Part 2 of 2

 

From: Paul J. Baicich [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Friday, July 01, 2011 10:51 PM
To: Paul J. Baicich
Cc: Wayne Petersen
Subject: Birding Community E-bulletin - July 2011

 


THE BIRDING COMMUNITY E-BULLETIN
            July 2011
 
  
ABB: A FOCUS ON JVs
 
The "All-Bird Bulletin" (ABB) is the newsletter of the U.S. Committee of the
North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI). The Spring 2011 issue
deserves special attention. It is dedicated to the U.S. Bird Habitat and
Species Joint Ventures (JVs). JVs are vitally important to bird
conservation, yet they are misunderstood, or else simply don't get the
attention they deserve. Here is a NABCI Bulletin that's all about JVs:
www.nabci-us.org/bulletin/bulletinspring11.pdf
 
 
NORTH AMERICAN GRASSLANDS GETTING SOME NEEDED ATTENTION
 
Grassland birds which are now experiencing faster and more dramatic declines
than any other group of North American birds, need help. On 15-17 August the
National Wildlife Federation and South Dakota State University are hosting a
conference in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on "America's Grasslands: Status,
Threats, and Opportunities."
 
The conference will bring together biologists, policy experts, ranchers,
federal and state agency staff, representatives of elected officials, and
conservationists to discuss the problems and solutions confronting North
American grasslands in an effort to raise the profile of this endangered
ecosystem and to work on developing a roadmap for its conservation.
 
The event will be immediately followed by a "Grasslands Policy Summit" on 18
August sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation, Ducks Unlimited, The
Nature Conservancy, and World Wildlife Fund. More details can be found here:
www.sdstate.edu/wfs/grasslandconference
 
 
TIP OF THE MONTH: PRACTICE GIVING DIRECTIONS
 
When you're birding with a group in the field and you hear a companion say,
"There's an oriole in the largest tree ahead at three o'clock." you probably
know what that means. The familiar "clock technique" is a useful way for one
birder to direct others to seemingly hard-to-spot birds. By using the "clock
technique" you'd at once know that the imagined clock face was superimposed
over the tree and that the oriole could be found at the outer right edge of
the tree. (As we increasingly go digital, in the future, analog clocks may
be less understood!) 
 
But the clock technique is only one tool. Many of us also need to polish up
our direction-giving, since general terms such as "straight ahead" or "up
there" are often not clear enough for our colleagues to readily spot a bird
in the field. "In top of the bush that's the shape of Ukraine" or "in the
top of the Osage Orange tree," might also seem perfectly clear to you, but
perhaps not to others.
 
Beyond the clock orientation, consider some additional possibilities. When
giving directions, think about the precise location of the tree, bush, or
other supporting feature in question; any outstanding characteristic in the
supporting feature; how close or far away the bird or vegetation is located;
how near to the edge or how deep into the vegetation/water's-edge/or pond
the bird might be; any obvious foreground or background objects that might
be useful for orientation; what direction the bird might be moving; and the
color or tone of the bark, the branch, the leaves, the water's edge that
will serve to help locate the bird.
 
Locating a bird in the sky for your companions - say, a soaring raptor -
takes additional practice, involving orienting on other birds in the sky,
objects in the foreground (e.g., treelines, towers, buildings), cloud shape,
distance, and flight direction. 
 
Then, try to convey the location in the clearest, most sequential order
(from general to specific) to guide your companions to seeing the desired
bird. At the same time, think about doing it as quickly as possible.
 
It takes practice at first, but practice makes perfect.
 
Footnote: giving directions on a boat at sea is totally different, and is a
subject we will take up another time!
 
 
BOOK NOTES:  BEEE-BZZZ
 
Observers of birds - from poets to naturalists - have often attempted to
capture the songs of birds through words and phrases in their efforts to
replicate the sounds that birds make. John Bevis has recaptured and
recounted many of these attempts in his quirky book, AAAAW TO ZZZZZD: THE
WORDS OF BIRDS (MIT Press, 2010), which is actually a new version of his
earlier book, AN A-Z OF BIRD SONG. In this new book, coverage is expanded
from the birds of Great Britain to include those of North America. The
results are mixed, yet the effort is admirable, combining the skills of a
wordsmith, a near-poet, and a naturalist.
 
Bevis admits that his attempt to learn, record, and, most importantly,
remember the unique characteristics of the sounds that bird species make, in
written words may often appear bizarre, nonsensical, sometimes pretty, and
sometimes comic. 
 
