Canadian Breeding Birds at Greater Risk - Endangered Species, Species At Risk - Bird Conservation - Nature Canada

Canadian Breeding Birds at Greater Risk - Endangered Species, Species At Risk - Bird Conservation - Nature Canada

Two bird species that breed in Canada have been uplisted to a higher risk category of becoming extinct. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) met in November and classified the Chestnut-collared Longspur as Threatened and upgraded the Bicknell's Thrush from Special Concern to Threatened. A "Threatened" status indicates a species that is likely to become "Endangered" if nothing is done to reverse the factors leading to its decline.

Read more at Nature Canada...

International Year of Biodiversity

You are an integral part of nature; your fate is tightly linked with biodiversity, the huge variety of other animals and plants, the places they live and their surrounding environments, all over the world.

You rely on this diversity of life to provide you with the food, fuel, medicine and other essentials you simply cannot live without. Yet this rich diversity is being lost at a greatly accelerated rate because of human activities. This impoverishes us all and weakens the ability of the living systems, on which we depend, to resist growing threats such as climate change.

The United Nations proclaimed 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity, and people all over the world are working to safeguard this irreplaceable natural wealth and reduce biodiversity loss. This is vital for current and future human wellbeing. We need to do more. Now is the time to act.

The International Year of Biodiversity is a unique opportunity to increase understanding of the vital role that biodiversity plays in sustaining life on Earth.

Study links springtime ozone increases above western North America to emissions from abroad

Springtime ozone levels above western North America are rising primarily due to air flowing eastward from the Pacific Ocean, a trend that is largest when the air originates in Asia.

Such increases in ozone could make it more difficult for the United States to meet Clean Air Act standards for ozone pollution at ground level, according to a new international study. Published online today in the journal Nature, the study analyzed large sets of ozone data captured since 1984.

"In springtime, pollution from across the hemisphere, not nearby sources, contributes to the ozone increases above western North America," said lead author Owen R. Cooper, of the NOAA-funded Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder. "When air is transported from a broad region of south and east Asia, the trend is largest."

The study focused on springtime ozone in a slice of the atmosphere from two to five miles above the surface of western North America, far below the protective ozone layer but above ozone-related, ground-level smog that is harmful to human health and crops. Ozone in this intermediate region constitutes the northern hemisphere background, or baseline, level of ozone in the lower atmosphere. The study was the first to pull together and analyze nearly 100,000 ozone observations gathered in separate studies by instruments on aircraft, balloons and other platforms.

Combustion of fossil fuels releases pollutants like nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, which react in the presence of sunlight to form ozone. North American emissions contribute to global ozone levels, but the researchers did not find any evidence that these local emissions are driving the increasing trend in ozone above western North America.

Cooper and colleagues from NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder and eight other research institutes used historical data of global atmospheric wind records and sophisticated computer modeling to match each ozone measurement with air-flow patterns for several days before it was recorded. This approach essentially let the scientists track ozone-producing emissions back to a broad region of origin.

This method is like imagining a box full of 40,000 tiny weightless balls at the exact location of each ozone measurement, said Cooper. Factoring in winds in the days prior to the measurement, the computer model estimates which winds brought the balls to that spot and where they originated.

When the dominant airflow came from south and east Asia, the scientists saw the largest increases in ozone measurements. When airflow patterns were not directly from Asia, ozone still increased but at a lower rate, indicating the possibility that emissions from other places could be contributing to the ozone increases above North America.

The study used springtime ozone measurements because previous studies have shown that air transport from Asia to North America is strongest in spring, making it easier to discern possible effects of distant pollution on the North American ozone trends.

Ozone-measuring research balloons and research aircraft collected a portion of the data. Commercial flights equipped with ozone-measuring instruments also collected a large share of the data through the MOZAIC program, initiated by European scientists in 1994. The bulk of the data was collected between 1995 and 2008, but the team also included a large ozone dataset from 1984.

The analysis shows an overall significant increase in springtime ozone of 14 percent from 1995 to 2008. When they included data from 1984, the year with the lowest average ozone level, the scientists saw a similar rate of increase from that time through 2008 and an overall increase in springtime ozone of 29 percent.

"This study did not quantify how much of the ozone increase is solely due to Asia," Cooper said. "But we can say that the background ozone entering North America increased over the past 14 years and probably over the past 25 years."

The influence of ozone from Asia and other sources on ground-level air quality is a question for further study, Cooper said. Scientists will need to routinely measure ozone levels close to the surface at several locations along the West Coast to see whether similar trends are impacting ground-level air quality.

