Rare Whooping Cranes visit Medstead

Corrina Murdoch , Correspondent / Battlefords News-Optimist

April 25, 2017 12:49 PM

The majestic Whooping Crane, currently on the endangered species list, paid the beautiful RM of Medstead a special visit April 18, and they seem to be stick around. These birds have been on the endangered list for many years now, with population numbers having dipped as low as 21 in 1941. Currently, according to Nature Canada, the population has risen to a global total of roughly 300. It is hoped that this number will continue to rise.

Though the rising population is seen as hopeful, the cranes do not have their future guaranteed. Their numbers have been growing gradually over the years, but the birds are very sensitive to human interaction and have been in an uphill battle over the last few decades. Various conservation groups are very vocal as to the need to keep these glorious creatures protected.

Whooping cranes are the tallest birds in North America at almost one and a half meters in height. They boast an ability to fly without stopping for ten hours, covering over seven hundred kilometers. During migration, this species is known to eat grain from farm crops. Perhaps this is why they were seen in the thriving farmland of the RM of Medstead.

Part of the magic lies in the fact that, though Saskatchewan has been a breeding ground for these creatures in the past, they have mostly been seen in the area of Midnight Lake, near Glaslyn. Reportedly, however, their primary locations are Wood Buffalo National Park (near the Alberta-Northwest Territories border) and down to the Texas Gulf Coast for their wintering. It is a special treat when any person has the chance to see these rare birds. 

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This Beautiful Bird Might Thwart the Oil and Gas Industry's Drilling Plans

By Jeff Ball

Aquarter-century ago, a fight over the fate of a nocturnal bird came to symbolize the standoff between environmentalism and industry. In 1990, the federal government declared the northern spotted owl a threatened species, thwarting timber operations on millions of acres in California and the Pacific Northwest where the bird nests in trees. Conservationists cheered. The timber industry jeered. A cultural icon with feathers was born, and a culture war over ecology erupted. 

Sometime in the next two weeks—likely on November 12, a legal deadline that happens to fall a week after the midterm elections—the Obama administration is scheduled to announce whether it will put another imperiled critter on the Endangered Species List. The Gunnison sage grouse, a chicken-like bird, roams the range of Colorado and Utah. Its numbers have dwindled over the years due, scientists say, to many factors, from wilder wildfires to increased development. A move by the government to put the bird on the Endangered Species List would, in turn, threaten many other things in the grouse’s habitat: among them, surging oil and gas production.

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Maine might add 2 birds to its endangered list

By PATRICK WHITTLE, Associated Press

Updated 6:28 pm, Friday, August 1, 2014

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine environmental officials are proposing to add two bird species to the state's list of endangered animals.

The species, the black-crowned night heron and great cormorant, could be upgraded from threatened to endangered, State Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife spokesman Mark Latti said. The change is subject to public hearings and approval by the state Legislature.

The cormorants' population has declined to about 50 pairs in the state, down from about 250 pairs in the late 1990s, said Brad Allen, a state wildlife biologist. The herons have dwindled to about 200 pairs in the state, down from about 400 pairs in the state 1980s, he said.

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Feds propose adding rare Nevada songbird to endangered species list

By HENRY BREAN

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

A rare songbird found along waterways in Nevada and on the Colorado River has been proposed for listing as an endangered species.

The yellow-billed cuckoo once thrived across the West, but it is now confined to a few scattered parts of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.

“In Nevada it’s a pretty rare bird at this point,” with fewer than 10 breeding pairs known to frequent the Virgin and Muddy Rivers, Pahranagat Valley and Lahontan Reservoir, said Noah Greenwald from the environmental advocacy group Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s one of many species that are in danger because of the degradation of rivers in the West.”

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will announce the proposed listing Thursday with a notice in the Federal Register.

The yellow-billed cuckoo is a robin-sized songbird with a long tail, flashy white markings and brightly colored beak. The bird is often called a “rain crow” for its habit of singing right before storms. It spends the winter in South America and flies north to the American Southwest to breed and nest from June through September.

The cuckoo could join another Colorado River bird, the Southwest willow flycatcher, on the endangered species list within the next year. First, though, the Fish & Wildlife Service proposal will be subject to review by researchers and input from the public.

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Japan mulls taking the goshawk out of endangered species list

Japan’s Environment Ministry is considering removing the goshawk from the list of threatened and endangered species of wild fauna and flora in the country. The species in the list are protected by Japan’s law on conservation of endangered species, and the move to remove the goshawk – which once was a threatened species – is a reflection of the avian species’ steady recovery and increase in its population.

This plan was revealed by government sources on Monday, as the ministry plans to hold a meeting of a subcommittee of the Central Environment Council on Wednesday to start the discussions of experts on the issue of the goshawk species. The ministry will hope to make a decision by the end of March 2014 at the earliest. Under Japan’s laws of conservation, hunting, capture and/or trading in species on the list is strictly illegal. And even if the goshawk is removed from the rare species list, capture of the birds would continue to be illegal under a separate Japanese law for wildlife protection.

An initial private survey in 1984 showed that the goshawk population in Japan stood at only 300 to 489. This decrease in population was caused by the loss of nesting areas, due partly to housing development. The species was put on the endangered list upon the passing of the conservation law in 1993. Conservation efforts for the goshawk followed, and a survey by experts in 2008 found 5,818 goshawks in the Kanto region, including Tokyo, and nearby areas. “It’s becoming clear that the goshawk population is recovering steadily,” a ministry official said. There was already a hint of this in 2006, when the ministry transferred the goshawk from the “vulnerable” category – species facing a very high risk of extinction – to the “near threatened” category for species facing difficulty in maintaining a viable population.

http://japandailypress.com/japan-mulls-taking-the-goshawk-out-of-endangered-species-list-1428802