit the "take" of resident Canada
Geese without a federal permit, provided local agencies fulfill
certain reporting and monitoring requirements. The second component
consists of expanded hunting methods and opportunities (e.g., expanded
shooting hours and use of electronic calls and unplugged shotguns).
The third component would allow the States to authorize a harvest
of resident Canada Geese during August, since migratory Canada Geese
will not have arrived from the breeding grounds at that time.
Only
State wildlife agencies and Tribal entities in the Atlantic, Central,
and Mississippi Flyway can implement these components for resident
Canada Geese. The Pacific Flyway representatives requested that
their states not be included because they have fewer issues with
resident Canada Geese. For agricultural issues, states in the Pacific
Flyway will continue to apply for federal permits.
Expansion
of existing annual hunting season and the issuance of control permits
have all been recently used to reduce resident goose numbers with
varying degrees of success. While these approaches have provided
relief in some areas, they have not completely addressed the issues.
It is also expected that these recommendations will be challenged
through the courts.
For
good background about resident Canada Goose populations, see this
source.
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REFUGE
PHOTO CONTEST DEADLINE APPROACHES
The
National Wildlife Refuge Association (NWRA) and Swarovski Optik
of North America (SONA) will be closing their 2005 Refuge Photo
Contest on 15 December. The digital photo contest is designed to
showcase America's National Wildlife Refuge System. Submitted images
(no more than 10 per contestant) can be of birds, mammals, insects,
fish, other animals, plants, people, or simply refuge scenery from
a National Wildlife Refuge.
There
are Swarovski products and other prizes as awards. Winners will
be announced in March, in conjunction with the 103rd anniversary
of the Refuge System. See the Contest
Home Page for more information on all the prizes, as well as
on procedures, rules, and other details.
If
you have some good refuge photos, now's the time to send them in!
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You
can access an archive of past E-bulletins
on the National Wildlife Refuge Association (NWRA) website..
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you wish to distribute all or parts of any of the E-bulletins, we
request that you mention the source of any material used. (Include
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