Northern Return.
Bird News Items
1. Let's start with a most unusual - but wonderful - way to call attention to the Eurasian Curlew's threatened status in the U.K.: Residents of northern England did a double take when they spotted an unusually large bird wandering around the countryside last weekend. Measuring ten feet long from beak tip to tail, the enormous creature had a long, slender bill and big brown eyes. But the eye-catching bird wasn’t some new, super-sized species. It was a man dressed in costume, trekking conspicuously to raise awareness about the plight of one of the United Kingdom’s most iconic and threatened birds. Matt Trevelyan walked 53 miles in total along a route called theNidderdale Way—all while wearing a handmade outfit designed to look like aEurasian curlew, the largest wading bird in Europe. He spent three days creating the costume out of split bamboo, muslin and polystyrene. Trevelyan nicknamed his creation “Cathy.” (via Smithsonian Magazine)
2. NYT with some helpful advice for new birders: According to a survey from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 96 million Americans are bird-watchers, or 37 percent of the population aged 16 and above. Most observe from home, but 43 million have traveled a mile or more to go birding. Amy Tan, author of the book “The Backyard Bird Chronicles,” knows why. “Birds are some of the most magical animals on earth,” Ms. Tan said. “They fly, they sing crazy beautiful songs, they have amazing navigational systems that feel the magnetic force of the universe and guide themselves by the sun and the moon.” Because birding can be done almost anywhere and requires little gear, it’s an easy activity to pick up and a practice suitable to many trips. Here’s how to get started. (via The New York Times)
By Hap Ellis, Cape May Warbler - Durante Park, Longboat Key, FL.
3. The Washington Port catches up to what really is a winter story (which we've covered this year but BNI loves Snowy Owls any time of year): Every winter, Arctic snowy owls fly thousands of miles south to Boston Logan International Airport. And every season, Norman Smith drives less than an hour to try to snatch them up. “I’ve seen a plane taxiing down the runway and the people looking out and seeing me with a bird,” said Smith, 73. “They’re like: ‘What’s that? What are you doing?’” Known as the “owl man of Logan Airport,” the raptor researcher has caught and released into the wild more than 900 snowy owls that decided that Boston Logan was their Boca Raton. When the temperature begins to drop, the Arctic raptors, especially the juveniles, migrate to relatively warmer climates. Many choose the airport, home to the largest known concentration of snowy owls in New England. The East Boston site also sits along the Atlantic Flyway, a north-south superhighway for migratory birds. (via The Washington Post)
4. A wonderful piece in Texas Monthly on the "Birdman of Texas": During the height of the state’s birding season, from mid-March through May, visitors from all over the world travel to Texas, particularly Galveston County’s High Island and Bolivar Peninsula. They come to this coastal corner of Texas to witness the high diversity of migratory birds that rest and refuel during their long journeys from Central and South America to their northern breeding grounds. Not surprisingly, the renowned birder and ecotourism pioneer Victor Emanuel—he founded Austin-based Victor Emanuel Nature Tours in 1976—made his second home here. Christened Warbler’s Roost, the buttercup-yellow one-room cottage sat on ten-foot stilts overlooking the Bolivar mudflats and the North Jetty, where tens of thousands of birds congregated and could be observed from the perfectly positioned front porch. (via The Texas Monthly)
5. A 41 year-old Oystercatcher - and then a 43 year-old...what???: Two oystercatchers that have outlived the species' average life expectancy by some 30 years have been discovered by bird surveyors. In February, bird recorders from the Wash Wader Research Group (WWRG) found an oystercatcher believed to be about 41 years and eight months old, at RSPB Snettisham in Norfolk. A few weeks later, they found an even older bird - aged 43 - on The Wash Estuary in Lincolnshire. It said both birds found were healthy and in a good condition. The average lifespan of an oystercatcher, recognisable by its black and white feathers, orange bill and red legs, is about 12 years, said the bird experts. (via BBC)
6. This Pileated Woodpecker is getting a lot of ink - for all the wrong reasons: The first casualty was a side-view mirror. Then another and another and another, until residents of one New England enclave said that the number had reached at least 20. The culprit apparently did not believe that it was bad luck to break mirrors — and still doesn’t. Janelle Favaloro, 59, who has lived in the Squam Hill section of Rockport, Mass., for 36 years, put out an A.P.B. on Facebook for the menace. “We have a vandal in the neighborhood,” Ms. Favaloro wrote. “He was described as 18 to 24 inches tall, wearing black and white with a red hat.” The brazen suspect, who would become known to many in the neighborhood, was actually a pileated woodpecker, one of the largest forest bird species on the continent. (via The New York Times)
By Hap Ellis, Great Horned Owl - Arnold Arboretum, Boston, MA.
