1. Let’s start with a wonderful story from the BBC - “treasure in your memory card”: Andrew Fusek Peters, from Shropshire, said he had taken up photography as a hobby after his work as a children's author had become very stressful. "I got very, very ill - mentally - and I burned," he explained, "coming through that very dark period in my life I knew I had to do something else." "Dipping into nature" had prompted a love of photography, he said. The photographer has been capturing wildlife in his Shropshire home for a decade. He started working with a high-speed photography system that allowed him to do "this amazing time travel thing". "The camera is constantly saving photos as you half press on your shutter button, and then when the butterfly or the bird takes off you fully press and it's saved all those photos," he said. (via The BBC)
2. With all the misery in Israel, birding still survives and some hope nature can be a “healing agent”: In a year that will not be remembered fondly in Israel, 2023 did have some highlights worth celebrating – at least in terms of birdwatching. Sitting at the junction of three continents, Israel is one of the world’s best places to witness bird migrations in the fall and spring. About half a million birds fly over, and many stay for the winter. This year’s migratory spectacular started early, with 30 flamingos arriving in August. Ornithologist and ecologist Yoav Perlman, director of BirdLife Israel of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), says many birds this year discovered SPNI’s Start-Up Nature wetlands reclamation sites at Kfar Ruppin in the Jordan Valley and Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael in the coastal Carmel region. (via Israel21c)
3. New York reins in “neonics” with first-in-the-nation law: In a holiday gift to the state’s bees, birds, and people just before the end of the year, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the Birds and Bees Protection Act —a first-in-the-nation law to rein in dangerous and wasteful uses of neonicotinoids or “neonics.” For those who’ve read past blogs on the bill, you know that neonics are the most-used insecticides in the country, and increasingly considered the most ecologically destructive pesticides since DDT. Long linked to mass losses of bees and other pollinators that have driven down crop production, neonics have made U.S. agriculture 48-times more harmful to insects, prompting EPA to make the unprecedented finding that neonics likely jeopardize the continued existence of 200+ threatened and endangered species—roughly ~11% of the entire endangered species list. (via NRDC)
4. A death trap for birds in the Middle East? Not where and what you might think: Experts have warned that a £1-trillion megacity due to be built in Saudi Arabia will pose a deadly barrier for millions of birds migrating through the desert. Saudi Arabia says 'The Line' will stretch as two parallel, mirror-fronted skyscrapers across 160 km in the north-west of the kingdom and reaching the Red Sea. It is planned as an 'unprecedented living experience', which the kingdom claims will preserve 'surrounding nature'. Visible in satellite images, construction of The Line has already started. The Saudi kingdom has called the project a 'civilisation revolution' but the megacity has been listed as one of the 15 most urgent conservation issues to monitor in 2024. (via BirdGuides)
5. A shout-out to Dr. Lourdes Mugica in Havana for spearheading the first MOTUS tower in Cuba: The conservation of migratory birds requires basic knowledge of connectivity between population-specific breeding, wintering, and stopover sites. This recognition has encouraged several government and NGO initiatives since many migratory species cross international borders during their annual travels. While the task is immensely difficult, an array of new tools is now available to track even small birds (~10g) using both intrinsic (e.g. stable isotope or genetic markers) and extrinsic (e.g. attached electronic devices) methods. Previously, researcher Keith Hobson discussed the advantages of the intrinsic approach of using stable isotope measurements in bird feathers as a tracking tool. However, his lab has also been active in pursuing the use of extrinsic markers, especially at sites in northern Latin America where many North American migrant birds winter. That effort has used an international tracking system known as MOTUS.
6. Christmas Counts ended yesterday and here is the first of three stories -Christmas Counts are “an important tool”: For three weeks every winter, thousands of volunteers across Canada take part in a research project in which they spend a day counting every single bird they see. The annual Christmas Bird Count, which started in 1900, is North America's longest-running citizen science project, according to Birds Canada. And with climate change impacting bird migration patterns, experts say it plays a significant role in tracking the effects of the changing climate on bird populations. "It's more important than ever right now to continue doing this because we now have 120-plus years of data," said Birds Canada's Yousif Attia, who coordinates the bird count in this country. "We're starting to see increased impacts of climate change. "We're seeing it affecting the birds. And we just need to continue doing this so that we can continue to get ahead of it, if there's any conservation concerns." (via CBC)
7 . Story #2 - Not often that you read the European Starling was the “unexpected bird of the day” – but it’s the Christmas Count in Yellowknife: The European starling was the unexpected bird of the day during Yellowknife’s annual Ecology North Christmas bird count, according to local birding enthusiast Reid Hildebrandt. “These are birds that should be migrating out of here, but the last five years or so they have basically refused to migrate,” Hildebrandt, the event organizer said, adding that it was likely the birds try to survive the winter by picking through food scraps at the city dump. “The starling is an introduced species. One hundred or 200 years ago, there weren’t any starlings in North America — they are a European bird. They were introduced to New York City because somebody thought they should have all the birds mentioned by Shakespeare in New York City, and then they just started breeding across North America,” he said of the glossy dark bird that can also be seen at local bird-feeders. (via NNSL)
