A Swift Night Out

If you know the location of a chimney swift roost, consider participating in A Swift Night Out. This project was begun to increase public awareness of chimney swifts and to support their conservation. There are two weekend counts this summer, one in August (already passed) and one this weekend. Here are the directions:

Here is how it works: Keep your eyes to the skies at dusk in late July and watch for areas where swifts are feeding. Look for a tall shaft, chimney or similar structure to locate where Chimney Swifts (central to east coast) or Vaux's Swift (Pacific coast) go to roost in your area.

This year, on one night over the weekend of August 11, 12, 13, and / or September 8, 9, 10 observe the roost starting about 30 minutes before dusk and estimate the number of swifts that enter. When you have your number, contact us with your results. That's all there is to it!

Please include the following information:

• Number of swifts counted
• Time (and time zone)
• Date
• Location
• Address: city, state/province
• Broad description of the site, e.g. school, warehouse, residence, Chimney Swift Tower, etc.
• Weather conditions may also be reported.

See here for contact information and results from previous years.

Chimney swifts became common in urban areas because of the availability of chimneys and other vertical structures for nesting. However, in recent years the population has declined as chimney construction has changed to discourage nesting. Swifts benefit city residents by consuming large number of insects every day. For more information on chimney swifts, see ChimneySwifts.org.

Katrina Updates

Now that we have arrived at the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall on the Gulf Coast, newspaper articles are considering the lingering damage done by the storm. Many refuges along the coast were hard-hit and are struggling to recover. Part of the problem is that the storm washed salt water into fresh water ecosystems and killed vegetation that could not stand the salinity. The waters also dumped all forms of trash and toxic waste into the refuges. Cleaning and restoring the marshes will take years and substantial investment.

The refuges damaged along the coast are important for both breeding and migratory birds. Twelve Important Bird Areas lay in the direct path of the storm. The long-term effects of the storm on the birds that used those areas will not be known until more research is done. In the short term, many birds seem to have abandoned their traditional nesting habitats. Among the species with reduced nesting colonies include Brown Pelicans, several species of herons, Black Skimmers, and Sandhill Cranes.

On a lighter note, Judith Toups reports that in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina, her yard was filled with ruby-throated hummingbirds.

Bachman's Warbler?

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has posted video of a possible Bachman's Warbler on its website. This film was shot in Cuba in January 2002. After recording the bird, the photographer used field guides to identify it as a female Bachman's Warbler. Cornell's ornithologists reviewed the video and deemed it inconclusive. They have asked for comments from experienced observers.

What do you think of the video?

For comparison, here is a painting of male and female Bachman's Warblers by John James Audubon.

New Rules For Canada Goose Management

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is making it easier to kill Canada Geese without a permit. Its new rules apply to airports, landowners, and state wildlife officials and are intended to reduce the population of resident geese along the Atlantic Flyway, where the number of geese increases at a rate of about 2 percent per year. Large numbers of resident geese have resulted in safety problems at airports, conflicts with golf courses and other private landowners, and obstacles for habitat restoration.

The new regulatory program consists of three components. The first creates control and depredation orders for airports, landowners, agricultural producers and public health officials that are designed to address resident Canada goose depredation and damage while managing conflict. This component will allow take of resident Canada geese without a federal permit provided certain reporting and monitoring requirements are fulfilled.

The second component consists of expanded hunting methods and opportunities and is designed to increase the sport harvest of resident Canada geese. Under this component, States could choose to expand shooting hours and allow hunters the use of electronic calls and unplugged shotguns during a portion of early September resident Canada goose seasons.

The third component consists of a new regulation authorizing the Director to implement a resident Canada goose population control program, or "management take". Management take is defined as a special management action that is needed to reduce certain wildlife populations when traditional and otherwise authorized management measures are unsuccessful, not feasible, or not applicable in preventing injury to property, agricultural crops, public health, and other interests. Under Management Take, the take of resident Canada geese outside the existing sport hunting seasons (September 1 to March 10) would be authorized and would enable States to authorize a harvest of resident Canada geese between August 1 and August 31. Management take would be available to States in the Atlantic, Mississippi, and Central Flyways following the first full operational year of the other new regulations.