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Collaborating institutions include the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, the National Center of Scientific Research Midi-Pyrenees Observatory in Toulouse, France; the Meteorological Service of Canada; NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology; the University of Washington; the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder; and NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

The MOZAIC program is supported by the European Communities, EADS, Airbus and airlines including Lufthansa, Austrian and Air France, which have carried MOZAIC equipment free of charge since 1994.

For more information on CIRES visit http://cires.colorado.edu/. For more information on NOAA visit http://www.noaa.gov. For more information on CU-Boulder visit http://www.colorado.edu/.

Update on VCE's Haitian Conservation Partners

Some visitors to this blog have been privileged to meet VCE's 3 Haitian conservation partners, who spent most of July, 2008 with us here in Vermont and have since continued to work with us on Hispaniola. After several anxious days last week, we have confirmed that all 3 survived the devastating earthquake, though their and all other Haitians' lives have doubtless been forever changed. We apologize for not communicating this news sooner to anyone who may have been wondering, and worrying.

Although humanitarian concerns are far and away the most pressing in Haiti now, as they should be, this tragedy is bound to increase pressure on the country's scarce and beleaguered natural resources. People are reportedly pouring out of Port-au-Prince into surrounding rural areas, seeking food, shelter and safety. One currently protected area, Parc National La Visite, lies only 22 km outside the capitol and is already hanging by a thread ecologically. It and the rest of the Massif de la Selle support the bulk of the world's breeding population of Black-capped Petrel, designated by the IUCN as critically endangered. A number of Hispaniola's 31 endemic birds also occur there, as do wintering Bicknell's Thrushes (see our 2005 report for more details). It is difficult to imagine how the park's fragile habitats can survive the surge of displaced Port-au-Prince residents that are likely arriving now.

Many in the international conservation community are beginning to mobilize to assist Haiti in rebuilding its human and natural resource capital. For now, of course, all efforts must and will go towards humanitarian relief, but ultimately, when the time is right, there may be a great opportunity to give conservation a boost. Every tragedy has a silver lining, and while it is difficult to look far ahead at this point, we can all hope that the international spotlight now on Haiti leads to a united front for conservation there. We expect to be able to relay more news on this during the weeks and months ahead.

For now, we're all incredibly relieved that our Haitian friends and colleagues are safe.

Waterman Fund 2010 Alpine Essay Contest

The Waterman Fund seeks the submission of essays about life in the mountains of the northeastern U.S. for its annual Waterman Fund Alpine Essay Contest.

Wildness! Are you finding it where you least expect? Did you go in search and it wasn’t there? The Waterman Fund is seeking personal essays about stewardship of wild places, whether through a scientific lens or an encounter with wildness.

What do we mean by “ the spirit of wildness?” Why is it so important to our lives? Or, is it? Guy and Laura Waterman spent a lifetime reflecting and writing on the Northeast’s mountains. The Waterman Fund seeks to further their legacy through essays that celebrate this spirit.

The winning piece will be published in Appalachia Journal. The winning essayist will be awarded $1500. Honorable mention will receive $500.

All are encouraged to submit essays for the 2010 contest. Please note that the deadline for this year’s submissions has changed from May to March. Essays are now due March 15, 2010. We will announce winners by early June.

Please include a brief cover letter with your contact information and a few lines about why you feel that your essay is right for this contest. We request (though don’t require) that all manuscripts are double-spaced and in a 12 point font. We won’t consider fiction, poetry, or songs; we’re looking solely for nonfiction essays, whether with a personal, scientific, or memoir bent.

We appreciate online submissions. If you prefer to submit by mail, include a SAS postcard or your email address; we try to let you know as soon as we’ve received your work.

Please contact Annie Bellerose by mail or email with questions.

To submit an entry, email a Word document

(or compatible format) and accompanying cover letter to:

info@watermanfund.org

attn: Annie Bellerose

or mail to:

The Waterman Fund, Attn: Annie Bellerose

P.O. Box 1064

East Corinth, VT 05040

Conservation in a Changing Climate: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Focus on Bicknell's Thrush

An increased focus on climate change by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has put Bicknell's Thrush squarely in the conservation spotlight. One of VCE's primary partners in collaborative, rangewide research and monitoring efforts for this vulnerable songbird, USFWS is showcasing Bicknell's Thrush as an example of how the best available science must be used to understand impacts of a warming climate on the natural world. USFWS is one of many conservation partners working together to reduce the effects of climate change on fish, wildlife, and habitats in the Northeast, and to develop adaptation strategies.

Visit the new USFWS web page to learn more.

