This week in birds - #67

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

Kentucky Warbler photo by Greg Lavaty, courtesy of American Bird Conservancy.

The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is the beautiful little Kentucky Warbler, a bird of bottomland hardwood forests of the southeastern United States and up the Atlantic Coast during the breeding season. The bird winters in tropical lowland and foothill forests in southeastern Mexico into northern South America. It is a bird of concern to conservationists because its population is declining. 

*~*~*~*

I'm sure you've seen or heard stories this spring about the periodical cicadas, the amazing insects that spend seventeen years underground. They come out for just a few weeks in order to mate and produce offspring that will then burrow underground and stay there for another seventeen years and then the parents die. Well, the insects that went underground in 1996 are just beginning to emerge and it is expected to be a cacophonous summer wherever they are present.

*~*~*~*

Conservationists are concerned the wind farms are not being prosecuted for the killing by their turbines of eagles and other birds protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. They charge that the government is turning a blind eye to abuses and are calling for stronger enforcement of the law.

*~*~*~*

New research seems to confirm that birds that are normally thought to be tolerant of human activity are ten times more likely to abandon their nests due to excessive human stress. One of the birds mentioned in the study is the small colorful falcon, the American Kestrel.

*~*~*~*

Wildlife groups in the UK are calling for tighter regulation on the shipping of certain chemicals after spills at sea of those chemicals have killed up to 4,000 seabirds off the southwestern coast of England. 

*~*~*~*

Scientists at the Center for Conservation Biology have tracked 3 Whimbrels from wintering areas on the coast of Brazil on a nonstop, 4,000 mile (6,400 kilometer) flight to the Gulf of Mexico. This flight represents the third leg of a previously unknown loop migration route and connects four widely scattered locations in the conservation of this declining species.

*~*~*~*

Researchers observing Reed Warblers noted that the males would aggressively try to chase off their competition and attempt to keep their double-dealing mates in line. However, once the chicks were hatched, they would care for them regardless of who the father was.

*~*~*~*

Once introduced for biological pest control, Asian lady beetle (Harmonia axyridis) populations have been increasing uncontrollably in the US and Europe since the turn of the millennium. The species has been proliferating rapidly in Germany. Conservationists fear that the aggressive Asian lady beetle will out-compete and displace native lady beetle species.

*~*~*~*

Climate change is affecting where waterfowl spend their winters. Scientists are finding that many of them do not go as far south as they used to. Indeed, many stay quite near their breeding grounds.

*~*~*~*

Birding is Fun! featured the beautiful Blue Grosbeak this week. Which just served to remind me that I have not seen a single Blue Grosbeak this spring. Normally, I get a few through my yard in the spring but not this year. At least not when I've been looking.

*~*~*~*

Looking at the isotopes of 250 bones from Hawaiian Petrels (Pterodroma sandwichensis), scientists have been able to reconstruct the birds' diets over the last 3,000 years. They found an unmistakable shift from big prey to small prey around 100 years ago, just when large, modern fisheries started scooping up fish at never before seen rates. The dietary shift shows that modern fisheries upended predator and prey relationships even in the deep ocean and have possibly played a role in the decline of some seabirds.

*~*~*~*

Peregrine Falcons have been one of the success stories resulting from the banning of DDT in the United States and the implementation of the Endangered Species Act. They have made a strong comeback in the Midwest and Indiana is now considering delisting the bird from its state endangered species.

*~*~*~*

Around the backyard:

I haven't seen a Pine Siskin in my yard for a few days now. It is possible that the last of the winter finches have finally moved north.

Today, I enjoyed watching a pair of Brown-headed Nuthatches feed at my backyard feeders. Sweet little birds!

Female Rose-breasted Grosbeak enjoying a sunflower seed.

I've continued to have a few Rose-breasted Grosbeaks passing through this week. The last one I saw was an adult female at the feeders two days ago. It's been a good year for seeing Rose-breasted Grosbeaks but none of their blue cousins.

Other birds absent from the yard this spring have been the buntings. I haven't seen a single Painted or Indigo Bunting here.  It's not so unusual not to see the Painted but most years I do have a good number of Indigos coming through the yard and visiting my feeders. Not this year.