New Issue of the Vermont Entomological Society Newsletter

Contents:

Member Profile: Jeannie Sargent 

VES Calendar: Winter Meeting 

From Your VES Treasurer
VES Flea Market

Field Notes

New Records for Vermont Lepidoptera By Michael Sabourin

Fertility and Flight in a Winter Moth By Bryan Pfeiffer 

School Kids and Bugs By Jim Hedbor 

Migratory Dragonfly Partnership By Kent McFarland 

Linnaeus's Garden By Jim Hedbor

Tallying Birds County by County: Results of the Vermont County Bird Quest 2011

The past year was an historic one for birding in Vermont. From January 1 to December 31, 2011, hundreds of birders scoured fields and fens, mountains and meadows, lakes and lawns to discover as many species as possible during a single calendar year. The Vermont 2011 County Birding Quest pitted county versus county, birder against birder — all engaged in a friendly rivalry for top honors of the highest species count. The main idea behind the year-long Quest was simply to get people out birding, promote camaraderie, and better document bird life across the state, using Vermont eBird. With nearly 18,000 eBird checklists submitted and over a half-million birds tallied, there is no doubt it was a huge success!

Green Mountain Birders Put Up Big Numbers

On January 22 the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, North Branch Nature Center and the Montshire Museum of Science co-sponsored a unique gathering of Green Mountain birders to celebrate the 2011 Quest's accomplishments and share tall tales. Birders of all ages, skill sets, and levels of obsession convened from around the state to learn which of Vermont's 14 counties claimed top honors statewide, which individual birders tallied the most species, and who submitted the most eBird checklists. Although this "competition" was entirely friendly, it ignited the competitive fire among many birders. Most importantly, it amassed a remarkable amount of information on Vermont's birdlife and sparked a surge in birding. Several first state records were discovered, including Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, Slaty-backed Gull, and Marbled Godwit.

Final results were based on a carefully calculated "par" system, realizing that not all Vermont counties are created equal in terms of avian diversity. Par scores reflect the number of species that a given county should find in a year with consistent birding effort. Although Addison and Chittenden took top 2011 honors in absolute numbers of species tallied, with 250 and 245, respectively, Windham and Windsor counties shared the 2011 Quest Cup, with pars of +31, and respective species totals of 230 and 213. Many birders ventured outside their home counties, and the statewide leaders in total species observed were Jim Mead (257), Ian Worley (239), and Craig Provost (237). Ian Worley submitted a remarkable 1,144 eBird checklists, while Jim Mead (858) and Sue Elliott (836) took home very respectable silver and bronze in this category.

The January 22 gathering at Montshire Museum featured the unveiling of these and other impressive statistics, as well as presentation of the County Quest Cup and awards to individual county winners. Birders who identified 150 species or more in a county will also be inducted into the prestigious (and brand new) "150 Club". Mainly, however, the event showcased an historic and extraordinary effort to catalogue the birdlife of Vermont, led by a cadre of dedicated and spirited people. The conservation benefits of this ongoing friendly rivalry, now well underway for 2012, will increase with each passing year.

Download Ian Worley's amazing set of tables examining many aspects of the 2011 quest or Ron Payne's list of unexpected or remarkable sightings.

Awards

County Team Awards

The County Cup
Presented to the county with the highest number of species found under the par system mentioned above. The winner will keep and display the cup until the next winner is announced after the following year.
County Species List
Awarded to the county with the highest raw total of species found.
County Checklist Award
Given to the county that submits the most checklists to Vermont eBird in a calendar year.

