Indholdsfortegnelse for November/December 2021 i BirdWatching

CONSERVATION More than 100 oiled birds, including this Tricolored Heron, egrets, and ducks, were found near New Orleans following the impact of Hurricane Ida in late August. They were seen within heavy pockets of crude oil outside a refinery. BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY Professional bird photographer Marie Read offers tips for taking photos of owls, cardinals, and other birds during winter. Frost, ice, and snow, she notes, “can result in unique and dramatic bird photos that transcend standard portraits.” Follow, like, and share! FACEBOOK: BirdWatchingMagazine INSTAGRAM: @birdwatchingmagazine TWITTER: @BirdWatchDaily FLICKR: BirdWatching group photo pool…

AS RECORD-BREAKING TEMPERATURES, droughts, fires, and hurricanes ravage so much of the continent in 2021, some news outlets have published stories about the best places to take refuge from climate change. Virtually all list Minnesota, and several mention Duluth, where I live. Like many places, Duluth had our hottest ever meteorological summer (June-July) this year. The hottest temperature on record for Duluth, set in 1930, remains 97°F. But so many days in the 80s and 90s damage northern ecosystems. The heat combined with a severe drought killed many birches and conifers outright and contributed to the devastation of the Greenwood fire, which destroyed one of the best winter birding spots for Spruce Grouse in the state. These gorgeous but elusive birds need mature spruce forests, so it may be more…

Many escaped from cages, whereas others were brought over to be hunted, to beautify the landscape, or in ultimately futile attempts to control insect pests. One infamous case involved William Shakespeare. But although the reasons behind them have changed, avian introductions into the United States have been a constant presence since well before the founding of the country. Including Hawai’i, as well as species that have been transplanted across state lines, like House Finches and Wild Turkeys, there are now over 100 non-native U.S. species believed to have self-sustaining breeding populations (plus a plethora of less-established feral species). The first to arrive was likely the Red Junglefowl, the primary ancestor of the domestic chicken, sailed to Hawai’i by Polynesian settlers several centuries ago. Ever-present Rock Pigeons joined the fray in…

One day in the waters around the Channel Islands off California, a curious whale approached and surfaced next to the skiff I was in. The visitor’s sleek topside stretched for 40 feet in front of the craft and for another 40 behind, and its breath shot water vapor 30 feet into the sky. This was a blue whale — 100-ton body, heart the size of a smart car, tongue that matches the weight of an elephant, and all the other superlatives that go with being the biggest breed of animal nature ever concocted. To have one visit so close that I could have reached out and touched it felt like an honor. That blue whale encounter came during a period a couple decades ago when I was getting out of…

KEY FIELD MARKS WHAT TO LOOK AND LISTEN FOR Arelativelysmalldivingduck with a short bill and steep forehead. Long central tail feathers conspicuous on male. Complexanddistinctivefacepattern at all seasons, with males and females both showing changes between winter and summer plumages. Darklowerchestandwhite belly in all plumages; upperparts vary from mostly white to entirely dark. Solidlydarkaboveandbelow, without white markings, contrasting with pale body plumage in flight. Lonebirdsoftensilent but in flocks, males frequently give a far-carrying, musical, yelping call that could be written as Long-tailed Duck, winter male March in Ocean County, New Jersey COLD NORTHERN WATERS around the globe are home to one of the most distinctive of all waterfowl, the Long-tailed Duck. This beautiful diver breeds on Arctic tundra across North America, Europe, and Asia,…

EVERY TIME I hear someone disclose that they are “bored,” I thank my lucky stars that I’m a birdwatcher. While I do know what it means to be bored, having been pinned in a corner at parties by individuals who search for a subject you know nothing about and then expound upon it, ad nauseam, I cannot recall a single time when, left to my own devices, I was bored. As long as birds exist and I have the latitude to engage them, life is a sensory and intellectual feast. When Maurice Broun was dying of cancer, he birded from his hospital bed. His last bird, as I recall, was Black-crowned Night-Heron. Quok. Inspired by his example, while I was in the ICU following a wee bit of a stroke,…

