Canary in a coal mine: Survey captures global picture of air pollution's effects on birds

Date: August 11, 2017

Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison

Summary:

Writing Aug. 11 in the journal Environmental Research Letters, University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Tracey Holloway, an expert on air quality, and her former graduate student Olivia Sanderfoot sort through nearly 70 years of the scientific literature to assess the state of knowledge of how air pollution directly affects the health, well-being, reproductive success and diversity of birds.

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BEER CREATED FOR ENDANGERED BIRD

25th August, 2017 by Rupert Millar

A Texas brewery and the Travis Audobon society have teamed up to create a beer to raise awareness of an endangered songbird species whose habitat is under threat.

The golden-cheeked warbler is native to central Texas but its trees it uses for nesting in and making its nests out of, oak and juniper, have been cut down in huge numbers for timber and to clear ground for housing, roads, farms for livestock and, flooded for lakes and reservoirs.

To raise awareness of the bird’s plight, The Travis Audubon Society has partnered with Blue Owl Brewery, a sour beer specialist, in Austin to create a brew dedicated to the warbler.

Head brewer Davy Pasternak decided to incorporate elements of the bird’s habitat and behaviour into the beer.

As such it was fermented in oak and Black Spanish grapes, a hybrid American variety grown in the Texas Hill Country right in the heart of the bird’s range, were added to give a light rosé tint to the beer and some tannic grip.

Pasternak told a local news station: “The character from the grapes that you get, it’s got a slight amount of tannins, but nothing that’s too harsh, so similar to a rosé, it’s very refreshing, so it has this sort of earthiness from the oak, and grape vinous quality from the grapes.”

Jordan Price, membership director of the Audubon added: “We really wanted to draw attention to a serious problem.

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Bahamian songbirds disappeared during last glacial-interglacial transition

August 29, 2017 by Sarah Nightingale

Two species of songbirds that once made a home in the Bahamas likely became extinct on the islands because of rising sea levels and a warmer, wetter climate, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Riverside and the University of Florida, Gainesville. The study, which was published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, presents a historical view of how climate change and the resulting habitat loss can affect Earth's biodiversity.

Titled "Origin, Paleoecology and Extirpation of Bluebirds and Crossbills in the Bahamas Across the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition," the authors are Janet Franklin, distinguished professor of biogeography in UCR's College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, and David Steadman, curator of ornithology at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida.

The Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) and Hispaniolan Crossbill (Loxia megaplaga) were among 17 species of birds that were found on the Bahamian Island of Abaco during the last Ice Age, but that no longer live there today. Both species are still alive elsewhere, with the former found in continental North America and the latter in Hispaniola. Fossil records from Abaco suggest that these birds resided on the island year-round, as opposed to migrating there in winter.

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Rare ferruginous hawk spotted

Good Birding

TONY GREENFIELD / COMMUNITY COLUMNIST

AUGUST 17, 2017 12:11 PM

A rare ferruginous hawk was spotted several times in August near Wilson Creek estuary.

The birding community operates on many levels, from those who like to feed and observe backyard birds to those who travel to far-flung continents just to see rare birds. Along this continuum many people keep lists of the birds they have seen, whether it be from their own backyard, on the Sunshine Coast, within British Columbia, North America or the world. Keeping a list really adds an extra dimension of interest to the hobby, as you know which species you have seen and those you would like to see. There are lots of analogies, for example, a golfer keeping a scorecard. It’s hard to imagine anyone playing golf and not keeping a scorecard. 

Maintaining a list also leads to the phenomenon of the rare bird. Everyone is familiar with the concept where an unlikely event captures the public interest. It can be any unlikely event, like a hole in one on the golf course, or a lottery win when the odds are millions to one. In the birding world, it refers specifically to a bird species appearing in an area where it is completely unexpected. 

All this is by way of alluding to the fact that a rare bird has been making waves on the Sunshine Coast. The ferruginous hawk is normally a grassland species that completely avoids forested regions. In the winter it inhabits grassland regions of the southern U.S. and northern Mexico and migrates north to the northern plains and a narrow strip of the southern Prairies in Canada, especially southern Alberta. It is rarely recorded in B.C. with only sporadic appearances in the grassland areas of the province. I don’t believe it has ever been recorded on the coast of B.C. before. 

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Rare birds have been mysteriously dying and a royal estate is at the centre of it all

AUGUST 18TH, 2017

GLEN BLACK DISCOVERY, ENVIRONMENT

DISCOVERY

Sally, a Montagu’s harrier, has been missing since 6 August. Made famous by being fitted with a satellite tag and released on the BBC’s Autumnwatch and monitored by the RSPB, Sally is half of one of the five Montagu’s harrier breeding pairs in the UK. Her partner Roger has been found, alone, at their nest in Bircham Tofts, West Norfolk. For those involved with wildlife conservation, it comes as no surprise that this village lies on the edge of Sandringham Estate.

Ten years of crimes and counting

The 20,000-acre royal estate has been host to a string of mysterious bird of prey deaths and disappearances over the past decade. A successful prosecution could land the culprits a hefty fine and prison time, but nobody has yet been caught for the cases at Sandringham.

In 2007, a conservation warden and two onlookers watched two hen harriers being shot mid-flight. This killing happened at Dersingham Bog, a Natural England nature reserve just half a mile from Sandringham itself. Prince Harry and a friend were shooting on the estate at the time and were questioned by the police as suspects. But nothing came of it.

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Rare birds of prey breed at Titchfield reserve for the first time in 45 years

Richard Percival 

ONE of the UK’s rarest birds of prey has returned to a Hampshire nature reserve for the first time in 45 years.

A pair of marsh harriers have bred at Titchfield Haven nature reserve having raised two chicks in reed beds there for the first time since it was established in 1972.

The pair have gradually been spending more time at the reserve near Fareham and were first spotted in early April when they were seen performing sky-dancing manoeuvres as they courted, before beginning to collect sticks for their nest.

Finally on an early, misty morning in late June, two newly fledged young were seen leaving the nest and taking to the skies before becoming fully independent several weeks later.

Rangers have said that the parents have now left, but the young can still be seen and are likely to stay for a few more weeks before migrating to Europe or North Africa for the winter and then returning to Titchfield early next spring.

Marsh Harriers were once widespread, but by the end of the 19th century, habitat loss and persecution had wiped them out.

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Rare albino pigeons are sighted in Minnetonka

By JIM WILLIAMS , CONTRIBUTING WRITER 

August 22, 2017 - 3:04 PM

Wedding doves were my first thought. Never thought of albino pigeons.

You know wedding doves — those white birds sold for symbolic release as part of a nuptial celebration. (Except, that’s not how it works.)

Anyway, I spotted three white birds in a tree in Minnetonka while I was driving west on I-394. Exact ID at 65 mph is above my pay grade. Turns out two of them were albino pigeons, the third possibly leucistic.

Albino birds are very uncommon. More often seen are leucistic birds, which have random white markings, sometimes a spot or two, and are sometimes almost white.#

Albino birds have white plumage, period. Feet, legs, bills and eyes are pink. Albinos completely lack melanin, the color ingredient.

I stopped at the Wild Birds Unlimited store in the shopping center at I-394 and County Road 73 (Hopkins Crossroad), the pigeon corner. Pigeons come to its front-door feeder.

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