Saving a Rare Songbird – Hemispheric Conservation Plan for Bicknell’s Thrush

An international conservation group today unveiled a plan to protect one of North America’s most rare and vulnerable songbirds, the Bicknell’s thrush, across its entire range from Canada to the Caribbean.

The International Bicknell’s Thrush Conservation Group (IBTCG), an alliance of scientists, conservationists and governments, proposes to increase the global population of Bicknell’s thrush by 25 percent over the next 50 years, mostly by preventing further loss of its breeding and wintering habitats.

The enigmatic thrush, with its swirling song and speckled breast, breeds in specialized mountainous habitat in eastern North America and winters in threatened forests of the Caribbean Greater Antilles. Threats to the songbird, which is declining over portions of its range, include atmospheric pollution, climate change and loss or degradation of its forest habitats.

“We now have an opportunity to save this remarkable species, a migratory songbird found in such limited numbers that its future is in doubt,” said Chris Rimmer, director of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies and a lead author of the conservation plan. “This innovative plan offers tangible actions based on sound science and measurable results.”

A Conservation Action Plan for Bicknell’s Thrush establishes a course of conservation and research over the next five years designed to boost the worldwide Bicknell’s Thrush population. Actions include:

• Partnering with timber companies and managers of public lands in North America to develop and implement practices that enhance Bicknell’s Thrush breeding habitat, which includes high-elevation forests of New England, New York, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
• Conducting scientific research to monitor and predict the impacts of climate change on Bicknell’s thrush habitat.
• Improving the protection of currently occupied winter habitat and develop management plans for key forested areas on Hispaniola, including restoration of degraded habitats.
• Strengthening links with local partners in the Caribbean and expand funding for on-the-ground conservation projects throughout the winter range.

The IBTCG estimates the worldwide population of Bicknell’s thrush at 126,000 or fewer birds, a diminutive number for a songbird species. Although U.S. populations declined during the past two decades, numbers have remained stable for the past seven years. However, Bicknell’s thrush in Maritime Canada (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) plunged 15 percent annually during the same period.

“The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada recently recommended that Bicknell’s thrush be designated as federally Threatened,” said Becky Whittam, Atlantic Canada Program Manager for Bird Studies Canada. “While a troubling affirmation of the species' precarious status, this designation, if accepted, will bring much needed attention to the Bicknell's thrush and its habitat. The Conservation Action Plan released this month should jump start the process of recovering this globally vulnerable species across its entire range."
The IBTCG will launch implementation of its ambitious Plan via a 3-day international meeting in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic during early November of 2010. As many as 50 key conservation partners from the U.S., Canada, and several Caribbean countries will assemble to discuss tangible solutions to the challenges facing conservation of Bicknell’s thrush across the hemisphere.

The International Bicknell’s Thrush Conservation Group is an alliance of scientists, natural resource managers, and conservation planners advancing the study and conservation of Bicknell’s thrush through sound science and international cooperation. For more information, visit www.bicknellsthrush.org.

The principal agencies and organizations involved in developing the plan include U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Vermont Center for Ecostudies and Bird Studies Canada in close collaboration with Canadian government and non-government partners. Collaborators also include conservation partners on the island of Hispaniola, which is believed to support up to 90 percent of the species’ global population in winter.

The full conservation plan and trilingual, non-technical summaries are available on the IBTCG website.

Bats Struggle to Survive

Five years ago in Milton, Vermont, biologists counted 450 adult bats in the colony. One year ago, they counted 150. Thursday, they tallied just 51.

Read the rest of the story by Candace Page, Burlington Free Press

Red-backed Salamanders and Other Amphibians Carry Protective Skin Bacteria

As many as one third of the world's 6,260 known amphibian species are in danger of going extinct. The main killer—outside of ongoing destruction of habitat—is a fungal disease known as chytrid (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis). Now, according to an article in the July 12 issue of Scientific American, researchers in California and Virginia have identified symbiotic bacteria living on amphibians' skin that protects them from the deadly fungal disease, and later this summer the scientists will collect some of the microbial samples, culture them in the lab, and use the product to inoculate some frogs in California's Sierra Nevada to see if the approach stops chytrid in the wild. If a management plan can be developed, "creating a self-disseminating system [to fight chytrid] will be revolutionary," says Reid Harris, a biologist at James Madison University (J.M.U.) in Harrisonburg, Va., and one of the scientists whose research led to isolating and identifying this bacteria group in a telephone interview.

