Real, or CGI?

Telegraph: A green-crowned hummingbird feeds on a heliconia flower Photo: GETTY

Real!

Telegraph (uk):
Costa Rica: on cloud nine with the most exotic birds
Monteverde, in the heart of Costa Rica, is home to some of our brightest feathered friends, says Barbara Noe.

Massachusetts Eagle Count: 71

Wildlife officials counted 71 bald eagles across the state yesterday, including this one in Amesbury. (DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF)

Boston Herald: State to conduct annual census of bald eagle population

BOSTON - Wildlife officials and volunteers have spotted 71 bald eagles along state waterways during the annual count of the once-endangered birds.

That’s up from 48 birds counted in Massachusetts a year ago during the one-day, nationwide survey.

The state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife says the sighting of 27 juvenile bald eagles Wednesday is a good sign.

The biggest number of eagles, 36, were seen during a helicopter survey of the Quabbin Reservoir in Belchertown. Other sites surveyed include the Merrimack River in Newburyport and two ponds in Lakeville.

Wildlife officials say the state’s all-time high was 76 eagles counted in 1998. Only eight eagles were spotted during the first statewide survey in 1979. The population had fallen because of habitat loss, bounty hunting and reproductive failure linked to pesticides.

Boston Globe: Eagles soaring across Bay State

Everybody To Get From Street

Slaty-backed gull: The Superior Waters Project
The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming!

Boston Globe: Flock's foray from Siberia inspires local delight

A group of Russians landed unnoticed on the Massachusetts coast recently, saying little as they scouted the area for a possible occupation. But with their bright pink legs and distinctive wing markings, the slaty-backed gulls could not maintain their cover.

The local bird-watching community is atwitter over the first known Massachusetts sightings of the species, which usually nests on Russia's frigid eastern coast and winters in northeast Asia.

David Sibley of Concord was the first to spot the gull, at Jodrey State Fish Pier in Gloucester on Dec. 23.

"It's always a thrill to find a bird that rare," said Sibley, an artist who has written several authoritative bird books. "There's something really special about that feeling of discovery."

Wayne Petersen of the Massachusetts Audubon Society sighted a second gull on Coast Guard Beach in Eastham an hour later. Later, others sighted a third slaty-backed gull in Gloucester.

Sibley said the gull stands out from local species because of its leg color, an extra bit of white on its wing tips, its slate-gray back, and brown streaking on its head. Petersen said the bird has been sighted in the last two decades across the United States, as far southeast as Florida. The gulls may be looking for property; gull populations, in general, have been on the rise.

Sibley said more slaty-backed gulls could visit in the future. "This could be the beginning of the invasion," he said.

Birders Document Global Warming Changes

Thomas McDonald for The New York Times
A saw-whet owl in an evergreen tree.
A story from last week's New York Times on the Audubon Society's annual Christmas bird count and how global warming has effected where birds are wintering:

NYTimes: The Binocular Brigade

John Flicker, president of the National Audubon Society, has called birds “the canary in the coal mine — a sign that something is going on” in terms of environmental change.

National Audubon recently issued its WatchList 2007, a periodic synthesis of data for the United States that takes into account current species’ population size, population trends, range size of a species and threats to a spread of populations. According to Dr. Greg Butcher, National Audubon’s director of bird conservation, there are 10 regional species on the WatchList’s urgent list and some 37 regional species on the cautionary list.

“The worst of it is definitely in the future,” Dr. Butcher said. Among other things, “we’re worried about the coastal species in 50 to 100 years.”

Geoffrey S. LeBaron, national director of the bird count, elaborated. Should ocean levels rise in coming decades, he said, the already endangered piping plover that nests on Jones Beach and elsewhere, for one, would be particularly vulnerable.

Mr. LeBaron calls forest species the future’s “wild card.” Common, adaptable species with habitats near the human population will probably be relatively unaffected, he said.

For now, there is unease, if not panic, among the New York region’s birders.

Julian Sproule, president of the Saugatuck Valley Audubon Society, in Wilton, Conn., also serves on birding boards at the state level and has a broader perspective on how climate change affects the region. He points to a study led by Alan Hitch, a wildlife expert at Auburn University, that clearly documents a northward trend among certain species. The familiar northern cardinal, Mr. Sproule said, and the Carolina wren are wintering here.

