From: Brumar89 | 8/16/2024 7:54:25 AM | | | | A 7,100-Acre Solar Farm Is Slated for Whatâs Left of Wisconsinâs Best Prairie Chicken Habitat A proposal to build the state's largest solar farm is getting pushback from both hunters and birdwatchers, who have until Friday to comment on the project
By Dac Collins
Posted on Aug 12, 2024 6:39 PM EDT
Greater prairie chicken populations are down across Wisconsin. Wildlife managers counted only 248 male birds during the statewide spring survey in 2023. Photo by USFWS An alliance of hunters, birdwatchers, and public land advocates in Wisconsin are pushing back against a massive solar project thatâs being proposed in Portage County because of the impacts it could have on greater prairie chicken habitat and local hunting opportunities. These groups have stopped short of trying to block the project being proposed by Doral Renewables, which they say is essential in meeting Wisconsinâs long-term renewable energy goals. Instead, they are asking the stateâs regulatory agency to scale down the project in a way that will better safeguard Wisconsinâs last remaining prairie chicken stronghold. The public comment period for the project closes Friday.
If completed in its current form, the 7,100-acre Vista Sands Solar project would be capable of producing around 1,300 megawatts of electricity, making it the largest solar project in Wisconsin by far. Thatâs enough to power roughly 200,000 homes, and it would be a significant step toward the stateâs larger goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, Doralâs vice president of development Jon Baker told Wisconsin Public Radio in July.
The area where the Vista Sands project stands to be built is ideal for vast arrays of solar panels. Itâs a flat, sparsely populated, and mostly treeless landscape that is used predominantly for agriculture. But itâs these same qualities that also make the region one of the last best places for greater prairie chickens, a native grouse species thatâs listed as threatened in Wisconsin and is on the decline throughout the greater Midwest.
The Buena Vista Wildlife Area covers more than 12,000 acres near the proposed development site and is home to two-thirds of the stateâs overall prairie chicken population, according to the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation. The group filed as an intervener in the stateâs ongoing approval process, which is being led by the Public Service Commission.
A male prairie chicken dances on a lek. The birds require large open landscapes to breed and thrive.Photo by Brandon Jones / USFWS
âItâs treated similar to a lawsuit, with testimony, witnesses, and rebuttals. We just have a vested interest in this process and want to be engaged on a higher level,â WWF executive director Cody Kamrowski tells Outdoor Life. He says itâs the first time the group has gotten involved with the PSC. âWe filed as an intervener because there wasnât really another conservation group that was going to step up to the table and we were well suited for this position.â
Kamrowski makes it abundantly clear that WWF supports renewable energy development in Wisconsin, and that includes the Vista Sands solar project. He says the group and its supporters are simply asking the PSC to reduce the size of the project by 20 to 30 percent. This reduction would encompass buffers between the large solar arrays and the neighboring conservation lands that serve as lekking grounds for prairie chickens. Their concern is that the vast solar arrays being built â along with the accompanying fences, roads, and other infrastructure â will harm local populations of the birds, which require large open landscapes to breed and thrive.
Read Next: Can Wildlife and Clean Energy Coexist in the West?
Although more research is needed around the effects of renewable energy projects on prairie chickens, past studies have shown that the birds will go out of their way to avoid power lines, roads, and other signs of human development. Similar conversations are underway in the West regarding renewable energy projects and sage grouse, a species thatâs closely related to prairie chickens thatâs also extremely sensitive to human development.
âWeâve been getting beat up a little bit just because there are plenty of groups out there that are [pushing] renewable energy at all costs â regardless of what the local impacts are,â Kamrowski says. âThatâs the really fine line that weâre trying to walk. We support renewable energy and solar, but we need to be mindful of localized wildlife impacts.â
Those impacts could (and likely would) extend to other species as well, he says. The Buena Vista Wildlife area and the surrounding public lands in Portage County are home to plenty of whitetails, wild turkeys, and coyotes, all of which provide opportunities for local hunters.
The Buena Vista Wildlife Area also provides hunting opportunities for whitetail deer, wild turkeys, and predators.Photo by Jim Hudgins / USFWS
Kamrowski clarifies that the current proposal for Vista Sands does not include building on public land, and the majority of acreage slated for development is privately owned agricultural lands. (Under the current framework, farmers are offering their acreage to Doral as part of a lucrative 25-year lease.) Many of the large solar arrays, however, would be built on acreage that abuts the scatter work of conservation lands in Portage County where prairie chickens and other critters are known to live.
Kamrowski voices two primary concerns with such an arrangement: In addition to cutting off migration routes and pushing out wild birds and critters, Kamrowski worries sportsmen and -women might be less likely to hunt among sprawling arrays of solar panels.
âIn hunter safety, they teach you to know your target and beyond, and if there are structures around instead of open farm fields, people arenât going to be shooting in that direction,â Kamrowski explains. âSo it does devalue the recreational value of that property to some degree.â
Hunters arenât alone in pushing back on the size and scale of the solar project, either. Kamrowski says WWF has been supported as intervener by other conservation nonprofits such as the Dane County Conservation League and the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology â both of which have acquired and worked to protect some of the best remaining prairie chicken habitat in and around the Buena Vista Wildlife Area.