Alexander Blanco shouts in panic, “hold the back rope!” Yet it is too late — a mistake with the cables has been made, and the researcher crashes through the canopy of the Venezuelan rainforest, 115 feet (35 meters) to the ground. Twisted in the rope with Blanco is a Harpy Eagle chick that he was bringing down to receive a tracking transmitter. Blanco suffered several broken bones in the January 2014 fall, but the eagle was unharmed. The fall and his recovery, he hopes, will mirror the fate of the species. The Harpy Eagle — named for the half-human, half-bird wind spirits of Greek mythology who bore evil-doers to just punishment — is a massive and awe-inspiring bird that has fascinated humans since long before European arrival. Across the Americas,…

THE JOYS OF bird photography aren’t defined simply by capturing photos for social media and producing prints or online galleries. They also embrace travel to appealing destinations, as well as the pursuit of the cameras and lenses to achieve one’s artistic vision. Whether you’re a beginner wide-eyed with excitement or a seasoned hobbyist or pro, it’s a challenge to quell the notion that the lens you have at hand may not be the perfect tool for the image task lists of your imagination. Something as simple as seeing an exciting image in a magazine or on an online forum, or a new product review in print or on YouTube, can spark that nagging urge to replace your gear with that special lens you’re convinced will propel your work to the…

SOMETIMES, SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES result from ingenious experiments. And other times, they’re serendipitous. This story is the latter. Ornithologist Jack Dumbacher, who since 2003 has been the curator of ornithology and mammalogy at the California Academy of Sciences, has interest in molecular ecology. One morning in 1990, while on expedition in Papua New Guinea, Dumbacher caught several songbirds in a mist net. As he removed a Hooded Pitohui from the net, his finger was cut. He felt tingling and then burning. He put the finger in his mouth to ease the pain and then his tongue started to tingle and burn for hours. Later, the scientist in him took over, and he put a pitohui feather in his mouth. Yes, the pain returned. He had just discovered the first toxic (poisonous)…

DNA study finds distinct Caribbean species of Sharp-shinned Hawk Of the 10 recognized subspecies of Sharp-shinned Hawk, three are found on large neighboring islands of the Caribbean: Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico. While their populations and ranges are small, scientists have long presumed that they mix with migratory Sharp-shins from the vast North American mainland population, resulting in less attention from conservation agencies and nonprofits. A new study of the DNA of Caribbean Sharp-shins, however, has found that the subspecies are genetically distinguishable as their own clade, meaning they evolved from a common ancestor. Furthermore, the research shows the subspecies are different enough from each other genetically and by plumage to be considered separate species. The authors of the study, published in the July issue of the journal Ornithology, propose…

BOOK 100 Flying Birds: Photographing the Mechanics of Flight By Peter Cavanagh, Firefly Books, 2021, hardover, 320 pages, $49.95. Wildlife photographer Peter Cavanagh has been taking pictures since he was a boy in England. In this new book, he displays his love of birds and his talent with the camera. After all, flight photography is perhaps the most challenging of bird-photography tasks, but Cavanagh does not fail to impress. For instance, readers will view a White-tailed Eagle plummeting through a Japanese sky, a Brown Pelican striking a silhouette against an Ecuadorian sunset, an Atlantic Puffin carrying its fish dinner above the Scottish coast, and a Keel-billed Toucan gliding through a Costa Rican jungle canopy. The 11 chapters focus on the following groups of images: eagles; hummingbirds; gulls and terns; small…

Along the Pacific coast of Mexico, including within the Gulf of California, lie 20 islands that host, may host, or have hosted breeding colonies of the spectacular Red-billed Tropicbird. (The species also breeds on more islands farther south, including the Galápagos, in the Caribbean and Atlantic, and around the Arabian Peninsula.) A 2018 report in the journal Waterbirds estimates that Mexico’s population ranges from about 1,900-2,725 breeding pairs. The largest colony by far — 1,250-1,650 pairs — is on Peña Blanca, which lies off the country’s central Pacific coast in Colima. The next largest colonies are on Farallón de San Ignacio (150-288 pairs) and San Pedro Mártir (150-190 pairs), both in the Gulf of California. Author Alberto Piña-Ortiz and colleagues wrote: “The portion of the population that breeds in Mexico…

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