Friday Quiz #88
Our raptor in last week's quiz, possibly beginning its northward trek from South America by now, was a Swainson's Hawk. For this week a trip to the shore. Have fun and good birding!
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February 29, 2008
February 28, 2008
Whoopers and Wind Farms
I received a link to this article about Whooping Cranes and wind farms via email a few minutes ago.
Have to rush off to work but will look at it in depth later . . .
There's a lot about this article that troubles me. They are talking about 40,000 turbines along the U.S. section of the Whooping Crane migration corridor and it sounds like nobody is looking at taking any kind of proactive steps to protect these birds. There is no question that, as a society, we have to move in a new direction as far as our energy needs are concerned but, damn it, we absolutely have to evaluate how we are going to protect habitats and biodiversity along the way. We simply can't keep destroying things. While we don't know at this point what, if any, effect this will have on migrating Whoopers, we have to find out and take steps to protect them (and any other species our activities could potentially impact). If that means shutting down the wind farms for a few days while they pass through, then so be it. If a Whooper dies because of the activities of a power company, they should have to pay dearly.
February 27, 2008
Harbinger of Spring?
Yesterday I was on my way home from a little adventure (which I'll get to in a minute) and, as I passed by one of the meadows in the park, I cast a skeptical eye in that direction and wondered when "they" would be making an appearance. It took all of about 500 feet to get my answer. The Utah Prairie Dogs had gone below ground to hibernate in late October, so it was right at 4 months since I had last seen one. I've since checked out 3 colonies in the park and there is activity at all of them, and I saw activity at another colony outside the park. The snow is still pretty deep so finding food must be a little tough. Even with that, this one looks pretty plump and must have had a lot of food stored away.
The tree at left was the object of my adventure yesterday. I happened upon it about 10 days ago while leading a snowshoe hike out near Bryce Point and it is one of the more mature examples I've seen here. The others I've seen are, for the most part, rather spindly, while this one had some bulk (trunk about 10 to 12 inches in diameter) . With the rate of erosion here as high as it is, Bristlecone Pines (Pinus longaeva) don't live as long as they do in the White Mountains of Eastern California, where a tree called "Methuselah" is about 4,800 years old, they can still live longer here than everything else around. The oldest one known at Bryce Canyon, now unfortunately dead, lived about 1,600 years. Bristlecone Pines are the oldest living single organisms on the planet.
Far from being an expert, I'm guessing this one is maybe 1,000 years old based upon size and what I have read about their rate of growth. If I'm right, it means this tree would have been a sapling during the time of the Fremont Culture (Ancestral Puebloans who inhabited portions of Utah concurrent with the more famous Puebloans - formerly called Anasazi - who inhabited the Four Corners region) and Europe would have been mired in the Dark Ages. Kind of cool when you think about it. Of course that's nothing when you realize Methuselah would have been a sapling during the time of the pharaohs . . .
Merritt Island NWR
I still subscribe to FLBirds just to see what is happening with birds in Florida and, today, there's a nice follow-up post by Wes Biggs about the public meetings NASA held on Monday. It was also cross-posted to FlaBirding and, on that list, there is another post urging people not to get to worked up about it because of NASA's longtime stewardship of the land in question. I agree that there is definitely something to be said for taking that position.
On the other hand, I know all I need to know about the morons currently running things in this country and, given this is apparently a "commercial" venture, I have serious doubts about what may go down. I'll be watching for announcements for the public comment period when it comes time for the Environmental Assessment that will be taking place over the next few months (per Wes' post, draft this spring, final over the summer). I'll be writing letters and announce when the comment period opens here when the time comes (with addresses, etc.).
The collage features four images from MINWR, all shot on Blackpoint Wildlife Drive (clockwise from top left): Northern Pintail (hen), White Ibis, Black-necked Stilt, and Pied-billed Grebe.
February 26, 2008
Space Cadets?