First identified in 1999, B. dendrobatidis, or Bd, a fungal zoospore, has been named as a leading cause of a global amphibian population decline, including frogs and salamanders. Scientists estimate it accounts for the extirpation or extinction of 200 species, including the disappearance of mountain yellow-legged frogs from several watersheds in the Sierras since the mid-1990s. In fact, biologist Vance Vredenburg at San Francisco State University likens chytrid's devastating arrival to the emergence of HIV in humans. He thinks that, like HIV, the disease was at some point in the past endemic to a circumscribed population. The African clawed frog, for example, is known to carry Bd, the fungus that causes chytridiomycosis (commonly known as chytrid), but do not die from it. Once used for pregnancy tests, African clawed frogs were raised in captivity in the 1940s. After they were supplanted by modern technology, they were simply released. Now, there are feral populations of African clawed frogs across the United States—even in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park National Park.

But there is hope in the fight against the deadly amphibian disease. Wild mountain yellow-legged frogs (Rana muscosa) and red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) host naturally occurring bacteria whose metabolites are toxic to Bd, the fungus that causes chytrid. Metabolites are the by-products of life-supporting chemical reactions taking place continuously in living organisms.

In lab experiments using captive mountain yellow-legged frogs from eggs collected in the wild, Harris and his colleagues determined that the bacterium Janthinobacterium lividum, cultured from wild frogs, was protective against chytrid.

Harris found that if frogs were inoculated with a solution containing J. lividum before they were infected with Bd, they survived. Bd numbers present increased exponentially as the 20-week experiment progressed until their populations tapered in response to the effects of the bacteria.

The presence of J. lividum in any concentration was the key factor in determining survival. Frogs that hadn't been inoculated all died once they were exposed to chytrid. The one factor that appeared to be the most important was the concentration of a J. lividum metabolite, the peptide violacein. Harris found that the quantity of violacein on the frogs' skins was proportional to the population density of J. lividum. The salamander experiment also yielded a direct correlation between survival and violacein concentration.

In the field, results of a study by Brianna Lam, a graduate student in the J.M.U. Department of Biology, published in the journal Biological Conservation in 2009 (as well results published by Vredenburg and Harris in 2008 in Abstracts of the General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology), revealed that wild mountain yellow-legged frog populations in the Sierras differed greatly in their amount of cutaneous J. lividum. The presence and quantity of the bacteria was key to their survival following a Bd outbreak. Chytrid's arrival in ponds lacking J. lividum resulted in rapid annihilation of the frogs.

This kind of mutualism among species, Harris points out, occurs everywhere in the natural world. "Beneficial relationships like this are found in fluorescent pseudomonad species that protect plant roots from pathogenic fungi, for example. In sessile, [or immobile] marine organisms, epiphytic bacteria in sea lettuce prevent fouling," he notes.

Bioaugmentation—taking existing beneficial bacteria, culturing them, and then adding more of them back into a biological system (not too different from eating probiotic yogurt for its purported beneficial effects on the human gut)—is the key to restoring amphibian populations.

Yet the real test of the bioaugmentation approach using J. lividum is going to depend on its safe and effective use in nature. Fortunately for the frogs, work starting in California's Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park in the Sierras under the auspices of the National Park Service may add microbial oomph into the ecosystem. Vredenburg and his colleagues are carrying out a test this summer that involves applying J. lividum to populations of mountain yellow-legged frogs in an area where chytrid is just now showing up.

Harris points out that the existing management tools out there for addressing the chytrid problem are limited. Collecting individual frogs from ponds with dip nets and applying antifungal medications to individuals simply is not practical.

As promising as bioaugmentation may be, it's an area where research must proceed with caution, says Louise Rollins-Smith at Vanderbilt University Medical Center's Department of Microbiology and Immunology. She points out that bioaugmentation is routinely carried out in agriculture: "Bacillus thuringiensis was introduced to control caterpillars. It affects other butterflies but it continues to be used commercially. It's considered safe—an 'environmentally friendly' solution to a pest problem"—mostly because it obviates the need for the application of chemicals.

J. lividum, she notes, is a naturally occurring organism on frogs' skins. The unanticipated, negative outcomes that can follow when non-native species enter naive populations might not apply in the same way with a bioaugmentation approach to the chytrid problem. The microbe and the frog already exist as natural symbionts in nature. And, in any case, reintroducing frogs whose bacterial communities have been altered should be carried out initially in protected ponds located in isolated areas, Rollins-Smith says.

