1. We need more of these: Over the past five years, sand has naturally collected off the coast of New Jersey, resulting in a new, 40-hectare island. The site reformed many times due to weather, the tide, and other natural factors, but in 2018, an emergent swash platform shoal formed and remained intact through several tide cycles and a recent nor'easter. At first, the area - now referred to as Horseshoe Island - was quiet. But in 2021, biologists confirmed that more than 1,000 birds of various species were using the site for nesting. Many of the nesting species - including black skimmers, red knots, and piping plovers - are endangered, threatened, or species of concern. The birds may have begun using the site as early as 2020, but officials will never know because the site wasn't monitored that year due to the pandemic. (via Yahoo! News)
2. And more of these: Standing off California’s busy Highway 101, scientists, lawmakers, and advocates celebrated the groundbreaking of a large overpass next to the Santa Monica Mountains last month. But the painstakingly designed $87 million corridor is not for them, or any other people, to cross the 10-lane highway and adjacent road. When completed, the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing will allow mountain lions, bobcats, lizards and—as counterintuitive as it may seem—even birds to pass from these mountains into the Simi Hills ecosystem and beyond. (via Audubon)
3. Being partial to the Cornell Lab, BNI respectfully requests an audit: The first time Princeton students entered the 24-hour competition, they won. A loon was just visible off Alexander Street early one Saturday morning in mid-April, as eight students with the Princeton Birding Society walked deeper into the woods. On May 14, six students from the society took first place in the World Series of Birding, a widely renowned competition held each year in New Jersey. Teams travel from the Delaware Water Gap to Cape May over 24 hours to see who can spot the most species. The Princeton Tiger Shrikes, named for one of the only birds with “tiger” in its name, saw 205. The team from Cornell — home to the prominent Cornell Lab of Ornithology — placed second with 191. (via Princeton Alumni Weekly)
4. This will be a great TV show: Christian Cooper, the bird-watching Black man who was the target of false accusations during an encounter in New York City's Central Park in 2020, has a new TV show airing on National Geographic. The channel announced this week that Cooper, a lifelong bird-watcher, will host a series called Extraordinary Birder. In the series, Cooper will take viewers into the "wild, wonderful and unpredictable world of birds," according to National Geographic. In an interview with The New York Times, Cooper said his love for bird-watching began at age 10, and he told the newspaper he "was all in" when National Geographic approached him about the possibility of a TV show nearly a year and a half ago. (via National Public Radio)
5. Sad news: Their story was filled with drama, anchored by hope and, depending on who you asked, one ultimately about love. But it was never going to last forever. Monty, one half of Chicago’s endangered Great Lakes piping plover pair, died Friday at Montrose Beach. It was his fourth summer in the North Side sand. He was still waiting on the return of his mate, Rose. “I used to joke that I’d be a decade older and still coordinating the effort,” said Tamima Itani, an Illinois Ornithological Society member who has kept watch over the birds for years. “I did not think it would last that long in reality but I also never thought it would end so abruptly.” (via Chicago Tribune)
6. Had to be a parrot: Lovebirds, small parrots with vibrant rainbow plumage and cheeky personalities, are popular pets. They swing from ropes, cuddle with companions and race for treats in a waddling gait with all the urgency of toddlers who spot a cookie. But, along with other parrots, they also do something strange: They use their faces to climb walls. Give these birds a vertical surface to clamber up, and they cycle between left foot, right foot and beak as if their mouths were another limb. In fact, a new analysis of the forces climbing lovebirds exert reveals that this is precisely what they are doing. (via The New York Times)
7. Sometimes it is simply the weather: One swallow does not, proverbially, make a summer – and this year, birders all over the UK were struggling to see any at all, at least until the last week of April. This was largely because of a run of persistent north-easterly winds, along with bad weather in southern Europe, which delayed the arrival of many long-distance migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. (via The Guardian)
8. Disturbing news from UK: The government has given itself an “alarming loophole” to avoid protecting seabirds including puffins and gannets, a leaked document shows. Campaigners have accused ministers of “giving up” on the UK’s seabirds as they plan to apply for an exemption to a legal duty to protect the rare species. Each year the government sets itself targets to protect the marine environment and the wildlife within it, and one of those goals is to halt seabird decline. Of the UK’s 25 breeding seabird species, 24 are assigned red or amber status on the birds of conservation concern list, meaning they are at risk of local extinction. (via The Guardian)