Rapid adaptive evolution of northeastern coyotes via hybridization with wolves

The dramatic expansion of the geographical range of coyotes over the last 90 years is partly explained by changes to the landscape and local extinctions of wolves, but hybridization may also have facilitated their movement. We present mtDNA sequence data from 686 eastern coyotes and measurements of 196 skulls related to their two-front colonization pattern. We find evidence for hybridization with Great Lakes wolves only along the northern front, which is correlated with larger skull size, increased sexual dimorphism and a five times faster colonization rate than the southern front. Northeastern haplotype diversity is low, suggesting that this population was founded by very few females moving across the Saint Lawrence River. This northern front then spread south and west, eventually coming in contact with an expanding front of non-hybrid coyotes in western New York and Pennsylvania. We suggest that hybridization with wolves in Canada introduced adaptive variation that contributed to larger size, which in turn allowed eastern coyotes to better hunt deer, allowing a more rapid colonization of new areas than coyotes without introgressed wolf genes. Thus, hybridization is a conduit by which genetic variation from an extirpated species has been reintroduced into northeastern USA, enabling northeastern coyotes to occupy a portion of the niche left vacant by wolves.

Abstract From:
http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/6/1/45.abstract?etoc

Biol. Lett. 2010 6, 89-93
Roland Kays, Abigail Curtis and Jeremy J. Kirchman
Rapid adaptive evolution of northeastern coyotes viahybridization with wolves

The longest animal migration in the world revealed

Astonishing new information on the wonders of animal migration has been revealed in a recent paper in the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. An international research team found that the Arctic tern flies an incredible 70,000+ km on its annual migration trip from pole to pole - the equivalent of three trips to the moon and back over its lifetime.

The researcher team, from Greenland, Denmark, the United States, Great Britain, and Iceland, have successfully mapped the impressive migratory movements of the Arctic tern. The results of the study verify what has been supposed for decades: that the Arctic tern does indeed conduct the longest annual migration in the world. Every year this small seabird travels an average of around 71,000 km roundtrip from Greenland to the Weddell Sea, on the shores of Antarctica, and back to the breeding grounds in Greenland.

The research results not only confirm the Arctic tern as the champion of long-distance migration, but also held a few surprises in store for the research team. It turns out that the birds do not immediately travel south, but spent almost a month at-sea in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately 1,000 km north of the Azores. After this lengthy stop over, the birds continued their long journey south down the coast of northwest Africa, but around the Cape Verde Islands the birds behaviour surprised the researcher team again. Approximately half of the birds continued down the coast of Africa, while the other half crossed the Atlantic Ocean to follow a parallel route south down the east coast of South America.

All of the birds spent the northern winter months in Antarctic waters. Interestingly, on their long return journey the birds did not choose the shortest route back to their breeding grounds in Greenland. Instead, the Arctic terns traced out a gigantic „S‟ pattern northward through the Atlantic Ocean – a detour of several thousand kilometres over a straight line north to their breeding colonies.

“This study on seabird migration has given us an incredibly detailed insight into how long-distance migrants behave at times of the year when it‟s normally impossible for us to follow them” said Carsten Egevang of the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, the papers primary author.
This study on Arctic terns used a tiny instrument (1.4g) for tracking animal migration, known as a geolocator. These regularly record light intensity, which can be used to generate two geographical positions per day. “The use of these devices on seabirds is not only revolutionising our understanding of migration patterns, but the resulting data on distribution also help address the requirement to identify important biological hotspots” said Richard Phillips from British Antarctic Survey, who is a co-author on the paper.

“Our analysis shows that the birds behaviour is closely correlated with both biological and physical parameters along the migration route. They paused in their southward migration to spend time in highly productive waters in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Compared to this stop-over site, the marine area immediately to the south is lower in productivity. Clearly, Arctic terns have learned to “fuel up” before crossing areas of ocean with limited foraging options” Carsten Egevang continued.

”The indirect "S-shaped‟ return journey in spring indicates that Arctic terns take full advantage of the prevailing global wind systems to reduce energetic costs on their long flight north” said Iain Stenhouse, a co-author on the paper.

Arctic terns can live up to 34 years of age, and they make the annual journey between the Arctic and Antarctic throughout their adult life. When added up, the total distance an Arctic tern flies over its lifetime is the equivalent of three journeys to the moon and back. “This is a mind-boggling achievement for a bird of just over 100 grams” concluded Carsten Egevang.