In the DC area, there are between 500 and 600 resident geese living in the Anacostia watershed.

Limits on Menhaden Catch

Last week we reported that Osprey in the Chesapeake Bay area may be suffering due to the decline in Atlantic Menhaden. The fish, which are crucial to the diets of Osprey and other birds, have been in decline for the past two decades. At the end of the week, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission acted on the problem:

ARLINGTON, Va. A regional fisheries commission has agreed to cap the commercial catch of menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay.That cap is intended to give scientists time to assess the health of the tiny but important bait fish.

Meeting in Arlington, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted today to set the cap through 2010....

The annual catch will be limited to 109-thousand-20 metric tons, with flexibility for years when the catch is up or down.

Declining Menhaden May Threaten Osprey Reproduction

The Osprey population of the Chesapeake Bay region has been adversely affected by the decline of Menhaden, a small fish, along the Atlantic coast. The Chesapeake has one of the largest breeding populations of Osprey anywhere, with close to 4,000 pairs. Within the last decade, researchers have found increasing numbers of malnourished and dying chicks. They argue that this is because the Ospreys' preferred food, Menhaden, has declined sharply over the past two decades.

Menhaden filter the bay's waters by eating the microscopic plants and animals that consume dissolved oxygen needed by other aquatic life. In turn, they're a primary food source for sport fish, such as striped bass, bluefish and weakfish, and seabirds, including loons, gulls and gannets.

Ongoing scientific research focuses mostly on the ecological role that menhaden fill underwater. Broader public awareness has centered on the fish's importance to recreational anglers. But, like striped bass, ospreys favor meals of menhaden over other fish.

"Of everything we know about the bay, this is one of the fundamental food chains: Ospreys eat menhaden," said Paul Spitzer, a Maryland ecologist who specializes in birds.

One study found that menhaden made up 70 percent of the diet of ospreys nesting on Mobjack Bay off the coasts of Gloucester and Mathews counties.

Other studies done along the Atlantic coast have turned up similar results.

Menhaden swim in large schools that skim the water's surface, and they move straight ahead rather than dart around like other fish.

That makes them a perfect prey for circling ospreys, as well as Omega Protein's spotter planes, which radio a school's coordinates to waiting boats.

A fishery commission is considering imposing limits on harvesting of Menhaden while more research is done to determine the causes of the fish's decline.

Pesticide Action Alert

The following came from the American Bird Conservancy (via Birderblog).

URGENT - We have 24 Hours to Stop the Most Deadly Pesticide to Birds

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is poised to make a decision on whether to ban the bird-killing pesticide, carbofuran. This is the most deadly pesticide to birds currently being used in the United States. It is more toxic than DDT. A single drop is enough to kill a bird.

We have just learned that because of pressure from the manufacturer, FMC corporation, the EPA may make the wrong decision and elect to keep this pesticide on the market. We have 24 hours to counteract the industry pressure. We need your help.

We ask you to email carbofuran@epa.gov, CCing gshire@abcbirds.org telling the EPA to ban carbofuran now because of its danger to birds, other wildlife, and people. Your email can be brief. Use the talking points provided below to help. What is important is that you tell them in your own words that you do not want carbofuran to be used in the United States. Alternatives exist that are equally effective and not deadly to birds. There is no reason to keep carbofuran registered.

Please send your email before 5pm Wednesday August 2, 2006!

Alternatively you can fax your comments to 202-564-0512.