âThatâs whatâs really powerful about all this. Youâve got hunting groups, and then youâve got non-consumptive birdwatching groups involved. That really speaks to the importance of this and the uniform message that everybody has.â
Whatâs Next for the ProjectIn July the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources released an Environmental Impact Statement for the Vista Sands Solar project. The DNR determined that the project, as currently proposed, could negatively impact the local prairie chicken population, and it gave recommendations for how the PSC should move forward on approval.
The DNRâs primary recommendation is to remove 10 of the proposed primary areas for solar arrays along with four alternate sites. The agency also asks regulators to consider alternate locations that would be less impactful to wildlife, since the company is currently leasing an additional 2,900 acres in the county that is not included in its current project footprint.
Kamrowski says the DNRâs recommendation lined up nicely with WWFâs own request to reduce the projectâs footprint by around 20 to 30 percent and establish a buffer zone between the solar arrays and their associated infrastructure and neighboring conservation lands.
âWe ended up doing a GIS analysis, and [the two] recommendations actually aligned perfectly ⌠the DNR just did [their analysis] by solar arrays and not by miles,â Kamrowski says. âSo weâve just said weâre going to adopt the DNRâs recommendation just to keep it consistent between the two.â
Kamrowski says the PSC has until January 2025 to make a decision on the Vista Sands project. The agency is currently accepting public comment on the project, but that window closes Friday. ( Click here to comment.) He says thereâs already been a flood of comments, but he hopes that more hunters will speak up and express their support for the DNRâs recommendation to scale down the project.
âItâs all about wildlife-responsible renewable energy siting,â Kamrowski says. âAnd I think we can find that balancing act.â
A Massive Solar Farm Is Slated for Wisconsin's Best Prairie Chicken Habitat (outdoorlife.com) |
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From: Brumar89 | 8/20/2024 12:29:25 PM | | | | Seal Island sees record number of breeding puffins
By Derrick Z. Jackson
August 17, 2024
Elsewhere, there are reminders that seabirds in the Gulf of Maine remain highly vulnerable.
Photo by Derrick Z. Jackson.
From a bird blind on Seal Island, I watched as puffins zoomed in from the sea with a rainbow of fish drooping from their beaks.
They carried copper and golden juvenile haddock, redfish and white hake. Others had pink krill from massive upwellings that created magenta blotches just offshore.
Some even carried bright silver herring: juicy fish that were once key prey for puffins in Maine. Atlantic herring are also a prime commodity for humans, who have overfished the species so badly that the fishery in New England has routinely been shut down early in recent years.
To see a number of puffins bringing herring to chicks was a stirring reminder of what the ocean can still offer.
Photos by Derrick Z. Jackson.Seal Island, which sits 21 miles off Rockland, was once home to the largest Atlantic puffin colony in the Gulf of Maine. It is now managed by the Audubon Seabird Institute, and was the second island that Audubonâs Project Puffin restored puffins to after a centuryâs absence spurred by hunting in the late 1800s. The first was Eastern Egg Rock, six miles off Pemaquid Point.
Both islands were seeded with puffin chicks brought from Newfoundland. Puffins began breeding anew on Eastern Egg Rock in 1981 and Seal Island in 1992.
RELATED STORY: Off the coast of Maine, puffins are rebounding and feasting on a new snack
This summer, despite the long-term warming of the Gulf of Maine and long-term increase in the severity of weather events, conditions were so uneventful that Seal Island set a record for breeding puffins.
The crew of Coco Faber, Amiel Hopkins, Liv Ridley, Reed Robinson and Nacho Gutierrez counted 672 active puffin burrows, about 100 more than the last census five years ago. The total number of known burrows surpassed 1,000 for the first time.
Photo by Derrick Z. Jackson.Other birds also did well. Razorbills, a larger cousin of the puffin, established a record 101 active burrows.
âThe weights for the puffin chicks were just so good,â said Faber, 30, the crew supervisor. âUnlike many recent years when there were big shifts or drops in what puffin parents could find, this was a summer where they steadily found fish.â
That buoyant mood was shared on Matinicus Rock, another island 23 miles from Rockland, also managed by the Seabird Institute. Crew supervisor Tracey Faber, Cocoâs sister, said that not only were the puffin chicks doing well, but Arctic tern and common tern nest numbers were up.
Common murres, another bird re-established in Maine after being gone for more than 100 years, fledged a record 16 chicks.
âWe saw some great growth in some birds,â Tracey Faber said.
Photos by Derrick Z. Jackson.But elsewhere there were reminders that seabird islands in the Gulf of Maine are highly vulnerable.
Earlier this month, researchers at the Gulf of Maine Seabird Working Group gathered at a conference hosted by the Seabird Institute in Bremen.
One topic was the damage caused by last winterâs violent storms, particularly on Petit Manan Island, which sits off a stretch of Downeast coastline that got hammered in January.
Photo by Derrick Z. Jackson.Island supervisor Amanda McFarland and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Linda Welch said the vast majority of natural sod burrows under relatively small rocks and artificial nesting structures were destroyed.
The artificial structures had been built by Welch over the years to entice puffins to breed higher up on the island.
This winterâs obliteration left puffin parents competing for available space, with multiple eggs in the same burrow complex and parents trying to roll unwanted eggs out of the way â puffins hatch and raise only one chick at a time.