NASA held hearings yesterday as part of an environmental assessment associated with plans for a private launch complex at the Kennedy Space Center. As I understand it, one of the proposed sites would effectively shut down operation of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Abandoned launch pads abound south of the present shuttle launch complex, so it is hard for me to imagine why they would have to destroy pristine habitat. There were two meetings yesterday and the overwhelming majority of attendees at them voice their opposition to this site proposal, as I would have been had I been there:
"That you would even consider it boggles my mind," Wes Biggs of Orlando told NASA representatives seeking public input at two back-to-back hearings in Titusville City Council chambers. "The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge isn't just another refuge. It's one of the jewels of the federal wildlife system, and it is known worldwide."
(You tell 'em Wes!)
"If NASA builds Site 2, NASA will become my enemy," Biggs said at the afternoon meeting. "Really, that's how I look at it. Just the idea that NASA would consider as a last resort building on Site 2 boggles my mind. I don't know if you've got an understanding what type of firestorm you'll get if you do this."
Besides the fact it is just a great place to go birding, I am especially partial because it is the place where I "discovered" birds back in 1999 and saw my very first wild Bald Eagle shortly after that. I love the space program but, like Mr. Biggs, I would be one very unhappy fellow if this went down. Nor to mention that it would probably kill the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival, one of the largest in the country - I just can't imagine the amount of money it would pull from the local economy. There are times when there's a long parade of cars winding their way along Black Point Wildlife Drive.
Another thing that concerns me is it sounds like this "Site 2" will be in pretty close proximity to the largest remaining concentration of Florida Scrub-jays. Listed as "Threatened" under the Endangered Species Act, this could be a bad thing for them, too. They have been squeezed out of other areas at an alarming rate and, at least with the last governor of the state, nothing much was done to help protect the "Scrubbies".
If I can find a link for written comment, I'll post it here because this is such a monumentally stupid idea.
February 25, 2008
Earth Hour 2008
You may have noticed the new banner at the top of this page for Earth Hour 2008. This is a global movement that began in Sydney, Australia last year. The idea is to get as many people as possible to turn out their lights for 1 hour on March 29 to raise awareness about Global Warming.
Please join me and let's all stand together on March 29!
February 22, 2008
Friday Quiz #87
The answer to last week's quiz was White-eyed Vireo; for this week we'll move out west for a bird that is a little larger and probably a litter meaner. Have fun, good luck, and good birding!
A couple of links worth noting on this snowy Friday: Grrlscientist over at Living the Scientific Life is the host for I and the Bird #69 and, as usual, there are some great entries all about birds and birding. Every Friday John at A D.C. Birding Blog offers up a new edition of Loose Feathers, a weekly must read for me because he always offers up some great links.
February 18, 2008
Another Holiday Out Birding
Seems like I get out birding whenever there's a holiday; Presidents Day today, Darwin Day last week (I know, not an official holiday but the man deserves it far more than Columbus), and on New Year's Day when I photographed a female Greater Sage-grouse. Today I got this male out in the same general vicinity, about 10 or 12 miles north of the park. I also added a couple of new species to my year list: Horned Lark (a nice addition) and Eurasian Collared-dove (not so nice - wish they would go away). That puts me at 32 species so far and looking forward to birds starting to arrive from the south next month so I can start increasing the numbers.
Here's Roxy trotting along in the snow (she's on a groomed x-country ski trail) for all of her fans out there. I know she is looking forward to warmer weather, too.
February 15, 2008
Friday Quiz #86
Last week's quiz bird was a winter plumaged Wilson's Phalarope photographed a few years ago in Orange County, California. For this week we venture back into the woodlands of the eastern part of the country. Good luck and good birding!
February 13, 2008
New Jersey Disappoints
According to this article the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council has decided to lift the ban on the harvest of Horseshoe Crabs. I have get to work but will update later today - this can't be good news if you are a Red Knot.