Thank you for taking this emergency action on behalf of birds and wildlife,

George Fenwick
President, American Bird Conservancy

We provide the following talking points to help you let EPA know why this chemical must be banned:

• All legal uses of carbofuran kill birds resulting in potential violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) every time it is applied. Farmers are placed in jeopardy of violating the MBTA whenever carbofuran is used, even if
  they follow the label directions.
• Carbofuran is very toxic to people. Human risk assessments have been done three times and they show greater risks to farm workers each time they are refined. These studies indicate that carbofuran is too dangerous to use.
• Carbofuran is so toxic it kills all the beneficial insects as well as pests with the result that integrated pest management cannot be done.
• Carbofuran is so toxic that no crop rotation can be performed for ten months after application. This eliminates the possibility of crop rotation as a tool for reducing insect damage to crops.
• Alternative chemicals exist for all crops except artichokes. Many alternatives exist for corn. Only a very small percentage of corn produced in the U.S. uses carbofuran now because of its environmental effects and safety issues.
• New insecticides have been developed for rice, cotton, corn, and other crops specifically to replace carbofuran. Most of these are reduced risk chemicals presenting much less bird, wildlife, and human health risks.
• Transgenic corn has been developed specifically for resistance to corn rootworm and European corn borer, further reducing the need for conventional pesticides.
• The United States is a world leader in pesticide regulation. Cancellation of carbofuran will send a strong message to Latin America, Canada, and Mexico about the dangers of this pesticide. This will help save birds in those countries when they phase out carbofuran. Canceling the tolerances of pesticide residues on foods will immediately limit the use of carbofuran in all countries that export to the US.

High Levels of Mercury in Wood Thrush

A study of songbirds in upstate New York has revealed very high levels of mercury in 178 species, with the highest levels being in wood thrushes.

The presence of mercury in lakes and streams is already well documented, and the New York Department of Health advises people to restrict the consumption of any freshwater fish caught in most of the state to no more than one meal a week.

But Dr. Evers is one of the first scientists to test for wildlife mercury contamination beyond fish. He began his work in this area in 1998 and found that common loons, which eat fish, had highly elevated levels of mercury that made them lethargic and caused their reproductive rates to drop.

He then decided to study songbirds, which never eat fish. In particular, he wanted to study the wood thrush, a small bird with a distinctive song that was once common throughout the Northeast. The population of wood thrushes has declined 45 percent in recent decades.

It was once thought that destruction of the bird’s forest habitat was responsible for the decline. But Dr. Evers now suspects that mercury contamination might be a factor, along with the wide-ranging negative effects of acid rain on the forests....

Dr. Evers’s work suggests that when mercury falls on land, it is absorbed by soil and by fallen leaves that are consumed by worms and insects. Songbirds then feed on the bugs, absorbing the mercury.

While all the birds he tested last year had mercury in their blood, wood thrushes had the most, Dr. Evers said, an average of 0.1 parts per million. That is below the federal safe standard for fish (0.3 p.p.m.) but high enough to affect the birds’ reproductive cycle.

With fewer songbirds to eat potentially harmful insects, the state’s forests would be at greater risk for damage by gypsy moths and other pests, Dr. Evers said.

Beyond that, mercury leaching into soil could find its way into the food chain in ways that are still unknown, he said.

Ivory Billed Woodpecker Habitat Good News

ENDANGERED SPECIES: Judge stops $320M irrigation project on behalf of unproven ivory-billed woodpecker

A federal judge today temporarily stopped construction on a $320 million irrigation project in Arkansas in order to protect the habitat of the ivory-billed woodpecker, whose existence has been hotly debated since a claimed sighting in 2004.

U.S. District Judge William R. Wilson halted the Army Corps of Engineers' Grand Prairie Irrigation Project because federal agencies might have violated the Endangered Species Act by not studying the habitat fully. The construction site is 14 miles from where researchers said they spotted the bird in the swamps of the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in early 2004. The bird had been presumed extinct for 60 years.

Since then, scientists have published a number of articles claiming the bird was actually a more common pileated woodpecker. Cornell University ornithologists continued their search this summer but to no conclusive avail. Most recently, Arkansas wildlife officials last month offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who can prove the bird's existence (Greenwire, June 22).
Wilson said for legal purposes he had to assume the woodpecker exists in that area. "When an endangered species is allegedly jeopardized, the balance of hardships and public interest tips in favor of the protected species," he wrote. "Here there is evidence the IBW might be jeopardized" (Andrew DeMillo, AP/Washington Post online, July 20). -- DK

Hummingbird Conservation in Peru

The American Bird Conservancy has joined with the Peruvian Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos to conserve vital habitat in northern Peru for a rare hummingbird.