Vredenburg is developing a project to do just this. Starting in three weeks, he and his colleagues will collect cutaneous bacteria from mountain yellow-legged frogs in the isolated Dusy basin area of the Sierras: "We'll go in with skin swabs, take samples, culture bacteria, grow it in the lab at San Francisco State, then wait a week, go back out and inoculate a bunch of frogs," Vredenburg says. It is impossible to speculate on the outcomes, he adds, because research on protection has been carried out only in the lab, so far.

"The goal is for scientists to augment naturally occurring bacteria" so that these helpful symbiants can spread to even more frogs and other amphibians, Harris says.

Many Gulf Spill Cleanup Efforts Ineffective and Harming, not Helping Birds

A report released today by American Bird Conservancy shows how some of BP’s oil spill cleanup efforts are actually causing harm to birds and their habitats rather than helping them, that cleanup vessels are inadequate and operating in the wrong locations, and that deployed boom has failed to protect some important bird colonies from oil.

The report, entitled Gulf Oil Spill: Field Survey Report and Recommendations, provides a series of five key recommendations for birds – ranging from the use of boom to habitat restoration – related to cleanup efforts surrounding the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The report is based on a just-completed week-long field assessment by ABC staff, who observed oil impacts and cleaning operations from Louisiana through Mississippi to Dauphin Island, Alabama. As part of the overview, ABC staff toured affected areas by boat with local and federal officials and charter boat captains. With Coast Guard officials, they also undertook an aerial over-flight of the spill area and points northwest of that location.

“Restoration needs to start as soon as major coastal oiling has been effectively addressed. The Gulf doesn’t have the decades it took to resolve the legal wrangling that followed the Exxon Valdez spill. The hydrology of the Mississippi Delta and the surrounding area is already facing dire threats from climate change, erosion, and hurricanes. Let’s not repeat the same mistakes we made in Alaska twenty years ago,” said ABC Vice President and report author Mike Parr.

The specific recommendations contained in the report (see expanded explanations provided in the report) address:

1. The use of more effective boom to protect bird colonies. Numerous instances were observed where boom was in complete disarray, including being washed up on shore.

2. The employment of better fencing and other measures to protect sensitive beach nesting areas and to reduce disturbance to birds. Clean-up crews were clearly unaware in several instances of the negative impacts they were causing to birds and their habitat.

3. The deployment of adequately sized and equipped oil skimmers close to the coast with improved real-time oil reports to eliminate oil before it reaches the beaches and marshlands. ABC observed an instance of a substantial heavy oil slick about half a mile offshore while cleanup vessels were operating in very mildly oiled waters about one mile away – apparently unaware.

4. The creation of a staging and recovery area for heavily oiled birds close to the coast. With the moving of the existing facility to a location about 70 miles away, some sort of near-shore facility is needed.

5. The restoration of eroded island habitat for nesting birds. Breton Island, for example, is a fraction of its original size, is an important bird habitat and is in desperate need of rebuilding.

“Clearly, this is an unprecedented spill that has brought massive, well-intentioned efforts to the area – over 3,000 boats and 30,000 people are involved. Our recommendations, while not comprehensive, reflect first-hand observations and are intended to make those efforts rapidly more effective, especially in light of the fact that fall bird migration is just around the corner,” Parr added.

During their survey, ABC staff observed oiled birds at several locations. The report presents a list of the observed oiled bird species.

“Without question, I think the unqualified bright spot of the cleanup effort was the bird cleaning center in Fort Jackson. It was gratifying to see that part of the cleanup is being carried out very effectively. The staff of the International Bird Rescue Research Center seemed totally committed, but most importantly, birds are being saved. During one of our boat surveys with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials, our vessel captured a clearly sick and oiled juvenile Roseate Spoonbill, and had it sent to the Center for treatment. Two days later, they brought out the bird for us to see and it looked clean and alert – much improved from the feeble state that allowed it to be simply picked up by hand off an oil boom 48 hours earlier,” Parr said.

To view the report, link to: www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/ABC_Gulf_Oil_Spill_Report.pdf.

Record Nesting Year for Loons

For the first time in recent history, 70 loon pairs have attempted to nest in Vermont. In 2009, 66 pairs nested, and to provide some historical context, 33 pairs and 14 pairs nested in 1999 and 1989, respectivley. We are still waiting on several pairs that are either still incubating or for volunteers to visit the site on Loonwatch day tomorrow.