âThere was a nest of a 30-year-old nesting pair that was shot down the shoreline 30 feet. We found burrow markers tossed all over the island,â said McFarland. âIt was so ironic and sad because the food for the puffins was so good.â
Photo by Derrick Z. Jackson.The islandâs puffins saw one of their lowest birth rates in recent years.
âWhen I saw the damage, I almost started to cry,â Welch said. âWe really need to think more than ever about taking a hard look at climate resilience for seabirds.â
Seal Island sees record number of breeding puffins (themainemonitor.org) |
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From: Brumar89 | 9/1/2024 1:43:18 PM | | | | Meet the man behind Maine's puffin resurgence Predators and human hunting had wiped puffins from islands off of Maine's coast. Dr. Stephen Kress had a wild idea to bring them back.
Author: Amanda Hill (NEWS CENTER Maine) Published: 9:50 AM PDT August 30, 2024 Updated: 10:42 AM PDT August 30, 2024
ST GEORGE, Maine â Maine has a puffin population thanks to one determined researcher who hatched a plan more than 50 years ago. His idea was to take newly hatched puffinsâalso known as pufflingsâ from Newfoundland and bring them back to Eastern Egg Rock, an island off the coast of Maine where they had once lived, but over the years had been killed off by predators and humans.
It was a wild idea at the time, but Dr. Stephen Kress thought maybe if they grew up on the island they'd come back to it as adults and keep breeding.
Despite a successful regrowth now, more than 50 years later, it was a slow start to his so-called Project Puffin.
"After about the first four years when none of the puffins came back, I was starting to, you know, wonder for sure," Kress said.
Every summer for those first four years, Kress and a team of researchers planted themselves on Eastern Egg Rock along with a new batch of pufflings taken from Canada's population, kept them safe, and watched them fledge never knowing if they'd return to the island.
"And because normally puffins are colonial birds, it would take a very brave puffin to land on an island all by itself. So my thinking around that was to try to put some decoys on the island to give them the impression there were other puffins there and eventually, I even played recordings of puffins, and eventually, I also put mirrors up to give the puffins something to look at that would move," Kress said. "They did land almost immediately. We had our first sighting within days of putting up the decoys."
Suddenly, the project and Kress felt rejuvenated. It was working.
Credit: Richard Podolsky Bill Bridgeland paints puffin decoys in 1975.
"It was super exciting because there had been so many critics and naysayers that said this was never going to work. It was a total miracle in my mind because what this meant was the chicks had learned, that rock was their home and they hadâat least a few of themâhad remembered that. There's thousands of islands in Maine alone so the puffins had to remember exactly how to get back to Egg Rock. So a few of them did, and that meant maybe more would, and that was the first sign of hope."
As one of the most successful rebuilds of a bird colony, Project Puffin hasn't just rekindled a population in Maine, Kress said Eastern Egg Rock and its surrounding islands have also become important training grounds.
"There's almost 1,000 young biologists that have been trained there at Eastern Egg Rock over the last 50 years and many of them are starting their own projects," Kress said. "Some of them have had careers of their own that were sparked by this experience, so that's kind of the new way I see Egg Rock and the other resort colonies on the coast to inspire the next generation of biologists."
More than five decades into this project, Kress said it's not only just the beginning of growing and supporting and learning from Maine's puffin population but also so much more.
"It's a new way of thinking about stewardship of the planet and how people have a responsibility to take care of life on Earth. We can't assume that nature will take care of all of these things because we have such a profound effect on the nature of this planet," he said.
Kress added that paying attention to how much plastic you're throwing away that will end up in the ocean, and how much carbon you're off-putting are simple ways to start helping.
Despite the incredible growth in the colony, without the teams of researchers who come back each summer, Kress says Maine's puffin population would easily be wiped out again by predators like peregrines, gulls, and eagles. So the project presses on. Kress is no longer involved, but he remains hopeful for its future.
"This hands-on active approach, that was the big surprise. And it worked so wonderfully that many other people are using these methods around the world. I know about 800 other projects in many countries helping about a third of the world's seabird species," Kress said. "And it's not just about the seabirds, these rich ocean spots at the seabirds are showing us, they're also important for fish, for sea turtles, for marine mammals, for all the wildlife that people care aboutâthat they should be concerned about."
Here's the man responsible for Maine's puffin resurgence | abc10.com |
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From: Brumar89 | 9/19/2024 1:46:37 PM | | | | As sandhill cranes ruin crops, Wisconsin weighs chemicals and hunting
Driving down a west Madison street, Dorothy Harms saw something that didnât seem to fit with the urban environment: a sandhill crane.
Harms is a Reedsburg farmer and while sheâs used to seeing sandhills in her neighborsâ fields, the city crane caught her by surprise.
Yet the large, long-legged birds with a croak-like call are not that rare these days. Their numbers have grown in Wisconsin, which is pleasant for those who enjoy watching them but not a universally positive experience.
Cranes can damage houses, car windows and golf courses. But statewide, their biggest impact is on agriculture. The sandhills cause $1.6 million in crop damage a year, according to a 2021 estimate provided by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Sandhill cranes are widely hailed as a conservation success story. While Wisconsin conservationist Aldo Leopold predicted in the 1930s that they would be extinct in the Upper Midwest, the population rebounded in the late 20th century and has been going strong ever since.
That means, in some sense, Wisconsin has been a victim of its own success.