The hummingbird, known as the Marvelous Spatuletail, is among the strangest and most spectacular of all birds. Adult males have tails that are more than twice as long as their bodies and end in two great ungainly-looking spoon-shaped feathers. The birds are also cloaked in iridescent feathers, and like all hummingbirds, they are highly aggressive despite their small size. Local people once believed the birds conveyed aphrodisiac properties when consumed, likely compounding their problems which already include the conversion of their extremely limited habitat to cattle pasture and agriculture....

Despite its remote location, the area where the hummingbird lives is already known to birdwatchers. In order to find the species it is often necessary to commission the services of one of the world’s youngest bird guides, ten-year-old Solomon Ortiz-Perez, who for a small fee will lead eager groups of bird tourists up steep slopes to search for the bird. The spatuletail is fast becoming a flagship species for tourism in the area, and has already appeared in travel advertisements in American magazines that aim to attract keen birdwatchers to the bird’s remote habitat. It has also been declared the “Regional Bird” for Peru’s Amazonas region.

The American Bird Conservancy has engaged in similar efforts in Colombia to save wintering habitat for the cerulean warbler.

Human Activities Speed Bird Extinction

According to a recent article, human activities have raised the rates of bird extinction well above what they would be without human interference.

The researchers calculated that since 1500 -- the beginning of the major period when Europeans began exploring and colonizing large areas of the globe -- birds have been going extinct at a rate of about one species per year, or 100 times faster than the natural rate.

And the rate has been faster in recent times. "Increasing human impacts accelerated the rate of extinction in the 20th century over that in the 19th," the report said. "The predominant cause of species loss is habitat destruction." ...

The new assessment considerably exceeds previous scientific estimates that 154 bird types disappeared during that past 500 years, according to the researchers.

One factor contributing to such large differences in estimates is that "more than half of the known species of birds were not discovered until after 1850, an important point that previous estimates of extinction rates have failed to take into account," Raven said. "One can't register a bird as extinct if it was not known to exist in the first place."

The authors of the piece advise better policies to prevent extinctions.

The new report is not all bleak, Pimm said. "The good news in this report is that conservation efforts are reducing extinction rates to about one bird species every three or four years," he said, but he added that even this improved rate "is still unacceptable."

Of the 9,775 known species of birds, "an estimated additional 25 would have gone extinct during the past 30 years if it were not for human intervention," Raven said.

Despite conservation efforts, "some 1,200 more species are likely to disappear during the 21st century," he warned. "An equal number are so rare that they will need special protection or likely will go extinct, too."

Read the rest.

Whooping Cranes

Earlier in the week, it was reported that a pair of whooping cranes in Wisconsin had possibly hatched a chick. Well, now this news has been confirmed, and it turns out that the pair hatched not one, but two chicks. For the first time in over 100 years, there are now whooping cranes breeding in the wild in the eastern United States.

As part of the project, now in its fifth year, cranes hatched in captivity at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland have been raised at the Necedah refuge and led south by ultralight aircraft in the fall to the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge near Crystal River, Fla. They migrate back north on their own in the spring.

The flock now numbers about 60 birds, with 22 newly hatched young ones being raised for release this fall....

The only other migrating flock of whooping cranes numbers about 200 birds. They fly from Canada to winter on the Texas Gulf Coast. The whooping crane, the tallest bird in North America, was near extinction in 1941, with only about 20 left.

For more information on the whooping crane project, see the website of Operation Migration.