Update: A Stacked Deck
Tonight I could finally read all of the article I linked to above and it appears the Knots didn't have a chance. It seems this council was short 2 "public-at-large" members, 5 of the members represented the commercial fishing industry, and the remaining 4 the recreational fishing industry. The vote was 5 to 4, naturally. Hopefully someone - the NJ governor, maybe - or some government entity (though I won't count on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service under the current administration) will step in. And there may be some legal challenges, too. One can only hope.
Darwin Day Birding
Spent some time yesterday out and about seeing what kind of birds I could find, both here in the park and down in Tropic Valley. Best I could do was 15 species, though one of those I couldn't positively identify - it was definitely a shrike but too far away to decide it if was Northern or Loggerhead. Both occur here though Northern would be a winter rarity; if it was a Loggerhead, they say they breed in the area and occur year round though I had yet to see one. The rest were: Clark's Nutcracker (year bird), Common Raven, Bald Eagle, European Starling, American Robin, Western Bluebird, House Sparrow, Black-billed Magpie, American Crow, Golden Eagle, Steller's Jay, Mountain Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, and Townsend's Solitaire.
February 12, 2008
Darwin Day 2008
Here it is, February 12, 2008 and the 199th anniversary of the birth of Charles Robert Darwin (coincidentally, also the 199th anniversary of the birth of another great man, Abraham Lincoln). For the occasion I've fashioned this little e-card (Flash required) with a quote from the final chapter of his most famous work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.
Yes, it's true, I am one of the Evil Darwinists™, though in all honesty I just sort of chuckle when I see one of those Biblical literalists or ID proponents use the term ("Darwinist") in a posting on the web or in print. No one living today who has any knowledge whatsoever about the progress in biological research over the past 150 years thinks for a minute that Darwin had it all right. Far from it, in fact, since, for one thing, he didn't have access to all the high technology research methods available today. He didn't know about nucleic acids, he was not aware of the thousands of transitional fossils that have been uncovered in those 150 years (including hominid fossils), and he had no clue how really old the earth actually is). The Theory of Evolution says nothing about how life on this planet began (that's abiogenesis), only what happened after it did (another common misconception by the literalists).
It is not a matter of "faith" or "belief" in evolution (being a "Darwinist") like someone "believes" or has "faith" in the words of an ancient text. The evidence is there for all to see, it is what you ultimately do with that evidence that matters. Evolution is a fact and a theory.
Mr. Darwin, as I said, didn't have it all right. But 150 years after the publication of his work, everything we know about biology on this world of ours supports his basic premise: Life evolved, is evolving today, and will continue to evolve as long as it exists.
So raise a glass to Chuck and "Happy Darwin Day!" to you!
February 08, 2008
Friday Quiz #85
Our bird last week was a Pine Warbler, a species that could probably be easily confused with a number of other small birds of the eastern forests and woodlands. For this week it is back to one my favorite groups, the shorebirds (or waders for my friends outside of North America). Good luck and good birding!
Don't forget to pay a visit to the current edition of I and the Bird which is hosted this time around at Biological Ramblings. The theme is all about winter doldrums and, with the way birding is around Bryce these days, a great theme it is!
Red Knots & Horseshoe Crabs
I just received an email from American Bird Conservancy about a program that will be showing (in selected areas) on the PBS program Nature this Sunday, February 10 titled Crash: A Tale of Two Species.
Knots, champions of shorebird migration, rely on Horseshoe Crab eggs on the shores of Delaware Bay for the energy reserves to complete the northbound leg of their migration and the first critical weeks of breeding season in the Canadian Arctic. Years of over harvesting of crabs - primarily for bait and fertilizer - have imperiled several species of shorebirds, but nothing like the 90% decline in the Red Knot population in about 10 years. Will the greed of a few humans wipe this bird from the planet forever?
(Some say the impact on the local economy from ecotourism - in the form of bird watchers - is said to far outweigh income from the crab harvest - I say let the fisherman find another job.)