Scott Heth, president of the Sharon Audubon Society in Connecticut, said, “We’re pretty sure that has to do with climate change.” Green herons are atypically wintering in Orient. Mockingbirds, Baltimore orioles, egrets and some hummingbirds are wintering around New York.

Moreover, some birdwatchers lament the loss of habitat throughout the area. It is considered “at least as important as climate change” to species depletion, said Lawrence Trachtenberg, who watches from Westchester.

Dr. Butcher said that habitat loss, caused by “the tremendous growth of the megalopolis” around New York, has already caused the demise of the northern bobwhite, and “has had a pretty dramatic effect” on kestrel populations as well as other species here.

'The Earth todays stands in imminent peril'

Terrifying article. Is anyone in power listening?

The Independent (uk): The Earth today stands in imminent peril
and nothing short of a planetary rescue will save it from the environmental cataclysm of dangerous climate change. Those are not the words of eco-warriors but the considered opinion of a group of eminent scientists writing in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

The unnatural "forcing" of the climate as a result of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threatens to generate a "flip" in the climate that could "spark a cataclysm" in the massive ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, the scientists write.

Dramatic flips in the climate have occurred in the past but none has happened since the development of complex human societies and civilisation, which are unlikely to survive the same sort of environmental changes if they occurred now.

"Civilisation developed, and constructed extensive infrastructure, during a period of unusual climate stability, the Holocene, now almost 12,000 years in duration. That period is about to end," the scientists warn. Humanity cannot afford to burn the Earth's remaining underground reserves of fossil fuel. "To do so would guarantee dramatic climate change, yielding a different planet from the one on which civilisation developed and for which extensive physical infrastructure has been built," they say.

Dr Hansen said we have about 10 years to put into effect the draconian measures needed to curb CO2 emissions quickly enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperature. Otherwise, the extra heat could trigger the rapid melting of polar ice sheets, made far worse by the "albedo flip" - when the sunlight reflected by white ice is suddenly absorbed as ice melts to become the dark surface of open water.

The glaciers and ice sheets of Greenland in the northern hemisphere, and the western Antarctic ice sheet in the south, both show signs of the rapid changes predicted with rising temperatures."

Independent (uk): Climate change brings early spring in the Arctic

The Arctic spring is coming two weeks ahead of time compared to a decade ago, with birds, butterflies, flowers and small animals all appearing earlier in the year as a result of climate change.

A study of a range of animals and plants living in the high Arctic has revealed that many of them are responding to the earlier spring by flowering or laying their eggs significantly ahead of their normal times of the year.

On average, the breeding and flowering seasons in the Arctic have shifted by 14.5 days but some species of mosquitoes have begun laying their eggs 30 days earlier than in the mid 1990s, Toke Hoye, of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, said.

"Our study confirms what many people already think, that the seasons are changing and it is not just one or two warm years but a trend seen over a decade," Dr Hoye said. "This is the most extensive study of its kind in the Arctic in terms of the number and variety of species and the replication of the observations."

First Global Warming Killed The Birds

Northern Bobwhite: Disappearing
Many articles published in the last week detailing the decline of bird populations, based on an alarming report from the Audubon Society. Birds are literally the canaries in our global habitat destruction; whether it is from global warming or the actions we humans take that accelerate global warming: We are the problem. And we need to speak up and stop what's happening to the birds, because we're next. Brings to mind Pastor Martin Niemöller and his famous poem:

First they came for the Socialists, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left
to speak up for me.

Across the nation: Baltimore Sun (AP): U.S. populations of 20 common birds fall 50%

For the study, researchers looked at bird populations of more than half a million, which covered a wide range. They compared databases for 550 species from two bird surveys - the Audubon's Christmas bird count and the U.S. Geological Survey's breeding bird survey in June. The numbers of 20 different birds were at least half what they were in 1967.

Today there are 432 million fewer of these bird species, including the northern pintail, greater scaup, boreal chickadee, common tern, loggerhead shrike, field sparrow, grasshopper sparrow, snow bunting, black-throated sparrow, lark sparrow, common grackle, American bittern, horned lark, little blue heron and ruffed grouse.