Blackwater Resort Moves Ahead

From the Chesapeake Bay Foundation:

Cambridge Commission Gives Blackwater Favorable Vote

The Cambridge Planning and Zoning Commission on June 6 made a favorable recommendation on the Blackwater Resort Communities development. This is not over -- there is still time to stop this project. The project must still receive a favorable recommendation for the final master plan. It also still needs approval from the Cambridge City Council and the state Critical Area Commission.

We need you to:

1. Come out to upcoming hearings and show your opposition to the project.

2. Hold city officials accountable for their actions.

3. Stay posted on this website and the Blackwater blog for upcoming hearing dates and updated information.

4. Continue to show your opposition to the project--sign the petition, or get a neighbor or friend to sign it; write a letter to the editor about your opposition to the project and ask elected leaders to listen to the will of the people.

This project is near the Blackwater NWR, an important breeding and wintering site for birds and other animals in the Chesapeake watershed. Runoff from the development is expected to set back efforts to clean up the bay. DC Audubon has run autumn field trips to the refuge for several years.

Red Knots in Decline

The population of North American red knots has been in the midst of a sharp decline for a decade, falling from over 100,000 in the 1980s to 17,000 last year. This year, the numbers have fallen even further. Aerial surveys around the Delaware Bay have counted only 12,000 red knots.

Increased harvesting of horseshoe crabs has been blamed for this species's rapid decline. Before a sudden boom in the horseshoe crab market, watermen took only about 100,000 crabs per year; at the height of crab harvesting in the mid 1990s, about 2.5 million crabs were taken. Horseshoe crabs are used as bait for conch fishing.

Red knots depend upon a plentiful supply of horseshoe crab eggs when they arrive at the Delaware Bay in the midst of their long migration from the southern tip of South America to their breeding grounds in the Arctic Circle. Their migration is timed to coincide with the spawning of horseshoe crabs, when millions of horseshoe crabs come ashore on the beaches to mate and lay their eggs.

Action Alert: Stop Blackwater Development

For the past several years, DC Audubon has made an annual field trip in the fall to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, an important site for migrating and wintering waterfowl. It is also a vital breeding ground for bald eagles and other threatened species. Rare mammals that use the refuge include the endangered Delmarva Fox Squirrel.

The health of the refuge, and by extension, the health of the Chesapeake Bay is now itself endangered. A planned development bordered by Egypt Road and the Little Blackwater River would destroy important an agricultural habitat and remove a buffer zone along the river, allowing more pollutants to seep into the watershed.

Sign this petition for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to request Governor Ehrlich to intervene and stop the development.

For background on the fight, see this recent article from the Washington Post.

Off The List

The bald eagle is shown in Homer, Alaska on Saturday, Feb. 5, 2005.

(AP PHOTO)

(WASHINGTON POST) The proud symbol of a nation for more than two centuries, the iconic and elegant American bald eagle also is emblematic of a snail-paced federal bureaucracy.

Seven years after the government said the fierce raptor is no longer threatened with extinction, officials finally have a plan for removing it from the endangered species list.

Officials said Monday's action could lead to the bald eagle coming off the endangered species list within the next year or so.

"Should the eagle be delisted, we expect that the public will notice little change in how eagles are managed and protected," said H. Dale Hall, the Fish and Wildlife Service's director.

Hall said at least 7,066 known nesting pairs now exist in the contiguous United States. The bald eagle's territory stretches over much of the North American continent. Tens of thousands more live in Alaska and Canada, where their existence never was imperiled.

However, 43 years ago, there were just 417 known nesting pairs left in the lower 48 states, mainly because of the widespread use of DDT and other pesticides that weakened the bald eagle's eggshells and reduced its birth rate. The brown-bodied bird with the distinctive white head and tail also suffered from lead poisoning _ eating waterfowl pierced by a hunter's lead shot.

In 1967, under a law that preceded the Endangered Species Act, the bald eagle was declared an endangered species in the lower 48. In 1972, the Environmental Protection Agency banned DDT for most uses.

Fish and Wildlife officials in 1978 listed the bald eagle as endangered in 43 states and threatened in Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin. The government hatched detailed recovery plans, with specific population and reproduction goals. Sometimes eggs were imported from Canada and installed at artificial eyries.