âI think the crane population is going to continue to increase. I think there really does need to be a look at ... how do we kind of keep a balance with this?â
âI think the crane population is going to continue to increase,â Harms, who is president of the Sauk County Farmers Union, said. âSo I think there really does need to be a look at, you know, how do we kind of keep a balance with this?â
Hunters and some farmers have advocated for a hunting season to try to control the populations and limit the harm to agriculture. Ecologists argue that killing the birds wouldnât eliminate crop damage.
But there is another tool to deter cranes from mucking up a farmerâs corn crop: Avipel, a coating applied to seed that gives a bird an upset stomach, deterring them from trying to eat the plants again.
If used correctly, the treatment can keep more of a farmerâs crop intact â if they can afford to take on the risk that comes with applying Avipel.
Anne Lacy, director of Eastern Flyway Programs for the International Crane Foundation, spoke about Avipel during a recent town hall in Fort Atkinson focused on cranesâ impact on agriculture. She said experts are confident the âchemical itself worksâ but that other barriers must be overcome, such as cost or the need for farmers to juggle another step in the planting process.
âAll of these things are why it is not a solution yet because it is harder for farmers to use it,â Lacy said. âSo that is what we need to know and ⌠we all will, hopefully, work together in the Legislature to get these things solved.â
Farmers like Dave Mickelson can use Avipel, a seed treatment that deters birds from eating crops, but there are barriers to using the chemical.
Wisconsin crane count is up Each Christmas, bird lovers across the state will count the number of birds, with the 2023 count finding the most cranes in nearly a decade, according to International Crane Foundation data.
Over 12,000 cranes were spotted in Wisconsin last year, a far cry from the couple of thousand observed in 1982. The marked rise in the crane population has taken some getting used to.
Rick Gehrke, a corn farmer from Omro near Oshkosh, recalled his father having to take measures to fend off cranes on their property but noted the problem âis more and more widespread, at least in central Wisconsin where Iâm at.â
Frustration runs rampant for farmers in Wisconsin, with the land most desirable for row crop production in the south-central and eastern parts of the state also overlapping with the areas where cranes like to spend time. Some will stop in the state before continuing their trip south for the winter, while others will stay in Wisconsin through the colder months.
Brian Madigan, vice president of agronomy at Country Visions Co-op in Plymouth, recalled a farmer who had planted his crop late, which coincided with the cranesâ spring arrival in his field.
âIt was like 8 acres, just gone,â Madigan said, as he shared the farmerâs reaction. âLike, why did I even put the effort into planting it? And Iâm sure not going to replant it, because itâll just be the same thing again. Itâs like, âHereâs the buffet, come and get it.ââ
Cranes are territorial and typically claim a field as their own. The hatching season for chicks coincides with the spring planting season for farmers, creating a window for them to dig up seeds in search of bugs or other potential food.
Sandhill cranes, like these on Dave Mickelson's property in Leeds, often return to the same territory year after year.
Farmers often will try using cannons or other noise-making devices to scare off cranes, though Lacy said the birds will often wise up to the din and realize it isnât a threat.
Sandhill cranes are protected under federal law, though farmers can obtain a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that allows them to shoot and kill cranes to mitigate crop damage. About 200 of those permits are issued per year in Wisconsin, allowing farmers to remove 1,100 to 1,200 cranes, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Thatâs considered a last resort, however, and farmers must show theyâve exhausted all non-lethal methods before killing cranes.
Sporting organizations, such as the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association, and some farm groups have supported the idea of a hunt, arguing it could trim the population and give farmers who shoot and kill cranes the legal right to consume the birds, an option not available now. At least 15 states have crane hunts, mostly in the Rocky Mountain and Western states, though North Dakota and parts of Minnesota allow a hunt.
A fall hunt could curb the population of sandhills that would return to fields in the spring, said Bruce Ross, executive director of the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association.
âWeâre not steering by the rear view mirror,â Ross said. âWeâre looking through the windshield.â
Conservationists have argued that public polling indicates opposition to a hunt and that the limited number of licenses issued wouldnât resolve the crop damage or provide resources to help farmers.
âWith the level of a hunting season there will be for sandhill cranes, it will not raise enough money to cover all of it,â Lacy said.
Dave Mickelson has struggled with cranes wreaking havoc on his land. The birds cause an estimated $1.6 million in damage each year statewide.
Avipel comes with limitations, questions Others have tried to shift the discussion toward encouraging farmers to use Avipel, the seed treatment that dissuades cranes from disrupting crops.
Studies show Avipel is effective for cranes and other birds, such as geese and turkeys. A Cornell University study found that fields using seed treated with Avipel had higher yields than those which did not.
Dan Hirchert, Wisconsin state director with the U.S. Department of Agricultureâs Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said that Avipel isnât a âcure all,â in part because of the cost and burden placed on a farmersâ planning process. Still, he said, the chemical is a highly valuable option.
âThere would be pitchforks up in the air if we didnât have Avipel for use in Wisconsin,â Hirchert said.
But Avipel has its limitations. In 2019, the DNR estimated that only 160,000 acres of corn were treated with the chemical, a fraction of the 3.7 million acres of corn crop statewide.
It can be applied only to corn seed, meaning that those who harvest potatoes, wheat and cranberries â all of which grow differently than corn â are out of luck. And Avipel hasnât yet been certified as organic, which cuts off farmers who specialize in organic corn.