No better book on the lives of UK seabirds than: A Seabird’s Cry by Adam Nicolson
9. And a concerning item from Africa: A sustained increase in global temperatures could see the southern yellow-billed hornbill disappear from parts of the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa by 2027, according to a study led by the University of Cape Town. The bird is best known for its unusual breeding and nesting habits where the female seals herself in a cavity and stays there for about 50 days to brood and care for chicks. The creature is also closely related to the red-billed hornbill, upon which the character of Zazu in the movie “The Lion King” was based. Southern yellow-billed hornbills struggle to breed above certain temperatures as they face greater difficulty in foraging and lose weight. (via Bloomberg)
10. And this too from BirdLife Africa: In recognition and appreciation of migratory birds, the world has chosen May and October, every year to celebrate them, through the World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD). The day provides a chance for all to join hands, through various activities, to connect with each other to remember, enjoy, cherish migratory birds. The 2022 WMBD global theme Light Pollution focusses on the artificial light. Artificial light is increasing globally by at least 2 percent per year and it is known to adversely affect many bird species. The 2022 campaign aims at raising awareness of the need for sustainable development and management of our natural resources, demonstrating that bird conservation is also crucial for the future of humankind, to inspire people to positively think and integrate migratory birds in their activities. (via Modern Ghana)
11. This would be fun to see: On May 3, around nightfall, an exceptionally significant concentration of penguins actively participated in the procession, with 5,219 tiny penguins storming the coast all at once and taking off into their nests. It's possible that this year's La Nia phenomenon - wherein powerful commerce breezes wash throughout the Mediterranean from South America to Indonesia - is increasing the seabirds' distant feeding availability, which implies numerous birds are thronging near coastline areas instead of pursuing forage further afield. If not reproducing, the animals might wander up to a month feeding at ocean. Because sustenance is nearer to coast, the penguins conduct short reversal excursions and return to the shoreline only in preparation for the evening display. Specialists could not really comprehend it when almost 5,000 penguins emerged from the ocean in far less than 60 minutes. (via Nature World News)
12. No surprise here: Every pilot admires the way birds fly (most birds, anyway). But researchers at the University of Central Florida (UCF) Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering have launched a study on how birds execute their best “perching” maneuver—landing on tree branches, wires or other tight spots. The group found that some birds pitch their wings upward to a high angle of attack just before touchdown, while others fold their wings, instead, in a sweeping motion that helps them decelerate with great precision. Doctoral aerospace engineering candidate Dibya Raj Adhikari observed that the sweeping motion enables enhanced control of aerodynamic forces by changing the shape of the bird’s wings, just as extending flaps and slats do on an airplane, but with much more minute adjustments. (via AVWeb)
13. You might want to check out this 242 track (!) Box Set of songs and poems inspired by birds: Randall Poster had never noticed the songbirds of the Bronx, where he has lived for most of his 60 years, until people started to quiet down earlier each day as the first pandemic winter approached in 2020. But when Poster — a powerhouse music supervisor for filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Todd Haynes and Wes Anderson — began talking about the birds he could hear, an environmentalist pal offered grim news. On Friday, Poster will release the first volume of “For the Birds,” a star-studded, 242-track collection of original songs and readings inspired by or incorporating birdsong; later this year, it will be bundled as a 20-LP boxed set to benefit the National Audubon Society. (via The New York Times)
14. And you might want to catch this webinar: It’s happening. Migratory birds that breed in the Northern Hemisphere are winging their way up from their wintering grounds to find food and nesting spots. They’re also singing to attract mates and mark their territories. Scientific American presents a conversation about the surprising new science of how birds navigate long-haul migrations and what they listen for in songs. Physical chemist Peter Hore of the University of Oxford will discuss how birds use quantum effects to chart their course, and cognitive neuroscientist Adam Fishbein of the University of California, San Diego, will explain what birds pay attention to in birdsong (it’s not what you think). (via Scientific American)
Bird Photo of the Week
Photo by Rick Bunting, Wilson’s Warbler, (Bainbridge, NY).
Bird Videos of the Week
By Rolling Stone, “Doja Cat Goes Birdwatching in Central Park”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Condor Chicks.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - West Texas Feeder.