8. And story #3 - Martha’s Vineyard reported 30,000 birds on the island’s Count: The Vineyard’s 64th annual Christmas Bird Count, held this weekend, identified more than 30,000 individual birds, up from around 19,000 in 2022. With results still coming in, volunteers have noted 126 different species, up from 124 last year. According to wildlife biologist Luanne Johnson, director of the Island nonprofit BiodiversityWorks and coordinator of the Vineyard’s count, this year’s totals are due to higher visibility on the day of the count, combined with uncharacteristically warm preceding months. The warmer fall may have kept some birds from flying south. The Vineyard’s bird count is part of a hemisphere-wide Christmas Bird Count for the National Audubon Society, in which participating areas track local birds at a selected time from Dec. 12 to Jan. 5. (via Martha’s Vineyard Times)
9. Avian flu news – H5N1 found in a dead polar bear: A highly lethal form of bird flu that has been spreading across the world has now been detected in a dead polar bear in Alaska. It is the first known case in the Arctic animals, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The infected polar bear provides further evidence of how widespread this virus, a highly pathogenic form of H5N1, has become and how unprecedented its behavior has been. Since the virus emerged in 2020, it has spread to every continent except for Australia. It has also infected an unusually broad array of wild birds and mammals, including foxes, skunks, mountain lions and sea lions. “The number of mammals reported with infections continues to grow,” Dr. Bob Gerlach, Alaska’s state veterinarian, said. (via The New York Times)
10. Concerning study of the mid-elevation Eastern Himalayan understory: Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IIS) have studied the effects of forest logging and climate change on bird communities in tropical mountains, by examining over 10 years of data. In a study published in Global Ecology and Conservation, the team used mist netting and bird ringing data to answer how the composition of the mid-elevation Eastern Himalayan understory bird community changed in primary (undisturbed) forests as well as in logged forests. Tropical montane forests are unique ecosystems that can start at about 150–200 m and reach up to 3,500 m high up on mountains around the world. They are critical centers of biodiversity. (via Phys Org)
11. Distressing data on African raptors: African raptors that hunt during the day face an extinction crisis, with populations decreasing among dozens of species of birds of prey. Researchers used data from the last 40 years to analyze the populations of 42 of the country's 106 raptor species, they wrote in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. Nearly 90% of the studied species experienced population declines. "Africa is at a crossroads in terms of saving its magnificent birds of prey," Dr. Darcy Ogada, one of the study's authors, said in a press release. "In many areas we have watched these species nearly disappear." Ogada, the Africa program director at The Peregrine Fund, warned that the secretarybird — one of the continent's most iconic raptors — is on the brink of extinction. (via CBS News)
12. Seemed like a good idea (and design) but…: Dozens of dead birds are being discovered at a Sacramento light rail station, and an animal rescue group says the deaths are caused by a piece of public art. A massive steel archway is being blamed for killing birds. "Any bird that falls into a sculpture like that is pretty much going to die," said Dina Fiala with the Wildlife Care Association. Fiala said gaps in the hollow metal arch allow birds to get inside, where they become trapped. "They either fall in or they dive in and there's absolutely no way they can get back up," she explained. The sculpture is located at the Sacramento Regional Transit (SacRT) light rail station along Franklin Boulevard. The 20-foot tall arch is named Esperanza and was created by Petaluma-based sculptor David Best. (via CBS News)
13. “The numbers are troubling” from Down Under: About twice a month, many of Australia’s wind farms receive an important visit from dogs and their handlers. The dogs are professionals and know exactly what they’re there for. Eagerly, they run along transects under the wind turbines, sniffing until they catch a scent, then lying down, sitting or freezing once they’ve located their targets: the carcasses of bats and birds that were killed by turbine collisions. For nearly two decades, wind and wildlife ecologist Emma Bennett’s company, Elmoby Ecology, has been using canines to count the victims of wind turbines in southern Australia. The numbers are troubling. (via Canary Media)
14. Not sure BNI realized yesterday was National Bird Day: Like “The Notebook” lovers say, “If you’re a bird, I’m a bird.” Our closest living link to the dinosaurs of yore, birds are an enduring source of fear and fascination, myth and mystery. The winged are held aloft by humanity on Jan. 5 when we celebrate National Bird Day. Created by the Avian Welfare Coalition, National Bird Day aims to raise awareness of the hardships faced by our beaked brethren and to inspire changes to create healthier, more sustainable relationships between us. It is the organization’s goal to “reduce the suffering of birds by raising public awareness of the destructive bird trade, the realities of cruel bird breeding mills, and ways to improve the welfare of birds already in captivity.” (via The New York Post)
15. Finally, an interesting piece on the cost of invasive species - check it out: Globally, invasive species account for $423bn in losses each year, with a significant portion concentrated in the United States. They are estimated to cost US $120bn in damages annually, though the number has probably changed as the latest assessment dates back to 2005. The European starling was introduced in New York’s Central Park in 1890, as part of an effort by a small group of bird lovers to introduce to the US every bird species mentioned in the works of Shakespeare. Since then this bird almost drove the eastern bluebird, the state bird of New York, into extinction due to competition for nesting site. Starlings are also a pest in agriculture, eating food meant for cattle, and pose a threat to fruit and grain crops. The cost in damages from starlings was estimated to be $800m according to last available research in 2000, but it’s expected to have risen since then. Efforts to control the bird resulted in more than a million of them killed in 2021 alone by the wildlife service. (via The Guardian)
Bird Videos of the Week
By DayTime Chicago - “National Bird Day”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Albatross Weigh-in.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Grey-Cowled Wood-Rail.
By Sirrealwander - Juvenile Western Red-tailed Hawk.