Pesticides in Wisconsin must be approved by both the Environmental Protection Agency, which requires tests to certify that a product is safe to put on crops, as well as the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
âWith the level of a hunting season there will be for sandhill cranes, it will not raise enough money to cover all of it.â
It is recommended that farmers use protective equipment when applying Avipel to seeds, much like other pesticides. Research compiled by the federal government shows the ingredients in Avipel have low acute toxicity, meaning they require high levels of exposure to make someone sick.
Gehrke, the Omro farmer, said he hopes that holds up over time.
âThere is a huge concern, especially long-term, of how this will affect (humans),â he said. âI know thereâs studies out there that say that itâs completely safe. I hope so.â
When a farmer buys their seed from a co-op, like the one Madigan works at, the distributor will effectively open a bag of seed, coat it with the liquid Avipel and seal it back up before giving it to the farmer. This can cause a couple of problems.
First, the Avipel coating takes more time and adds another step in the already messy planting process. In addition, this alteration of the seed means that a farmer canât swap it out for a different version if planting conditions change. And, if there is additional seed left over, they canât sell it back to the co-op, as Avipel is considered an aftermarket modification.
Then there is the expense. Avipel adds around 15% to the cost of seed per acre. For a large farm, that $10 to $15 per acre can really add up. Madigan said only 10-15% of farmers at his co-op generally treat their seed with Avipel.
âYouâre taking some risks to do it,â Madigan said.
The rising sandhill crane population means cranes are often spotted in urban and residential areas, like this Madison neighborhood.
How to âmake farmers wholeâ The DNR has a program that will pay for crop damage caused by a number of species, such as deer, bear, elk or geese.
The program also will give farmers money to prevent animals from wrecking their crops in the first place.
But the program is funded by part of the money hunters pay to harvest those various animals. Under state law, it can include sandhill cranes only if lawmakers authorize hunting them.
âThereâs a cost and who's going to pay that cost?â Harms, the Reedsburg farmer, said. âMore often than not, farmers seem like they end up being the end of the line.â
Lacy and the International Crane Foundation want the state to change its policies to help offset the costs farmers incur by purchasing Avipel. A state lawmaker, Rep. Dave Considine, D-Baraboo, proposed such an idea but hasnât seen it gain traction, Lacy said.
A panel of state lawmakers, farmers and conservation groups is looking at possible ways of addressing the rise in sandhill cranes.
That includes a hunt, as well as other means of boosting Avipel and other possible solutions for farmers.
Ross, the executive director of the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association, said that a hunt and the revenue it generates to aid farmers is a good idea but not âthe entire solution.â
Helping increase the availability of Avipel is a good idea, too, he said.
âIf youâre going to make farmers whole, it has to be a combination of a hunt to control that future population, maybe some access to that hunter depredation funding and also some sort of funding from some source to help offset the exorbitant costs of Avipel,â he said.
As sandhill cranes ruin crops, Wisconsin weighs chemicals and hunting | Government | captimes.com |
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From: Snowshoe | 10/4/2024 7:09:08 AM | | | | Birders argue over plan to change dozens of bird names npr.org
Say goodbye to Bachmanâs Sparrow, Scottâs Oriole and Townsendâs Warbler. Those three birds are among a half-dozen that will get renamed first under a plan by the American Ornithological Society to do away with common bird names that honor people.
But whether or not the society will keep going after that, and get rid of all eponymous bird names, remains to be seen.
Last year, the society announced a plan to do just that. The goal was to rename over a hundred North and South American birds, to purge bird names of links to racism and colonialism without having to engage in contentious and time-consuming debates about the morality of every historical figure that had ever been honored in a birdâs common name.
The sweeping move, however, surprised and upset many birders and ornithologists.
This week, opponents and proponents will get to have their say at the societyâs annual meeting in Colorado, which features a forum on Thursday to discuss the bird renaming plan.
âI cannot predict what is going to happen there,â says Kenn Kaufman, an author of field guides and a fellow of the society.
Heâs seen his fair share of birding controversies, like when birders debated whether they had to actually see a bird or just hear its call in order to add it to their birding life list.
This controversy, though, is in its own league, says Kaufman.
âSomething at this scale, I donât think has ever happened before,â he says. âThe decision was put out there, there was a very strong reaction in some quarters, and so the initial decision might wind up being altered.â
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From: Brumar89 | 10/6/2024 11:59:53 AM | | | | This is why cedar waxwings are special
by Bob Duchesne, Good BirdingSeptember 27, 2024
Cedar waxwings. Credit: Courtesy of Bob Duchesne
As soon as I was allowed to ride my bicycle there, my hometown library became one of my favorite destinations. It wasnât much more than a half-mile away. But to a fourth-grader, it felt like 10.
I was fascinated by all the books I could take home for free. I was even more fascinated by the cedar waxwings that frequented the mountain ash trees around the building.
The trees were right outside the library window. When the waxwings were feeding, they didnât care how close I was, because I was on the safe side of the glass. I could see every feather. That made a lifelong impression.
I still love them. And now that I know more about them, I love them even more.
Cedar waxwings are special.
Cedar waxwings could have been designed by a Renaissance painter. The colors blend subtly together. Pale brown on the head and chest blurs into delicate gray on the back and wings. The belly is a pale wash of yellow, not overdone. The colors fuse together, giving the bird a silky look.
