By Drew on December 23, 2006
For a great animated flick with a hint conservation I would recommend the new movie,
Happy Feet. The main theme is about a young Emperor Penguin who can’t sing the typical mate attracting song, but rather has a knack for dancing.
The Independent in the UK recently had an article about the dramatic decline of the Rockhopper (Eudyptes chrysocome), one of the penguin species featured in the film. There has been almost a 30% decline of Rockhoppers on the Falkland Islands in the last five years according to RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). And looking at figures from 1932, when there were approximately 1.5 million Rockhopper pairs, the decline is around 85%.
The cause for the decline isn’t exactly clear but theories range from algae blooms linked to climate change to a massive shift in the ecology of the Southern Ocean. The algae blooms affected the 2002-03 breeding season and the Rockhoppers have not been able to recover from that although other species such as the Gentoo Penguin have made a comeback.
Alarming is the fact that of the worlds 17 penguin species, Rockhoppers are one of 7 species with an IUCN listing of vulnerable plus there are 3 species that are listed endangered.
Posted in Bird News, Conservation Issues, penguins |
By Drew on December 21, 2006
As an intern at Hawk Mountain this past fall I was privileged to be there for an excellent season. Records set included:
-the 4th highest one-day Broad-winged Hawk count (7,508)
-a tie for the one-day Northern Harrier record (36)
-season record for Golden Eagles (164)
-season record for Merlins (204)
-tied for season record for Peregrine Falcons (62)
-Mississippi Kite (1, 5th record)
Also, Turkey and Black vultures, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Cooper’s Hawks, and Red-tailed Hawks, Bald Eagles, Osprey and Northern Harriers all had above average counts making this a great season not just for the 11,801 Broad-winged Hawks we counted, but 11 other raptor species as well.
On December 6th at 11:40am Hawk Mountain reached another milestone with a Red-tailed Hawk being the 25,000th raptor of the season. There have only been six other seasons since 1934 that have counted over 25,000 raptors from North Lookout and the last time Hawk Mountain reached that number was 1986, 3 years after I was born. I was lucky enough to be on North Lookout for that special Red-tail.
Things have changed since the last time Hawk Mountain reached 25,000. This time around it is not just one species that made the record but 12 species that are higher than their 10-year average. This means that species diversity is higher with the rarer species doing better now than 20 years ago.
Here are the final counts from Aug. 15-Dec.15 2006.
Black Vulture: 85
Turkey Vulture: 450
Northern Goshawk: 15
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 5,480
Cooper’s Hawk: 930
Unidentified Accipiter: 59
Red-tailed Hawk: 3,904
Red-shouldered Hawk: 257
Broad-winged Hawk: 11,801
Rough-legged Hawk: 1
Unidentified Buteo: 55
Golden Eagle: 164
Bald Eagle: 203
Unidentified Eagle: 2
Northern Harrier: 274
Osprey: 674
Peregrine Falcon: 62
Merlin: 204
American Kestrel: 412
Unidentified Falcon: 13
Mississippi Kite: 1
Unidentified Hawk: 48
TOTAL: 25,115
Posted in Bird News, General Info |
By Drew on December 20, 2006
Missed another good bird yesterday. There was a Thayer’s Gull reported at Memorial Lake State Park along with a first cycle Iceland Gull. Both are good for the area with Thayer’s being especially hard to find this far east. It was a second cycle bird that had been seen at least several nights coming in to roost. Due to the holiday schedule with UPS, I only had time in the morning so I thought I would give it a chance. I got there at dawn in order to scan the gull flock before it took off for the day. Great Black-backed Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gulls were there in good numbers among the Herring and Ring-billed Gulls but nothing else. I had dipped on what I thought was almost a sure thing.
Here is a shot showing the Thayer’s Gull. For more pictures and analysis go to Tom Johnson’s web gallery. The above picture was taken by Tom.
Posted in Bird Sightings, Missed Birds, Rarities |
By Drew on December 20, 2006
The day started at 4am with a couple productive hours of owling around Octorara Lake. Using calls from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s recent release,
Voices of North American Owls, we managed to hear (but not see) 5 species of owls; 6 N. Saw-whet Owls, 6 E. Screech Owls, 2 Long-eared Owls, 2 Great Horned Owls and 1 Barn Owl. The new CD proved particularly useful in getting responses from the saw-whets which are often hard to find. The variety of calls, particularly one which we dubbed the pewp (or poop) call, were very good at eliciting responses.
Once daylight arrived we walked a long loop through some conifer plantations and scrubby area and were quite pleased with the 18 dapper looking Fox Sparrows that we saw. Other highlights included both Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawks, Killdeer, Eastern Towhee and several Winter Wrens. We also scanned the lake and managed to find a Cackling Goose among the flock of Canada Geese and at least 5 Bald Eagles.
With 87 species for the morning we headed off to lunch at Beli Busters to tally up the count. After a big lunch we headed back to the lake to look for additional duck species when we got the call. There was an empid closeby and it was a possible Dusky Flycatcher! This being a possible first state record we hurried off to see if we could find it. No luck, it hadn’t appeared for quite some time. Long story short, some pictures were taken and it looks like it is probably a Least Flycatcher. Not near as exciting but a December Least is still a good bird.
So we ended up the day on the Susquehannah River, chucking old bread to the gulls as they streamed in by the hundreds. Rumor has it that several Great and a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls showed up as well. Cameron and I headed back to the lake to try to refind the Long-eared Owls and managed to get only a Barred Owl to respond, my sixth owl of the day.
Good ole Christmas Bird Counts!
Posted in Bird Sightings, Rarities |
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