Hurricane Matthew - people have died but for birdwatchers there's going to be a bonanza

7 October 2016, 15:43

Jane Flowers

The tragic loss of life and property in the aftermath of massive hurricanes brings a boon to birdwatchers

Hurricane Matthew is bearing down on the USA and in it's wake people have already died, but for birdwatchers it seems there will be a bonanza. Tragic loss of life and property is not something people wish for, but birdwatchers know there will be a boon. eBird reported last month that massive and destructive hurricanes bring joy to the hearts of birdwatchers. "The want for massive, untamed hurricanes," appears to be a "strange yearning" amongst the fraternity. In the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew many of them will get a chance to see rare birds that have been carried in on the storm. Apart from storm-chasers and weather people, birders must be one of the few groups who actually want a hurricane to happen. 

Birds caught up in the eye of the storm

When WSB TV covered the news that flocks of seagulls and other birds were trapped inside the eye of Hurricane Matthew, they said that it was a rare thing to see. The video clearly showed the birds as a blob of green and yellow.

However, according to bird lovers who know what there is to know about birds, it is not really rare. What is rare is to see the blob in the eye of the storm and a newscaster talking about weird bird events. Those not in the know about the habits of flying feathered ones find it spooky and more than little strange.

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Possible sighting of summer tanager in Pembroke, a very rare bird for this region

By Ken Hooles, Daily Observer

Thursday, October 6, 2016 6:37:26 EDT PM 

On Sept. 10, Mark Dojczman of Pembroke located a possible female Summer Tanager near Water Street and the entrance to Algonquin College parking lot. The last time one of these birds was located in our area was about 10-15 years ago in Deep River. That bird was a male juvenile Summer Tanager.

The Summer Tanager (Pirange rubra) is the most common North American Tanager in its range across eastern and southern United States. In Ontario, it is quite scarce and is considered a rare bird.

The male Summer Tanager has a brilliant red plumage all over its body with a slight tinge of black on its wings. Our Scarlet Tanager is a darker red and has very prominent black wings. The female of the species, like the one reported, has olive-green upper parts and orange-yellow under parts. It is hard to distinguish her from the female Scarlet Tanager. The first year juvenile male Summer Tanager is a mix of red and yellow greens.

The Summer Tanager is mainly found alone or in pairs. It is normally found near water and bottomland hardwood and riparian forests. It likes to forage for food at the middle level of trees where it picks food off leaves. It also likes to catch wasps and bees while in flight. While the wasp and bees are the Summer Tanager’s favourite food, it also enjoys other insects, grubs, caterpillars, and fruit.

This Tanager has one to two broods per year. The eggs of the Summer Tanager are incubated for 11-12 days by the female. The young leave the nest anywhere from 11-14 days later and are fed by both sexes.

The Summer Tanager is very common in deciduous and mixed conifer forests in the southern United States., but there has been a slight decrease in their numbers in the eastern United States due to habitat loss. It is a nice bird to observe, especially for our area!

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A small window of opportunity to save the unique birds of Rapa

By Steve Cranwell, 13 Oct 2016 

Rapa and its surrounding islets is a very remote place.  It is almost 1500 from Tahiti, the main island in French Polynesia.  This isolation together with other geophysical characteristics has resulted in the evolution of a highly unique flora and fauna. As for other islands of the eastern Pacific, there are no mammals, instead these are replaced by birds and a diversity of specialised plants, invertebrates and terrestrial molluscs. For a relatively small island (c.40km2) endemism is extraordinarily high. 3 birds, 100 molluscs, 31% of all plants and 67 Miocalles (beetles) species or subspecies only occur on Rapa (Meyer et al 2014). The island is an IBA and a KBA.

However, almost all of this flora and fauna is considered highly threatened. Believed to have been colonised as late as the 1500’s Rapa was the last island to be permanently occupied (by Polynesians) and while tremendous damage has been wrought it is perhaps this relatively recent human history that has allowed this unique fauna and flora to cling on. Reasons for these declines is a story replicated throughout the Pacific; habitat loss associated with the clearance of land for agriculture, uncontrolled fires and the introduction of invasive alien species that continue to degrade habitats, compete for resources and prey directly on native wildlife.

Rapa and the nearby Marotiri islets are the most important islands for seabirds in the Australs with the highest diversity for the archipelago, but also the greatest level of (sub-specific) endemism. The Rapa shearwater (Puffinus newelli myrtae) has recently been recognised as more closely related to the Endangered Newell’s Shearwater (formerly Little Shearwater Puffinus assimilis) which occurs in Hawaii, Rapa constituting an extremely distant population. Fregetta grallaria titan the local form of White-bellied Storm Petrel is also considered to have sub-specific differences due to its larger body size however, it’s had very little taxonomic attention and distinct characteristics including vocalisations may warrant a separate species.

The Endangered White-throated Storm Petrel (Nesofretta fuliginosa) is also present and, while there’s been no thorough seabird survey of Rapa for over 25 years, numbers then were perilously low.  With the consistent effects of introduced rodents and feral cats, goats, rabbits, cattle and horses these populations will have continued to decline.

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