Not yet satisfied, the painter adds a jaunty crest to the head and adorns the wings with waxy red beads, giving the bird its name. The tail is dipped in yellow wax. I could, and did, watch them for hours.
And that was long before I knew their other secrets.
Cedar waxwings are one of the most sociable species on the planet. They spend most of the year hanging out together in sizable flocks. About the only time they arenât gathered with friends is during the breeding season. Even then, they tend to form loosely organized nesting colonies.
A big flock needs a big food supply. Cedar waxwings are nomadic, wandering until they find a banquet table. Berries and fruit provide much of their diet. Many trees produce firm berries that donât soften until winter bruises them.
Waxwings roam around until they find just the right berries at the proper ripeness. Then they devour all they can stomach.
Sometimes overripe berries ferment. Yes, drunken cedar waxwings are a thing.
Cedar waxwings are comfortable around people. They have no problem gleaning berries from ornamental trees in populated areas. Ornamentals in shopping malls are a favorite. They scarcely notice when people walk out of the supermarket, wheeling a grocery cart right by the tree.
In the spring, before new berries come out, waxwings eat blossoms. They particularly like blossoms on apple and cherry trees. A few weeks later, wild strawberries are often the first fruit to ripen. Waxwings are commonly seen rising off the ground as they pluck the tiny berries off the stems.
By early summer, while still waiting for fruit to grow, waxwings will typically feed on flying insects. They are not as nimble in the air as swallows, but close. They compensate by flying from perches to snatch unwary bugs, or swooping over rivers and wetlands to grab a bite.
Cedar waxwings can also glean insects from vegetation, like warblers. Their ability to get food from multiple sources, using a variety of foraging strategies, has made the species particularly resilient. Populations have remained stable for decades, and are even increasing in some regions.
Cedar waxwings nest as far north as Hudson Bay, across most Canadian provinces. They nest as far south as Virginia, or even lower in the Appalachian highlands. Once off the nest, they can wander as far south as Panama.
Wandering birds share a characteristic. Long-distance migrants often have longer wings.
Nomadic birds may also fly long distances, but they do it in short hops. The most efficient way to fly with shorter wings is by quick bursts of flapping, then folding the wings into the body and coasting. This gives birds a bouncy look in flight.
Itâs particularly noticeable with finches and waxwings.
Birds that flock are usually noisy. Songs and calls help keep the flock together. Cedar waxwings are frequently heard before they are seen. Their reedy whistle is unlike any other bird call, except for their close cousins, Bohemian waxwings.
Bohemian waxwings are slightly larger and grayer than cedar waxwings. They nest farther north, with a range that extends over most of Alaska. They are also nomads. Even though their home range is west of the Great Lakes, they regularly sweep eastward in big flocks in search of winter fruit.
Cedar and Bohemian waxwings will likely invade this winter, and they donât mind sharing each otherâs company. Some flocks of cedar waxwings are already here.
Be sure to show them to your fourth-grader.
This is why cedar waxwings are special (bangordailynews.com) |
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From: Brumar89 | 10/9/2024 1:47:11 PM | | | | 4 things to know about fall bird migration, according to a Wisconsin naturalist Songbird migration is nearing its peak in the state
By Clara Neupert October 8, 2024
Sandhill Cranes in flight at sunrise at Crex Meadows in Grantsburg, Wisconsin. Lorie Shaull (CC BY 2.0)
During peak migration, more than 15 million birds can journey through Wisconsin skies in one night. The nocturnal migrants include the American Redstart, Magnolia Warbler and the Swainsonâs Thrush. These species join thousands of other birds making their way south for the winter.
Naturalist Bill Volkert is a yearly witness to the hustle and bustle, and he has the numbers to show for it. Vokert has sighted more than 4,300 species of birds. His goal: To see half of the 11,000 species of birds in his lifetime.
The retired wildlife educator returned to WPRâs â The Larry Meiller Showâ to talk about the wonders of our feathered voyagers.
See different areas of Wisconsin and thousands of bird species You can go most anywhere in the state and find a good spot where birds are both nesting in summer and stopping over this time of the year, Volkert said.
Hot spots include the Horicon Marsh and the Mississippi River. If youâre headed to the marsh, Volkert recommends getting there by late afternoon and staying until sunset. Around 6 p.m., birds will return from feeding and gather for the night.
Find more places to birdwatch at Travel Wisconsin.
A Redstart at Horicon Marsh. Photo courtesy of Jack Bartholmai
However, watching the actual migration flights take place can be a challenge.
âWe usually donât see most of the birds really flying in migration,â Volkert said. âWe see them more stopping over and gathering in flocks to refuel and rest, because most of the migration, especially for songbirds, takes place at night.â
When theyâre migrating, birds typically fly between 2,000 and 5,000 feet in the air. Thatâs because theyâre searching for favorable winds.
Itâs common to see birds like Canada geese flying at lower altitudes during the day. Volkert calls those âfeeding flights,â and explained that the geese are traveling between their feeding and resting sites.
Migration is one of the greatest phenomena in the natural worldVolkert spends a lot of time in nature and said migration is one of those things that never ceases to amaze him.
