This week in birds - #99

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

Blue-winged Teal are just one of the many species of ducks that visit our area in winter. The ponds and wetlands are teeming with water birds of all kinds at this time of year.

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The eyes of the world (not including my own) will be on Sochi for the Olympics for the next couple of weeks. Russia pulled out all the stops to try and get ready to host the world for these Olympics. Unfortunately, their all-out effort was very destructive to the environment, including a wetland where 65 species of birds, including some that are endangered, used to make their home. The Russians have replaced the wetland with a manicured and manufactured "ornithological park," but there isn't a bird in sight. (*Update below.)

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The debacle in Atlanta during the recent snow event there simply reinforced how ill-prepared some, perhaps most, American cities are to deal with even minor climate-caused emergencies.

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Meanwhile, summer in Australia has meant that that country has had to deal with a different kind of climate emergency - bushfires. These fires have threatened some of Australia's rare bird species.

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Painted Buntings are gorgeous birds. Many would say that they are the most beautiful of North American birds. Their beauty may possibly bring about the devastation of the species, however. There is a flourishing trade among disreputable people who trap the birds to sell as caged birds. The thought of one of these wild birds being doomed to live out its life in a cage is enough to break my heart.

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New studies of sediments from the Ice Age indicate that wooly mammoths and other large mammals probably became extinct because of changes in vegetation that were brought about by climate change.

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One of our oldest animal protection laws, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, passed 96 years ago, makes is unlawful to hunt, kill, or harm in any way some 800 listed species of birds. However, some conservationists complain that the law is not being enforced uniformly or in a transparent way.

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Two Pink-footed Geese from Iceland have turned up in a field near Baltimore, delighting birders in the area. The geese normally winter in Europe, so they are just about 3,000 miles off-course.

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California is suffering a severe drought which is drying up rivers and streams all over the state.  As a result, the state Fish and Game Commission has closed many areas to fishing in an attempt to save threatened salmon and trout. There is fear that the drought may be pushing the coho salmon into extinction.

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Snowy Owls can operate as either diurnal or nocturnal hunters, depending on the circumstances. A research project is attempting to discover which is their preference - which will they choose when both options are available.

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Loss of habitat, use of chemical fertilizers, and human encroachment is causing Nepal to lose its bird population. As of 2011, the country had 149 species on the threatened list.

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While most of the attention has been on the extremely cold temperatures suffered in much of the country, Alaska has been having to cope with an unusually warm winter. In fact, most of the Arctic area is having an exceptionally warm winter.

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Many bird species gather in large flocks to roost in winter. The blackbird family is especially known for this, but the flocks are especially dramatic when they are composed of large birds like crows and this can sometimes be disconcerting to some onlookers.

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Around the backyard:

I'm refilling the bird feeders every day now, trying to keep my hungry horde of backyard birds fed.

One bird that hasn't been emptying my feeders so far this winter is the neatly dressed little White-throated Sparrow. I usually have at least of few of them in my yard at this time of year, but I haven't seen a single one here this winter.

Another absentee this winter has been the handsome iridescent Common Grackle. This one was a visitor last winter, but although their cousins the Red-winged Blackbird and Brown-headed Cowbird have both been present, I've yet to see any grackles in the yard.

Only one more week until the Great Backyard Bird Count. Maybe some of my absentees will show up then.

*Update 02/09/14: For more on the destruction of the environment around Sochi, see this story in Salon.com today.