Source: http://www.arctictern.info/
Greenland Institute of Natural Resources
Postbox 570, 3900 Nuuk, Greenland, WEB: www.natur.gl, E-mail: info@natur.gl

Image Caption:
Interpolated geolocation tracks of 11 Arctic terns tracked from breeding colonies in Greenland (n = 10 birds) and Iceland (n = 1 bird). Green = autumn (postbreeding) migration (August–November), red = winter range (December–March), and yellow = spring (return) migration (April–May). Dotted lines link locations during the equinoxes.

Partners in Flight Celebrates 20 Years

This year, Partners in Flight (PIF) is celebrating 20 years of bird conservation partnerships. PIF began in 1990 in response to concerns over declines among neotropical migrant landbirds. Partners in Flight is a cooperative effort involving partnerships among federal, state and local government agencies, philanthropic foundations, professional organizations, conservation groups, industry, the academic community, and private individuals. All Partners in Flight meetings at all levels are open to anyone interested in bird conservation.

Events throughout 2010 will highlight the PIF anniversary. PIF will share the spotlight in the International Migratory Bird Day theme, “The Power of Partnerships.” There will also be a Special Session at the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Milwaukee on March 22-27, 2010.

Biologisits at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies have been involved with PIF for over 15 years as members of the Northeast Workgroup and the Montane Bird Workgroup. Kent McFarland and Chris Rimmer were given the Investigation Award in 1998 by PIF.

Focus on Science: Do Birds and Wasps Compete for Nest Space?

Many species of songbirds nest in cavities or sheltered sites, as do golden paper wasps Polistes fuscatus. Since suitable nest sites are not always readily available, Stanback and his students wondered whether the birds and the wasps compete for them at the beginning of the breeding season. If so, who wins?

To find out, the researchers monitored over fifty identical nest boxes erected at regular intervals along a transect through forest edge habitat in North Carolina over three years. They excluded birds, but not wasps from alternating boxes by inserting wire mesh hardware cloth behind the entrance hole. The primary bird species to use nest boxes in this region during early spring (when wasps are also beginning to nest) were Carolina Chickadees (Poecile carolinensis) and Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis). Stanback and his students predicted that if wasps dominated the birds during the early spring, they would occupy both types of boxes at equal frequencies, but if birds dominated wasps, the latter would use mostly “bird-proof” boxes. For cases in which a box was occupied first by one party and then the other, the researchers established criteria for deciding which was the usurper.

Birds and wasps both started nesting in late March, indicating that they were indeed competing for nest sites. Furthermore, the birds usually won. Wasps were found to nest in bird-proof boxes significantly more often than in bird-accessible ones. Of the bird-accessible boxes, over half were occupied only by birds, and less than one-fifth only by wasps. In the 15 boxes where both nested for a time, the birds drove out the wasps in 12 instances.

Colonies of golden paper wasps, like those of many other Polistes species, are typically based on a single queen who initiates nest-building. She may be joined and assisted in cell construction by another female, who may even lay eggs, but often she monopolizes reproduction. The researchers found no indication that wasp nests established by two or more females were more successful in competing with birds than those started by a single female. Large, late-stage wasp colonies generally can resist being usurped by songbirds, but this study found that even colonies in the pre-worker emergence phase, established by a single female, have some capability to keep their place.

Although the birds dominated the wasps in this situation, the findings should not be applied too broadly. Competition between birds and wasps may end up quite differently in the tropics, where they are less likely to begin nesting at the same time.

Peter Stettenheim – Peter is a retired ornithologist with particular interests in the functional anatomy and evolution of birds. He lives in Plainfield, NH.

STANBACK, M., A. MERCADANTE, W. ANDERSON, H. BURKE, AND R. JAMESON. 2009. Nest site competition between cavity nesting passerines and golden paper wasps Polistes fuscatus. Journal of Avian Biology 40:650-652.

Report on 35th Annual Woodstock Christmas Bird Count

The day of the count, Tuesday 29 December, was the coldest day of the year, with windchills of 20 degrees below zero. Count circles are 15 miles in diameter – and our area runs from the eastern edge of Woodstock village to the eastern edge of Killington, north to just south of Barnard, and south to include South Woodstock village. Intrepid Woodstock area birders held this area's 35^th Annual Bird Count despite the weather, with the help of feeder watchers who had amply stocked their bird feeders. Numbers of birds and of species were down, with 32 species and 2227 individuals tallied, versus last year’s more average count which located nearly 4000 individuals and 39 species. The late Julie Nicholson was a key organizer of this count for all prior years, and this year’s count was held in her memory.