Individual Awards

The Vermont eBird 150 Club
Awarded to each Vermont eBirder that has 150 or more bird species in a county reported to Vermont eBird in a single calendar year. Finish one or go for all 14 counties!
County Bird Champs
Given to the birder with the highest species count for each county. No par or weighting necessary for this one! The Cornell Lab of Ornithology presented each winner with a 1-year subscription to the Birds of North America Online, internet access to in-depth life history information for over 700 species of birds that regularly nest in the United States and Canada. In addition to text, photographs and videos of the species of interest, there are also recordings of selected vocalizations from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library.
County Checklist Champs
Awarded to the birder with the most eBird checklists for each county.
State Bird Champ
The individual with the highest number of species found in the state during the year.
State Checklists Champ
Awarded to the birder that enters the most eBird checklists in the state.
Birds & Beans Coffee Spring Arrival Awards
Vermont County Quest sponsor, Birds & Beans coffee, provided a free bag of coffee to the birder in each county who first spotted each of Birds & Beans' iconic birds this spring.  For each of Vermont's 14 counties, the birder who initially reported on Vermont eBird the local arrival of Scarlet Tanager, Wood Thrush, Chestnut-sided Warbler and Baltimore Oriole received a corresponding 12-oz bag of Smithsonian independently certified Bird Friendly® coffee.

Ravens Appear to Communicate Using Gestures- A First for Non-Primates

Before they can talk, babies use gestures to communicate: sentiments such as “take this away,” “look over there,” and “put me down” can be made abundantly clear without words. Chimps gesture to each other, as well, pointing out particular spots where they’d like to be scratched or groomed. These symbolic gestures are believed to be an important precursor to language. Now, researchers have observed ravens using gestures in the wild—the only non-primates seen doing so.

Over two years, the researchers saw ravens pick up stones, moss, and other non-edible items with their beaks, and display or offer those objects to another bird, usually of the opposite sex. The other raven, in turn, usually looked over in response, and often had positive interactions with the gesturing raven. Other birds gift gifts while courting, but in this case, the birds weren’t delivering the moss and stones to the recipient; the objects aren’t put towards a purpose like making nests, as such gifts often are, and seem to be used solely to get noticed and spark an interaction. Since ravens form monogamous, highly cooperative pairs, these interactions could be used to attract the attention of a possible mate or solidify the bond with an existing one, the researchers suggest. Finding gestures in a species so distant from our own, they say, could help illuminate the origins of human language.

Ravens, along with crows, magpies, jays, are corvids—a particularly brainy group of birds that have shown some sophisticated capabilities, such as recognizing human faces, building and using tools, and even passing on grudges. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the birds are communicating through symbolic gestures: It’s possible, other researchers point out, that what looks like an attention-grabbing gesture may be a mating ritual—an instinctive behavior driven by hormones—or a simpler, more scripted form of communication.

Original Article: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2011/11/30/ravens-appear-to-communicate-using-gestures-a-first-for-non-primates/

Reference: Simone Pika & Thomas Bugnyar. “The use of referential gestures in ravens (Corvus corax) in the wild.” Nature Communications, November 29, 2011. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1567

VCE Colleague Spearheads Groundbreaking Studies of an Endangered Hispaniolan Seabird

Jim Goetz, a longtime VCE associate and current PhD student at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (CLO), has just launched a field expedition to study one of the world's most rare, poorly-known and critically endangered pelagic birds: the Black-capped Petrel. Following their discovery last winter of an active nest in the eastern mountains of Haiti, Goetz and his team are headed to the Dominican Republic's Sierra de Bahoruco to search for additional nest sites. This rugged and remote mountain range, where VCE has studied Bicknell's Thrush and other montane forest birds for almost two decades, supports the only known nesting population of Black-capped Petrel in the country.

The Black-capped Petrel is known locally as diablotín, or “little devil” in Spanish, probably because of its haunting nocturnal cries. Best estimates suggest that fewer than 2,000 breeding pairs remain, with all known nesting sites in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This crow-sized bird comes ashore for only a 2-3 months to breed, spending the rest of its year as far away as Gulf Stream waters off the Mid-Atlantic United States. Loss and degradation of its high-elevation nesting habitat, primarily forested cliffs, is believed to have pushed the species to precariously low population levels.