Take for example the sandpiper, who makes flights of 8,000 to 10,000 miles each way. And new technology and research has revealed that some birds are capable of making these long flights almost nonstop.
â(Migration) is just a wonderful way to gauge the changing seasons as the different birds arrive and as they leave again,â Volkert said.
Sandpipers. Courtesy UW-Green BayAnd yet, thereâs mystery!
Scientists know more information than ever about what makes birds tick, but Volkert said part of the intrigue around migration is in the questions that remain.
Recently, scientists uncovered that migrating birds return to the exact same tree and nest perch every year.
And thereâs still more to uncover about how birds navigate. We know a few of the environmental cues they rely on, which vary by species. Volkert said birds use winds, geographic features like rivers and mountains and stars.
But we donât know how birds find their way when the night sky is cloudy. One theory is electromagnetic fields. An experiment done in the 1970s showed that attaching magnets to a pigeonâs head disoriented the birds and made them unable to fly home.
Another mystery is the parenting methods of shorebirds. Adult shorebirds leave young behind at their nesting grounds and go south. The baby bird is able to migrate alone, a distance of up to 7,000 miles.
Wisconsin has an estimated breeding population of more than half a million ducks, according to the Wisconsin DNR. Photo courtesy of Dave Bowers/Ducks Unlimited
Migration patterns offer clues to how well birds are surviving a changing worldMigrating birds will face many challenges during their flights south, Volkert said. Their winter and summer habitats are shrinking, as well the stopover sites they use as refuge while they rest and refuel. There are tall buildings with deceiving windows, looming communication towers and predatory outdoor cats.
âThe worldâs just basically getting more dangerous for birds,â Volkert said.
In order to reduce window strikes at his home, Volkert installed little adhesive strips about 4 inches apart on his windows. Thatâs reduced collisions from 10 to 12 a year to zero.
Additionally, predation by domestic cats is the No. 1 human-caused threat to birds in the U.S. and Canada. Several audubon societies urge owners to keep their felines inside or consider an alternative like building a âcatio.â
âThese birds have been here with us for so long, and they have a place in nature,â Volkert said. âWeâve just basically got to give them that place that they need and make it safe for them.â
4 things to know about fall bird migration, according to a Wisconsin naturalist - WPR |
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From: Brumar89 | 10/19/2024 11:27:29 AM | | | | Warblers and gnatcatchers are among the migratory songbirds arriving in Houston for fall© Kathy Adams Clark, Kathy Adams Clark/KAC Productions
Orange-crowned warblers and other autumn migrants have begun to arrive in area neighborhoods and yards.
Istroll through my densely wooded neighborhood at dawn as the earth awakens to the chittering, chattering and singing of chickadees, titmice, cardinals and other songbirds. Thier melodies greet the coming of a new day.
After decades of listening to songbirds with varied vocalizations, I know their names by their voices as easily as I know my children, grandchildren, friends and, yes, my wife by their voices. Recently, Iâve heard the voices of migratory songbirds arriving from northern breeding grounds to spend the winter here or to rest before heading to ancestral winter homes south of the border.
The brief, chip-chip vocalization of a Tennessee warbler that breeds across Canada and bordering U.S. states caught my ear. The bird didnât stay long because it was hurrying to southern Mexico and Central America for the winter.
But when I heard the unique chipping notes of an orange-crowned warbler, it was like hearing an old friend from northern breeding grounds spending every winter in my yard.
Bird migration is mind-numbingly complex. Simply stated, autumnâs migratory songbirds undergo hormonal changes induced by dwindling daylight and the sunâs position in the sky that impel them to migrate southward.
Neotropical songbirds that breed in many parts of North America usually migrate to ancestral tropical lands after the breeding season. Other migratory songbirds in North America travel to the southern tier of the continent, including the Houston region.
Migratory songbirds are insectivores, meaning their main diet depends on an ample supply of insects. But on more northern breeding grounds, bitter cold weather means insufficient insects. That explains why some migratory songbirds head to temperate southern climates like Houston, where insects abound during winter. But many neotropical songbirds are hard-wired to head to Latin American winter homes.
On my morning walks, Iâve routinely seen migratory songbirds, like orange-crowned warblers, that will remain in Houston area neighborhoods for the winter. But their winter plumage is a drab grayish green, rarely showing their signature orange crown. You can identify them by faint streaking on the underside.
Other migratory songbirds here for the winter include blue-gray gnatcatchers that breed in many parts of North America, including north Texas. They utter a scratchy bee-beee or cat-like zeee sound. Being incessantly curious, the birds will hop into view on a twig and cock their heads at me as if to say, âAnd who are you?â
Fall's migratory songbirds arrive in Houston
- Yellow-rumped warblers are among the more common insect-eating northern songbirds that migrate here for the winter.
- They used to be separated into two species, the myrtle warbler in the east and the Audubonâs warbler in the west, until studies found they were the same species.
- The âAudubonâ variety generally breeds west of the Rockies, while the âMyrtleâ variety typically breeds east.
- Yellow-rumped warblers begin arriving for winter residence in the Houston region in September and increase in numbers from October to early November.
- The bird has an unusual gastrointestinal system that enables it to digest wax myrtle berries, hence its original name, âmyrtle warbler.â
- Look for the birds foraging among backyard trees and shrubs.
