This week in birds - #59

A roundup of this week's news of birds and the environment:

(Photo by James Ownby, courtesy of American Bird Conservancy.)

The beautiful Lark Bunting is an American sparrow of the short-grass prairies of the mid-North American continent.  It is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. Its continued survival is threatened by loss of habitat, use of pesticides, and predation by domestic pets. Its population has been declining over the past several years.

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Overwintering flocks of waterfowl, like the Snow Geese seen in the above photo, will soon be wending their way northward. Indeed, some are already on the move. In this, they join many of our songbirds which have started their migration northward - for example, the American Goldfinches that abandoned my yard this week. Moreover, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are already being reported all along the Gulf Coast, so I would expect to see them in my yard soon. It's all part of the constantly changing kaleidoscope of bird life.

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Sand and gravel mining companies in Nebraska are cooperating with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission in an effort to protect the endangered Piping Plover and Least Tern. The companies are making efforts to ensure that their activities do not present added risks to the birds' survival.  

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More and more White Storks, which historically migrated from Europe to Africa to spend the winters, are now living year-round in Europe. Scientists are investigating the links between the birds' changing habits and global warming.

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Wild pollinators, such as native bees, are much more effective and efficient at pollination than the domesticated or feral honeybee. They are in serious decline, primarily because of use of pesticides, right around the world. Their destruction would present perhaps insurmountable obstacles for the continuation of life on Earth.

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The blog 10,000 Birds has an interesting look at the reintroduction of the Whooping Crane in the eastern United States, primarily Florida, and explores the ancestry of the big birds.

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Human residences can impact bird populations and nesting habits up to 200 meters away. Some birds, like the Hermit Thrush and Scarlet Tanager, are extremely sensitive to human presence and refuse to nest nearby. Others - Carolina and Black-capped Chickadees, Blue Jays, Purple Martins, Eastern Bluebirds, for example - do not appear to mind humans being nearby and indeed they may perceive that they gain some protection from predators by the human presence.

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The Center for Birds of Prey in South Carolina treats injured and ill birds of prey of many species and from a wide area of the country. They treat more than 500 birds a year, providing rehabilitation services and reintroduction to the wild.

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Shell has essentially acknowledged that it is unable to drill for oil safely in the Arctic at present and has suspended its operations there. This is after several embarrassing mishaps in the past year. They maintain that they do still see drilling in the Arctic as a long-term possibility.

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Two dozen of the Guillemots that were rescued in the seas off the southern coast of England after being covered in a sticky oily substance have been rehabilitated and released into the wild.

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The U.S. Navy is formulating and implementing plans to address the problem of global climate change by moving to the use of greener sources of energy. Meanwhile, in the halls of Congress, the climate change deniers continue their obstructionism.

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Around the backyard:

Some winter visitors may be leaving, but the Rufous Hummingbirds are still here.

And still on guard to evict any interlopers!

White-throated Sparrows are still searching the ground underneath the feeders for fallen seeds.

And even though their cousins, the goldfinches, have moved on, the Pine Siskins are still here in force.

Earlier this week, I saw this pair of Mourning Doves courting on the telephone wire over the back boundary of the yard. Will they be nesting in the pine tree again this year? We should know soon.