The International Black-capped Petrel Conservation Group recently brought together participants from 12 countries to produce the first comprehensive conservation action plan for the species. Goetz and his colleagues hope that their field work in the Dominican Republic, and future work planned for Cuba, will discover new nesting locations and yield information critically needed to conserve this highly vulnerable seabird.

For more on Goetz' expedition, read the full story on CLO's web site.


Photo: the first-ever photographed Black-capped Petrel chick on its nest in eastern Haiti. The bird is well-feathered and approaching fledging. Courtesy of James Goetz.

VCE coauthors account on a little-known Hispaniolan endemic: White-winged Warbler

One of the rarest and least-known of Hispaniola's 31 endemic bird species, the White-winged Warbler (Xenoligea montana), now has a comprehensive account published on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Neotropical Birds web site. Former VCE staff biologist Julie Hart and VCE Director Chris Rimmer co-authored this account, drawing heavily on studies conducted by VCE and our Hispaniolan colleagues over nearly 20 years. Read about VCE's discovery of the species' nest in 2004, its basic life history and ecology, and how much remains to be learned. The White-winged Warbler awaits a biographer!

Photo: White-winged Warbler feeding a recently-fledged juvenile in Sierra de Bahoruco, Dominican Repblic, June 2004. This is the only photo in existence of the species in juvenal plumage. Courtesy of Eladio Fernandez.

Vermont County Bird Quest 2011 — Celebration and Awards

The past year was an historic one for birding in Vermont. From January 1 to December 31, 2011, birders scoured fields and fens, mountains and meadows, lakes and lawns to discover as many bird species as possible during a single calendar year. It was county verses county, birder against birder, all vying for the top honors of the highest species count. The main idea behind the year-long Quest was to get people out birding, promote camaraderie, and better document bird life across the state using Vermont eBird. With over 23,000 checklists submitted and 1.9 million birds tallied, there is no doubt it was a huge success!

The Vermont Center for Ecostudies, North Branch Nature Center and the Montshire Museum of Science are co-sponsoring this unique gathering of Green Mountain birders to celebrate our accomplishments and share tall tales. Please join us on Sunday, January 22, 2012 from 2—4:30pm at the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, Vermont. Come meet your fellow birders and enjoy an afternoon devoted to our shared passion (obsession?), bird
watching.

Please RSVP to mmackenzie@vtecostudies.org so that we can get an expected flock size.

Directions to the Montshire: http://montshire.org/visit/directions/

UNEP adds Bobolink to its list of priority species

The Bobolink is one of seven new species to be added to the United Nations Environmental Program’s (UNEP) Conservation Migratory Species (CMS) list, with the aim of strengthening international conservation efforts.

More than 80 governments met from 20 – 25 November in Bergen, Norway, for the tenth Conference of the Parties to UNEP’s Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. The theme of the Conference “Networking for Migratory Species” was given prominence at the launch of a CMS report on ecological networks connected by migration corridors to ensure long-term survival of migratory wildlife. There was general consensus at the conference to initiate or implement actions to mitigate the most serious threats to migratory species and obstacles to animal migration, in particular relating to wind turbines, power lines, bycatch, climate change, wildlife disease and illegal hunting.

Migratory species threatened with extinction are listed on Appendix I of CMS, while species like the Bobolink that need or would significantly benefit from international cooperation are listed in Appendix II. Inclusion in the appendices grants greater protection to vulnerable species, such as conserving damaged habitats or mitigating obstacles to migration.

The CMS reports: “The Bobolink, which travels up to 20,000 km, performs one of the largest annual migrations of a grassland bird in the Western Hemisphere. The global population of this migrant has been declining since the 1960s. Threats include hunting, intensive agriculture as well as habitat loss within the breeding and wintering sites. The Bobolink is currently not protected by any inter-national instrument. Appendix II listing recommends habitat conservation, reduced hunting, improved management practices and awareness raising.”