February 06, 2008
Ocean of Plastic
Last March I wrote a little about the North Pacific Gyre and the amount of plastic that was floating out in the ocean (killing Albatrosses and lots of other creatures) being roughly equal to the size of the state of Texas. Tonight, while perusing the posts over a Daily Kos, I found this diary about some recent news from the Pacific. Turns out the amount of plastic is in an area much larger - an area something like twice the size of the United States. There's a research vessel out there now scooping this stuff up and it is pretty astonishing.
The crew of the Alguita is maintaining a blog to talk about what they are finding and they also take time to respond to some of the comments:
Paul S. asked, “Do you mean to say you trawl an area approximately 3 feet wide, 6 miles long, and come up with only 1/3 of an ounce of plastic?” We all chatted a bit about this during dinner – and may comment further in the coming weeks. For now, here’s a response from Marcus: “10 grams per 6 nautical mile trawl is a subjective estimate based on years trawling in and out of the North Pacific Gyre, near and far from shore. This is a rough estimate that might not seem like much, but you’ve got to consider the size of our playing field. Our trawl is three feet wide. A six nautical mile trawl covers a little less than two football fields. We’re studying an area between latitudes 20 and 40, and longitudes 130 and 170, which is approximately 2.5 million square nautical miles, representing only a quarter of the North Pacific. Still, that covers almost 3 billion football fields (2,929,900,000). SO, if we’re averaging 10 grams for every two football fields of area, then in 1/4 of the Pacific we think there could be 14 -1/2 MILLION metric tons of plastic marine debris. “
They also show pictures of some of the items they retrieve - it is really worth a look.
The diary on DailyKos also linked to an article in the U.K newspaper The Independent about the research titled The world's rubbish dump: a garbage tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan:
According to the UN Environment Programme, plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals. Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, which mistake them for food.Plastic is believed to constitute 90 per cent of all rubbish floating in the oceans. The UN Environment Programme estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic.
'Tis a scary world we are living in today.
Snowy Bryce
We finally got something of a break in the weather - at least in terms of the constant barrage of snow, but then it has been cold. There are drifts around the trailer at around 3 feet in depth and I'm guessing there's at least 18" on the flats. I stayed close to home on Monday to work on a couple of projects I have going and to dig a path around the trailer. I took this shot yesterday morning while the laundry was going; it is from Inspiration Point looking out over the Silent City with Boat Mesa in the background. Since it was so cold (in the teens) I stayed in most of the rest of the day but took a ride outside the park in the afternoon to see what I could see. Didn't see much but added Wild Turkey to the year list when 4 crossed the highway in front of me. There's more snow on the way tonight and tomorrow, but then it looks like we'll get a short warming trend (hooray!)
February 02, 2008
Back Home Again (Again)
After a week in Florida followed almost immediately thereafter by a trip down to Death Valley National Park to assist with their Astronomy Week, it is nice to be back home sleeping in my own bed again. Except for the nasty cold I caught on the Florida trip. Death Valley was kind of cool though I had little time to explore since I was there to work. This picture was taken maybe 10 or 15 miles north of Furnace Creek while I was returning from Scotty's Castle where I'd gone to help with the solar telescope. It is a desolate, yet interesting, place that I had only passed through once many years ago and needs to be on the list for a return trip.
They've had some rain and in some areas these - Desert Gold - were blooming rather profusely. In addition there were some purple flowers called Phacelia but, by the time I found them, the wind was blowing hard and I couldn't get any photos. Birds were few and far between though I saw some Say's Phoebes, lots of Common Ravens, a flock of Mallards flying around, House Sparrows, and European Starlings. I saw a male goldfinch perched on a Desert Gold, too, but couldn't settle on a species as I zipped by at 60 miles per hour. Hope spring comes here soon (he says knowing there's another foot of snow coming in the next 36 hours or so).
February 01, 2008
Friday Quiz #84
Last week's bird lurking in the mangroves was a member of the Rail family, Sora. For this week we find ourselves in the woodlands of the eastern part of the country (at least come Spring - which looks like it is a long way off from here at Bryce).