By 1995, the species had rebounded enough to be reclassified as threatened throughout the lower 48.

If and when the bald eagle is removed from the endangered list, two other laws will continue to protect it: the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the 1940 Bald Eagle Protection Act, later revised to include the golden eagle. But those don't address habitat.

Lecture at the National Zoo: Out of the Shadows: The History, Science and Current Status of the Bird Friendly® Coffee Program

Come hear what promises to be a fascinating lecture on February 9, 2006 at 7:30 p.m.


Come learn about the creation and history of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center's (SMBC) shade coffee certification efforts, known as the Bird Friendly® coffee program. Now in its sixth year, this unique Smithsonian initiative links the results of scientific field work with conservation and the marketplace. It also promises to help small coffee producers in the process. Robert Rice, a geographer and policy researcher at the SMBC, will walk you through the history, challenges, and successes of this program that—via the simple morning ritual of drinking coffee—aims to preserve habitat for many of the migratory birds we see in each year.

Go to the National Zoo website to RSVP:
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ActivitiesAndEvents/Lectures/rsvp.cfm

NPR Story on Bird Window Strikes

In case you missed it, there was a good story on NPR's Morning Edition about work on preventing or decreasing bird window strikes by changing glass.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5076012

National Parks for Sale?

A trip to Roosevelt Island includes this scenic 1/2 mile walk

through the swamp forest on the recycled material boardwalk.

(NPS Photo)

For folks who enjoy birding on Roosevelt Island in DC - be aware, the Chairman of the House Resources Committee, Rep. Pombo, is circulating a draft of a 285 page Bill that among other things, proposes selling off National Parks that recieve fewer than 10,000 visitors per year. In the bill they suggest selling off DC's Roosevelt Island's 91 acres to developers. Say goodbye to the nesting Ospreys wintering Bald Eagles if this goes through.

See this link for more on the story from the San Francisco Chronicle.

- Denise Ryan

More Info:

Draft House Resources Committee legislation would put 15 national parks up for sale, allow offshore oil and gas drilling in now-restricted waters and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to petroleum exploration, according to a copy of the measure obtained by E&E Daily.

The draft proposes removing the 91-acre Theodore Roosevelt Island from the park system and selling it to commercial or residential developers, as well as requiring land be made available for a vehicle bridge to the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The island is in the Potomac River between Washington, D.C., and Arlington, Va.

The draft proposes selling 15 parks "for energy or commercial development" if they receive fewer than 10,000 visitors a year. They are:

*Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, Texas.
* Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, Alaska.
* Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Alaska.
* Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Alaska.
* Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site, California.
* Fort Bowie National Historic Site, Arizona.
* Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, Massachusetts.
* Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska.
* Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.
* Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, Washington, D.C.
* Minute Man Missile National Historic Site, South Dakota.
* Noatak National Preserve, Alaska.
* Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Monument, Pennsylvania.
* Thomas Stone National Historic Site, Maryland.
* Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Alaska.

Rally for the Arctic draws large crowd

On Sept. 20, the environmental community held a large rally in front of the Capitol to express their support for preserving the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska - and Audubon was there. Throughout the crowd you could see bright orange baseball caps with Audubon across the front and National Audubon had a table there to share information about birds at risk if oil drilling is allowed by Congress in the refuge.

According to the speakers at the event, opening the refuge for oil production would amount to solving our energy problems like dumping a glass of water into the ocean and expecting the tide to rise. The message from the event was that conservation, not exploration and drilling will help Americans with the price of gas and oil now and in the future.

Several chapter representatives were in town for the event and the opportunity to lobby congress. Several notable speakers were present to show support for protecting the refuge including Robert Kennedey Jr.; Senators Clinton (NY), Kerry (MA), Lieberman (CT) and Chaffee (RI); Congressmen Markey (MA) and Kucinich (OH). Pictures featured here are Sara Bushey from National Audubon working the information table and the crowd of folks at the event on the Capitol grounds.

Denise Ryan