Some neat success stories this year include the Lake Groton - North pair having a successful nest. This pair nested within 40 feet of someone's front porch and 10 feet from a mowed lawn. The loon pair was very tolerant and the landowners gave the loons their space to make it work. It's a very busy part of the lake with two state parks, thus now we ask boaters to watch from a distance and not pursue the loon family for a close look - use binoculars. Another success story occurred on Green River Reservoir where both nests flooded in early June. We placed rafts next to the nest sites right away, but they re-nested back on the islands. One nest was about under water June 28 with a parent loon busily building up the nest bowl with the rising water. While the loon was off the nest, I went in and added 2-3 inches of grasses and muck to the base while a very angry loon danced next to me. I got out of there asap and the loon soon returned to the nest. I thought maybe the eggs had already been briefly flooded, but no, 2 chicks hatched out this week.

And lastly, the Maidstone Lake loon that was not doing well that we captured June 30 had to be put down after I delivered it to the rahab person in Maine. It had a likely broken spine, possibly from a boat hit. Most the news is good, but like life, we'll have our tough issues as well. The photo is of the "pools" used for rehabilitating waterbirds by Kappy Sprenger in Bridgeton, Maine. Eric Hanson

Gray-cheeked Thrushes in Nova Scotia?

Bird Studies Canada Atlantic staff Greg Campbell and Kate Bredin recently discovered what appear to be Gray-cheeked Thrushes showing territorial behaviour on several coastal islands off Nova Scotia’s eastern shore. Preliminary analysis of song recordings by Vermont Center for Ecostudies biologists indicates that these birds were Gray-cheeked, and not Bicknell’s, thrushes. This is unusual because the nearest known breeding location for Gray-cheeked Thrush is Newfoundland.

In the first Atlas of the Breeding Birds of the Maritime Provinces, the Gray-cheeked Thrush was detected in various coastal and high elevation locations in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. However, when the Bicknell’s Thrush (previously a subspecies of the Gray-cheeked Thrush) was made a full species in 1995, it was assumed that these past records were all Bicknell’s (and not Gray-cheeked) thrushes. This new information, collected as part of a Nova Scotia coastal island survey for the Maritimes Breeding Bird Atlas, suggests that Gray-cheeked Thrushes may indeed be breeding on Nova Scotia’s coast and could, perhaps, have also been doing so during the time of the first breeding bird atlas.

Further research is underway to confirm breeding of this species in Nova Scotia. The coastal island Atlas survey has been made possible with funding from the Shell Environmental Fund and Encana’s Deep Panuke Education & Training and Research & Development Fund.

Source: Bird Studies Canada eNews

Mystery in blue materializes in Vt. summer fields

One day in the next few weeks, you may be walking through a field on a sunny day. You may see a tiny blue butterfly, with wings the size of thumbnails, flitting over the meadowsweet. If you know your butterflies, you might say to yourself, "Ah, there's a summer azure." And according to all the butterfly field guides, you would be right.

But are the field guides right? Could you actually be looking at a butterfly species unknown to science? Even the leading butterfly experts don't know for sure.

Read more...

Madeline Bodin is a writer living in Andover. The illustration for this column was drawn by Adelaide Tyrol. The Outside Story is assigned and edited by Northern Woodlands magazine and is sponsored by the Wellborn Ecology Fund of New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.

Shrinking Islands and Red Squirrel Population Explosion: Impact to Bicknell’s Thrush

Climate change is likely to alter population size and distribution patterns of migratory birds and other wildlife species, as they respond to environmental and related changes to their habitats. While the primary climate-related threat to species may be habitat loss or decreasing habitat quality and availability, just as serious may be increases in populations of nest predators or a disconnect from their primary food sources, which could have rapid and direct negative effects on many species.

Read more from the USFWS...

Giving a Loon a Chance

Last night my mother and I checked out a loon that had beached itself earlier in the day on Maidstone Lake. All this bird wanted to do was keep its head tucked into its backfeathers. It could barely even lift its head. From the moment I picked it up and examined it, I knew this bird was not able to feed or preen itself adequately and would not survive on its own. It's now Friday morning and the loon lived through the night in a cardboard box in our guest room. I'm about to drive to Kappy Sprenger's home in Bridgeton, Maine, the only waterbird rehabber in New England. I don't give this loon much of chance given how thin and weak it is, but what is the alternative to trying when there might be a chance we can help? Eric Hanson