The northern bobwhite and its familiar wake-up whistle once seemed to be everywhere in the East. Last Christmas, volunteer bird counters could find only three of them and only 18 Eastern meadowlarks in Massachusetts.

The bobwhite had the biggest drop among common birds. In 1967, there were 31 million of this distinctive plump bird. Now they number closer to 5.5 million.

Mid-Atlantic to the Plains: NYTimes: Meadow Birds in Precipitous Decline, Audubon Says

Illinois: Chicago Tribune: Bird numbers plummeting
Audubon study finds 'disturbing' decline in Illinois

Massachusetts: Boston Globe: With development, common birds are losing ground

In Massachusetts, several birds seen regularly three or four decades ago, including the Northern bobwhite and the Eastern meadowlark, have all but disappeared, according to the study.

Michigan: Livinsgton Press & Argus: STATE: Common birds are becoming rare, 40-year study finds

In Michigan, the number of northern bobwhites has dropped 97% since 1966, and purple martin numbers have dropped 95% over the same period. There are also far fewer red-headed woodpeckers, eastern meadowlarks and eastern kingbirds, said Caleb Putnam, a coordinator for the Audubon Society in Grand Rapids.

Montana: Great Falls Tribune: Montana bird species in decline

The state's lingering drought appears to be a major factor behind the declines of all five birds on the Montana list, said Steve Hoffman, executive director of Montana Audubon.

"There is strong belief that much of the drought may be due to global warming," he said. "We should all take steps to reduce that. It's going to affect all wildlife and our own quality of life."

New Mexico: Santa Fe New Mexican: Aububon: N.M. bird species threatened

In New Mexico, the list includes the mountain chickadee (down 83 percent), the horned lark, (81 percent), the loggerhead shrike (74 percent), the Western meadowlark (57 percent) and the pinyon jay (54 percent).

Ohio: Cincinnati Enquirer: 5 common bird species vanishing from Ohio's skies

In Ohio, the five common birds showing the greatest population declines are:

Green heron

Red-headed woodpecker

Eastern meadowlark

Northern flicker

Yellow-breasted chat

"These are not rare or exotic birds we're talking about," said Jerry Tinianow, executive director of Audubon Ohio. "They're birds that visit our feeders or congregate at nearby lakes and seashores and yet they are disappearing day by day."

South Carolina: WIStv.com: Birds that once defined rural SC declining, experts say

In South Carolina, the society listed six species whose populations have dropped. They include the eastern meadowlark, northern bobwhite, little blue heron, red-winged blackbir, field sparrow and loggerhead shrike.

Texas: Dallas Morning News: State's mockingbird population falling
Researchers attribute 18 percent decline largely to urban sprawl

Washington: Longview Daily News: Common yard birds taking flight from Portland area

California: LATimes: Number of birds in state declining
Study shows that several California species have declines of 75% to 96%, part of a nationwide trend partly caused by shrinking habitat.

LATimes: Tourists witness a good turn for a baby tern
Boat passengers applaud as lifeguards rescue the drowning seabird next to a barge in Long Beach Harbor.

The steel barge, a former icebreaker named Arctic Challenger, has become a precarious artificial nesting site for an estimated 350 Caspian terns — slim, gull-like seabirds protected by the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

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"The fact that these birds have settled on this barge underlines a critical problem: We need more natural habitat for them," said Susan Kaveggia, a biologist with the International Bird Rescue Research Center in San Pedro. "Terns need flat, barren, sandy or pebbly land on which to nest. There's none left in the port complex, so they're moving in desperation from boat to boat to boat."

A year ago, more than 400 Caspian and elegant terns — most too young to fly — plummeted off two privately owned barges anchored not far from the Arctic Challenger. A few hours later, local beaches were littered with baby tern carcasses.

Caspian terns nest within coils of rope on the deck of the Arctic Challenger, a former icebreaker that has become a precarious artificial nesting site for an estimated 350 of the seabirds. The barge’s owner has agreed not to move it until all of the terns have migrated elsewhere for the winter.
(Genaro Molina / LAT)
June 16, 2007