7. Nettles for Corncrakes: Multiple tonne bags of nettles from across Northern Ireland have been shipped to Rathlin Island in an effort to support the endangered corncrake bird. The nettle rhizomes have proven to be a success with the secretive bird as they provide tall vegetation for it to hide in when it returns from wintering in Africa. The annual dig and planting is part of the Giving Corncrake a Home Project which is run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Despite the corncrake population declining since the 1970s, there have been three to five calling males spotted on the island over the last five years. From October to February, volunteers take part in digging up nettle rhizomes across Northern Ireland. (via BBC)
8. Scientific insights from Down Under - thermoregulatory adaptation to warm climates drives latitudinal patterns in shorebird size and shape: Global warming is widely predicted to drive adaptive responses in species’ morphology, yet such responses have rarely been demonstrated to track changing climate through time. Researchers investigated associations between avian bill size and changes in seasonal climate extremes using museum specimens of 57 Australian passerine species (Meliphagides). They employed location-specific climate data from the 4119 sites where specimens were collected to test whether change in the frequencies of summer (≥35 °C) and winter (<5°C) extremes over the preceding 20 years of each specimen’s collection date was associated with bill size variation as predicted by thermoregulatory hypotheses. Rapid warming in summer and winter was associated with bill size variation in accordance with the bill’s role in heat exchange. (via Nature)
9. Speaking of science and for listers among us, Lesser Goldfinches are expanding their range says this study: New research published in the journal Ornithology shows that Lesser Goldfinches, a small songbird traditionally found in the Southwest, are expanding their range northward through the Pacific Northwest at an unprecedented rate, providing insights into how species adapt to environmental change. Researchers from Washington State University and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology analyzed data from birdwatchers participating in two initiatives from the Cornell Lab -- Project FeederWatch and eBird -- to track the species' movement. The study found that Lesser Goldfinch populations increased dramatically in Washington (110.5%), Idaho (66.3%), and Oregon (16.9%) between 2012 and 2022. (via Science Daily)
* Ed. Note: Data sets for this study come from the Cornell Lab's Project Feeder Watch and eBird
By Hap Ellis, Field Sparrow - Arnold Arboretum, Boston, MA.
10. The Chicago Tribune puts an Illinois focus on the steep decline of prairie birds: The dapper black and yellow bobolink likes the Chicago area so much he flies here every spring from South America — a journey of about 6,000 miles. By no means depleted, the plucky visitor goes on to dazzle the females of his species with a high-energy courtship display in which he soars over wildflower-studded fields, flapping his wings rapidly and singing a bright, burbling tune. In the vast nature preserves surrounding the city, he is joined by the crafty eastern meadowlark, the elusive Henslow’s sparrow, the stubby grasshopper sparrow, the tiny sedge wren and the gold-splashed dickcissel. But if iconic grassland birds still appear to flourish here, the story is very different when the camera pans out across the Midwest and the Great Plains, according to the latest State of the Birds Report by scientists at U.S. bird conservation groups. (via Chicago Tribune)
11. "Lights Out" efforts in Kansas City: A new report from Bird Safe KC gives a peek into one of the top challenges that birds must navigate during their spring and fall migrations through the metropolitan area — windows. Over the past six years, dozens of volunteers have checked buildings in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and other areas for birds that die after hitting glass. They’ve tallied nearly 1,900 carcasses — a small sample of what scientists say is a much larger problem. Scientists estimate thatmore than 1 billion birds die each year in the U.S. by slamming into human-made structures. The Missouri River Bird Observatory coordinates the Bird Safe KC project. The group aims to educate building owners and managers that windows can be treated — such as by applying a transparent, dotted adhesive film – to help birds recognize glass as a solid surface. (via NPR KCUR Kansas City)
12. Looking for 1330 Cranes at Yale: Throughout April, Cranes of Yale hid thousands of paper cranes across campus and hosted origami workshops to promote interest in wildlife conservation with students. The Yale Birding Student Association, the Japanese American Students Union and Taking Flight — a student initiative that promotes interest in birds — teamed up on the project, which was spearheaded by Taking Flight founder Karinne Tennenbaum ’26 to inspire the next generation of climate leaders through birding. The project is funded by the Environmental Humanities Grant Program, which is an effort by Yale to engage a wider public on environmental issues through humanities-oriented projects. Taking Flight received $1000 to work on the project. (via Yale Daily News)
By Hap Ellis, White-throated Sparrow - Arnold Arboretum, Boston, MA.
13. When the European Union comments on birds, we report: Promoting and prioritizing flagship bird species as cultural ambassadors is an idea that offers opportunities to marry wetland conservation management with tourism, in ways that can provide beneficial ecosystem services for people whilst also helping wildlife. A new study showed how herons became an ‘ambassador’ bird family used in the management plan of King’s Lagoon coastal nature reserve, in Italy’s Gargano National Park, as a result of researchers combining field observations of the birds with visitor questionnaires, to find out exactly how conservation and visitor-centered management goals could be combined to guide management. (via European Commission)
14. Just go birding says this Op-Ed piece: Usually, birds come to me. To my backyard feeder: robins, sparrows, wrens — little brown birds, mostly, with the occasional red cardinal, gray dove or blue warbler offering variety. I’m generally content with that setup, though chasing off squirrels is a constant challenge. They adapt. Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures, however. So when Bob Dolgan, publicist for the Newberry Library, said he is a regular birder and invited me along, I could not refuse the opportunity to seek out birds. Anything is better than sitting in the kitchen, staring gape-mouthed at the newspaper. (via Chicago Sun Times)
15. Finally, if you are looking for a new series to watch after "The Residence", try NatGeo's "Secrets of Penguins" (Disney/Hulu): On the twentieth anniversary of the Academy-Award Winning “March of The Penguins”, Secrets Of The Penguins changes everything we ever believed to be true. From the Emperor Penguins’ revelatory bonds of friendship to the gritty resolve of Gentoos and Rockhoppers, and the astonishing ingenuity of the migrant penguins that reached deserts and far beyond, their incredible traditions and societies echo ours in ways we never dreamt possible – until now. (via National Geographic)
Bird Videos of the Week
Video by BBC Earth, “Puffin Hunts Fish to Feed Puffling”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Barred Owl Chick.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Horned Owl Cam.