While there is some confusion resulting from British vs. American bird
references, this little book still manages to hold together. In a little
book that has only 144 pages the listing of lexicons and mnemonics for North
American birds accounts for 38 pages, and the corresponding pages for Great
Britain and Northern Europe add up to another 38 pages.
 
The book concludes with a discussion of some of the early field recordings,
graphic notations (e.g., sonograms), birdsong in music (including mimicking
instruments), and even in clocks.
 
If you are a true bird-song devotee, you might want to go through this book
of written words just "for a lark," or as a prelude to listening to
increasingly accessible and exceedingly helpful actual bird recordings.
(And, yes, BEEE-BZZZZ is a representation for Blue-winged Warbler.)
 
 
PURPLE MARTINS AND THE U.S. OPEN
 
Millions may have watched the televised U.S. Open last month, focusing on
four days of flawless golf by Rory McElroy. There was one activity at the
18th green at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, that
might have missed most public attention, however.
 
This year, the Congressional 18th green, located near a pond, has been home
to a small colony of six to eight Purple Martins. "We don't get Purple
Martins every year, but this year they have returned," says Mike Giuffre,
director of golf and grounds maintenance at the Congressional Country Club.
"It's pretty neat to see. We have about six martin boxes on the property,
all near ponds, but there is only one occupied by Purple Martins this year."
 
Co-habitation with wildlife is also a part of the golf course's maintenance,
Giuffre says. For example, staff has built and monitored about a dozen
bluebird boxes, all of which are occupied this year. Although the Purple
Martins are among the welcome inhabitants, the course staff has less
enthusiasm for resident Canada Geese, which fortunately did not nest at
Congressional this year.
 
For more on this, including a photo of the current martin housing on the
18th green, see here:
http://wamu.org/news/11/06/15/at_us_open_fans_and_golfers_are_visitors_birds
_are_natives.php 
 
 
TRICOLORED BLACKBIRD COUNT REVEALS PROBLEMS
 
A recent California-wide census of Tricolored Blackbirds, a species found
almost exclusively in California, has revealed a 34 percent decrease in
population since the last survey in 2008. With the help of over 100
volunteers from bird clubs and Audubon chapters, state and federal agencies,
and local independent birders, Tricolored Blackbird colonies were sought at
over 600 sites, with 138 active colonies found. Unfortunately, only 259,322
birds were seen, a long-term decrease from over 3 million birds estimated in
1937.
 
In 1990, the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) added the
Tricolored Blackbird to its list of Bird Species of Special Concern, and the
species is still considered a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Bird of
Conservation Concern (USFWS 2002), even though its candidacy for Endangered
Species Status was turned down in 2006.
 
Recent declines may be due to low reproduction over the past three years,
along with several large colonies failing to produce offspring because
either Cattle Egrets predated the colonies or farmers harvested fields to
which the colonies have moved. Long- term population declines are linked to
habitat loss through the continued conversion of Central Valley wetlands
into agricultural landscapes.
 
The blackbirds continue to concentrate in fewer and larger colonies in the
San Joaquin Valley (especially in Merced, Tulare and Kern Counties, which
alone accounted for 88 percent of the breeding population in April). These
birds would have used native cattail wetlands, but due to the current lack
of wetlands throughout the San Joaquin Valley, birds are now using
agricultural fields near dairy farms to raise their young instead. Four of
the top six largest colonies, representing 42 percent of the global
population, occurred in such farm fields. The problem arises when farmers
harvest their spring crops in the middle of the breeding season. 
 
There are some positive signs, however. 
 
Audubon California, with help from many agency and birding groups, has been
providing incentives to farmers in exchange for delaying their harvests long
enough to allow the birds to finish nesting. (This year, the nests of an
estimated 42,000 birds were protected.) We wrote about this kind of effort
in July 2006:
www.refugenet.org/birding/julSBC06.html#TOC04
 
Kern County duck clubs are also providing shelter for the blackbirds. A
couple of clubs have flooded portions of their marshes in the spring - as
well as in the winter when they usually do it - to create native cattail
nesting habitat for Tricolored Blackbirds adjacent to threatened
agricultural fields. These efforts have been crucial in providing native
nesting habitat for over 10,000 birds already this year. 
 
Other efforts have also produced encouraging results. For example, earlier
this year and with the help of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, a
pond choked with dead and matted cattails was burned during a fire training
exercise. This stimulated the growth of new, green cattails with an
immediate response by Tricolored Blackbirds. Some 600 Tricolored Blackbirds
nested at this site where only 100 were seen last year. 
 