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From: Brumar89 | 10/23/2024 1:30:23 PM | | | | With plan to revive extinct passenger pigeon species, researchers are testing Wisconsin trees
Conservationists want to gauge how local forests would respond to the reintroduction of the species
By Lorin Cox October 22, 2024
Scientists prepare Martha, right, an extinct passenger pigeon, once the most plentiful bird on the planet, who went extinct in September 1914 when Martha died in public at the Cincinnati zoo, at the Smithsonianâs Natural history Museum. Susan Walsh/AP Photo
If you have an old tree on your property, its branches likely hosted passenger pigeons long ago.
The species has been extinct for over a century now, but researchers are testing trees in Wisconsin to look for signs of the passenger pigeonâs role in the ecosystem. The plan is to bring the bird back and slowly reintroduce it to the forests they once roamed.
Scientist Ben Novak is leading the research for the nonprofit Revive and Restore, which focuses on biotechnology in conservation. Heâs partnering with Steve Apfelbaum from the Applied Ecological Institute in Wisconsin to test local trees to see how well they would respond to the reintroduction of the species.
Then, Novak and his team would use DNA editing to breed new passenger pigeons from existing pigeon species, with the hopes of building back the population that was hunted to extinction in the early 1900s.
Novak joined WPRâs â Wisconsin Todayâ to discuss the project and Wisconsinâs history of the passenger pigeon.
The following was edited for clarity and brevity.
Rob Ferrett: Tells us the story of the passenger pigeon. What was its role in Wisconsin and how did it go extinct?
Ben Novak: Back in 1955, a man named A.W. Schorger basically wrote the book on the history of the passenger pigeon, and he was from Wisconsin. He used a lot of historic records from Wisconsin to piece together what we know about passenger pigeons.
Basically, what made that species so famous was in the early 1800s, before they went extinct in 1914, they were the most abundant bird in North America â likely the most abundant bird on the planet.
And because they were so abundant, just like the American bison, they were easy to go out and kill and trap a whole lot at once. So, they were fed upon by people in the millions.
Industrial-scale hunting went out to get them for commercial food markets, and in a matter of just a couple decades, they went from 5 billion birds to just a few thousand birds flying about. The very last birds were killed in the wild in 1902 around Indiana and Illinois. And then there were just a few of them living in a zoo at Cincinnati, and they slowly died off.
RF: What is it about the passenger pigeonâs role in the ecosystem that has you and your colleagues wanting to bring them back?
BN: These flocks of a billion birds would cause mayhem in the forest. And while that sounds counterintuitive, what we know in forestry science today is that beautiful, big oak trees and a host of different species that we think of as so iconic, theyâre dependent on things like forest fires and storms.
These disturbance events come in and cause damage in the forest so that sunlight can get down to the forest floor and allow new growth to start over. They rely on what we call the forest cycle to go over and over again from disturbance and regeneration and succession.
For decades, people thought the primary driver of these disturbance events that are so vital to the biodiversity of forests were mainly from storms and fires, but people had kind of forgotten about the passenger pigeon. These flocks of billions of birds would come into the forest, overcrowd on branches, break branches and entire trees down from their weight.
Then, as they ate the food over a few days, they built up a whole lot of guano, several inches deep on the forest floor like a blanket, and that snuffed out everything much like a fire would clear out the vegetation of a forest floor. But unlike a fire or a storm, this is more like a tornado dropping fertilizer on the forest.
All we have are these anecdotes that wherever these passenger pigeons roosted or nested for a few weeks at a time would be the greenest patch of forest or the most rich future farmland. Thatâs our basic value proposition for the idea of bringing these birds back into the ecosystem.
Ornithologist A.W. Schorger recorded historic nesting and roosting sites for the passenger pigeon, which have been compiled and mapped by scientist Sam Matey. Screenshot of interactive map from ArcGISRF: What kind of passenger pigeon research are you working on in Wisconsin?
BN: Wisconsin was home to the largest nesting record in history. Weâre hoping to engage with local landowners whose land may have actually once been host to a nesting site of passenger pigeons.
If anyone in Wisconsin has a tree in their yard that is over 150 years old, I guarantee that tree had passenger pigeons on its branches at one point in time, and thatâs a direct connection to that past. We want to start using that connection to learn more and possibly create an experiment where we could actually figure out if what we hypothesize about this important role in the forest is correct and accurate, and how significant it actually will be to the future of forests.
RF: How would you actually bring the extinct species back to existence?
BN: The idea is that we can sequence their DNA from the specimens you find in museums. If we can figure out the differences in their DNA that are responsible for their unique traits â the things that made passenger pigeons flock in these dense, large flocks, that created these forest disturbances â then we can then use modern gene editing technology and take a living relative and change its DNA to start to match that of the extinct passenger pigeon.
RF: How long do you think it would take to bring passenger pigeons back this way?
BN: We believe we can probably start recreating the bird between 2029 and 2032. So hopefully, in the 2030s we have a flock of birds living in an aviary that is starting to look and behave like historic passenger pigeons. Thatâs where the real conservation work begins, similar to how peregrine falcons were restored to the eastern forests or whooping cranes in the central U.S. People have to breed those birds, and these aviaries condition them to get back out into the wild and then produce enough of them to form sustaining flocks in the wild. And that can take decades.
With plan to revive extinct passenger pigeon species, researchers are testing Wisconsin trees - WPR |
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