Species unusual for our count were:

Cedar Waxwing, 230- located in front of the Woodstock Elementary School

Snow Bunting, 12 – seen in both Plymouth (3) and South Woodstock (9)

Green Winged Teal, 1 – a first for our count

Red-bellied Woodpecker, 1 – at a feeder on River Road, Killington

Pied billed Grebe, 1 a first for our count, in an open pool in the Sherburne Marsh

Savannah Sparrow, 1 – in Woodstock, extremely rare here in winter.

Species usually located on the Count, by numbers sighted:

Black-capped Chickadee, 608;

Blue Jay, 287;

European Starling, 229;

American Goldfinch, 188;

Mourning Dove, 130;

Dark-eyed Junco, 92;

Wild Turkey, 55;

American Crow, 52;

Mallard, 47;

White-breasted Nuthatch, 47;

Rock Pigeon, 45;

House Sparrow, 38;

Downy Woodpecker, 29;

Tufted Titmouse, 28;

Hairy Woodpecker, 22;

Northern Cardinal, 21;

American Tree Sparrow, 17;

House Finch, 14;

Raven, 11;

Purple Finch, 9;

Red-tailed Hawk, 3;

Ruffed Grouse, 3;

Black Duck, 2;

Brown Creeper, 2;

Red-breasted Nuthatch, 1;

An accipiter, either Sharp shinned or Coopers, frequenting a feeder: 1.

Species not located this year included: Barred Owl, Great Horned Owl, Common Merganser, and Pileated Woodpecker. Kingfisher, Song Sparrow, and White throated Sparrow. If anyone located any of these on 29 December or three days before or after that date, please contact one of us.

Many thanks to all who helped with the count: FIELD WORKERS: Anne Aversa, Mark Council, Peter Davenport, Dean & Susan Greenberg, Ed Hack, Deb Kunhardt, Sally Laughlin, Kent McFarland, Kate Olgiati, and Dory Rice. FEEDER WATCHERS: Elaine Gambone, Robin Hall, Penny March, Carol Powell, Mr. & Mrs. L.H. Roberts, Pat Tilton, Paulette Watson, and Martha Wilbur.

Next year’s count will take place on 29 December 2010. If anyone is interested in helping please contact Sally Laughlin at laughlin@sover.net .

Focus on Science: Preventing Avian Collisions with Windows

It is a well-known but unfortunate fact that birds commonly fly into windows made of clear, reflective sheet glass or plastic, apparently because they do not see them. Daniel Klem has estimated that billions of such collisions occur annually worldwide. Concerned that this source of mortality may contribute to the population declines of certain species, the author has for many years tested ways to prevent bird strikes. In his experiments, Klem allowed small songbirds to fly either in specially designed outdoor flight cages or in field settings of wood-framed picture windows placed in mowed pasture bordered by forest. With these set-ups he tested clear sheet plastic, regular glass covered with various objects or strips of film (both ultraviolet-reflecting and UV-absorbing), as well as glass uniformly covered with a pattern of ceramic frit dots.

In the flight cage experiments, the most successful modifications to increase the visibility of windows and prevent strikes were the UV-absorbing horizontally oriented plastic strips and the glass with frit dots. In the field experiments, windows with clear, reflective UV-absorbing films on the outside had fewer collisions than untreated windows, but applying these films in stripe patterns gave mixed results.

UV-reflecting films and paints are of uncertain value in preventing strikes, as tested on windows and wind turbines (another source of collisions). While birds can see ultraviolet, they may be attracted to the lower wavelengths of ultraviolet, blue, and purple because these colors are often associated with finding food or mates. Still, repeated experiments show that a combination of UV-reflecting and UV-absorbing materials applied in stripe and grid patterns is effective in reducing collisions.

The key to preventing avian collisions appears to be providing birds a visual cue to a window’s presence. This is especially true for non-reflective glass, which causes twice as many strikes as conventional clear windows. In Klem’s tests, decals or other objects placed on or hung in front of a window were effective in averting collisions when many were applied, but single objects were not. One-way films that made the outside of windows opaque or translucent and ceramic frit glass were also found to work well. Such materials may reduce visibility from the inside, but only slightly.

Klem also found that window strikes are almost certainly more numerous than casual observation suggests. Continuous monitoring revealed that some impacts may not leave a visible trace, and that predators and scavengers may remove some victims from the ground before they are detected. The practical applications of Klem’s work are an important step towards addressing the very serious problem of avian mortality from window collisions.

Peter Stettenheim – Peter is a retired ornithologist with particular interests in the functional anatomy and evolution of birds. He lives in Plainfield, NH.

KLEM, DANIEL, JR. 2009. Preventing bird-window collisions. Wilson J. Ornithology 121:314-321.