 
MORE OPEN FIELDS DOLLARS
 
Last month, the Department of Agriculture announced further commitment to
the new state-based grants program, popularly known as "Open Fields," to
enhance public access on privately owned lands via the Voluntary Public
Access (VPA) and Habitat Incentive Program (HIP).
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack approved eight additional states and one tribal
government to participate in VPA-HIP, allocating $4.6 million in grants
toward the total of $17.8 million in VPA-HIP funds obligated in 2011. There
are $50 million in funds available for three years through the Open Fields
element of the Farm Bill.
 
VPA-HIP, or Open Fields, was successfully included in the 2008 Farm Bill in
response to public support, especially from hunting and fishing
organizations. The benefits are not limited to hunting and fishing, however.
All sorts of wildlife-associated recreational opportunities can make use of
Open Fields, including birding, wildlife photography, and hiking. VPA-HIP
facilitates public access to private lands by augmenting existing state
access programs and encouraging new walk-in programs. It also provides
landowner incentives to improve fish and wildlife habitat on enrolled lands.

 
Open Fields has already expanded access to recreational opportunities and
promoted the conservation of millions of acres of privately owned lands.
 
With last month's announcement, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Montana, New
Hampshire, Texas, Virginia and Wyoming, along with the Confederated Tribes
and Bands of the Yakama Nation, join 17 other states as VPA-HIP
participants.
 
You can view the full USDA announcement here:
www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2011/06/0250.xml
<http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2011/06/0250.xml&con
tentidonly=true> &contentidonly=true 
 
 
IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR
 
July is the time of year to get your new $15-Migratory Bird Hunting and
Conservation [Duck] Stamp, dedicated to securing wetland and grassland
habitat for the Refuge System.
 
For those birders who regularly visit NWRs that charge for entry, holding a
valid Stamp also gets you free access for all such refuges. So you can feel
good about making a conservation contribution, and you can simultaneously
get a free pass for refuges that charge.
 
If you are curious on how the Stamp money is spent, in mid-June, the
Migratory Bird Conservation Commission approved investing more than $3
million from the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund (with Stamp dollars) to
protect an estimated 1,600 acres of habitat on three units of the National
Wildlife Refuge System. These three refuges were Nestucca Bay NWR in Oregon,
San Bernard NWR in Texas, and Canaan Valley NWR in West Virginia.
 
 
ACCESS MATTERS:  AN INTRODUCTION
 
Speaking of access through the Stamp, if there is a sub-theme in this
current E-bulletin, it's that access for birders is increasingly important.
While it's always nice knowing that a bird is at a particular site, for
birders it's crucial to have access, to actually see - and sometimes even
photograph - that bird.
 
Access has been part of many stories in past issues of the E-bulletin, and
you can see that it has even been brought up in a number of news items this
month. For example, take another look at our reports on the Ontario
ptarmigan, the plight of state parks, Open Fields opportunities, and buying
and using the latest Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp. Birder
access has been part of each of these reports.
 
Access is becoming a recurring topic for birders across North America, so we
hope to bring it up regularly in the Birding Community E-bulletin.
Basically, access is all about how birders are welcomed (or are made
unwelcome), what accommodations are made for birders by public and private
land/property managers, and how birders use and maximize access to great
birding locations. This access may include waste water treatment plants,
landfills and dumps, dams, power plants, sod farms, golf courses, farms and
ranches, bird feeder and backyard bird-hosts, military bases, Army Corps of
Engineer facilities, and all of "the usual" NWRs, National Forests, National
Parks, Provincial Parks, State Parks, and State Wildlife Management Areas.
 
We have topics that appear monthly in the E-bulletin, such as the Rarity
Focus, and almost every month, such as our IBA story, our Book Notes, and
our Tip of the Month. Accordingly, from now on, you can expect an access
story to appear fairly regularly. Such stories should appear in most future
issues, because, after all, access matters. 
 
 
- - - - - - - - -
You can access past E-bulletins on the National Wildlife Refuge Association
(NWRA) website:
www.refugenet.org/birding/birding5.html
 
If you wish to distribute or reproduce all or parts of any of the monthly
Birding Community E-bulletins, we simply request that you mention the source
of any material used. (Include a URL for the E-bulletin archives, if
possible.) 
 
If you have any friends or co-workers who want to get onto the monthly
E-bulletin mailing list, have them contact either:
            
            Wayne R. Petersen, Director
            Massachusetts Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program
            Mass Audubon
            718/259-2178
             
                        or
            Paul J. Baicich             
            410/992-9736
             
                                                            
We never lend or sell our E-bulletin recipient list.


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