Recently in Endangered/Threatened Category

Having a president that understands the importance of science is a good thing. Today President Obama issued a memo that overrides one of the (many) boneheaded maneuvers by the previous administration that essentially made the Endangered Species Act null and void. A rule enacted last December would have permitted federal agencies to pretty much do what they wanted to do with consulting biologists.

The memo doesn't exactly overturn the Bush Administration rule, but basically puts it aside and restores the previous requirements for projects until such time as the December rule is reviewed by the Departments of Commerce and Interior. My guess is that after the review process it will ultimately be tossed out.

Sure is nice to have adults in charge again.

Not good news for shorebird fans. In an article in the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger, we learn that The Red Knot is Not Alone in Its Plight. The Red Knot, holder of the record for longest migration by a North American shorebird, has been suffering precipitous declines over the last 14 years due to the over harvesting of Horseshoe Crabs on Delaware Bay. Now it appears that Semipalmated Sandpiper numbers are in serious decline, too.

In the 1980s, about 2 million semipalmated were counted by researchers on the 4,000-mile coastline of Suriname and neighboring French Guiana, where scientists say 85 percent of the world's population of the bird winters annually. Last month, only 400,000 of the birds were found in aerial surveys by the New Jersey Audubon expedition.

"We had already found a 50 percent decline over 15 years by 2006. Now, this is a 70 to 80 percent decline since the survey in the 1980s. I think it's alarming," said David Mizrahi, the team leader.

The problem, he said, appears to be in the Delaware Bay -- also the controversial source of the red knot's troubles.

-- Brian T. Murray, Star-Ledger Staff

The nearly 80% decline compares to the approximately 90% decline in Red Knots. The researchers note that, while no studies have been done on breeding grounds for the semipalms, they have been done in Knot breeding areas and nothing exists there that would explain the decline. And nothing on either species wintering grounds can be pointed to which might explain the declines, either. So that leaves Delaware Bay, the one location shared by both species. It has been reported that crab numbers were up last year, so there may be hope, but for now we have two species to worry about going extinct because of greed (and while I don't have a link, I also heard somewhere that Sanderlings in eastern North America are in decline as well). It will be interesting to see what happens this May when the birds arrive on the bay. 

. . . of Utah Prairie Dogs have emerged from their burrows within the past several days. This is - I guess it goes without saying - one of them that posed for a few shots for me. I didn't have much time to hang around since I have to work shortly, but it looks like it has been a pretty good year for them. I know the folks in Resources dusted for fleas yesterday in the colonies to hopefully reduce the chances of plague - a disease introduced by westward expansion of us 2-leggeds - from spreading and potentially wiping out a colony.

In other news, I need to update my Utah "year bird" list soon as I have added a couple of species (Mourning Dove and Lesser Goldfinch); tomorrow's quiz will feature a bird I've seen frequently but photographed for the first time a couple of days ago. See you then.

Yesterday, New Jersey governor Jon Corzine signed into law a bill placing a moratorium on the harvesting of Horseshoe Crabs that carries stiff penalties ($10,000 first offense, $25,000 for subsequent offenses). Hooray for New Jersey! Now if Delaware would just follow suit, things would be so much the better (well, that and an Endangered Species Act listing from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service that is long overdue).

One item I learned from an op-ed piece is that the way this new law is written, the burden of proof that all is well gets shifted:

Driven by the steeply declining populations of the red knot, the new law shifts the scientific and legal burden from DEP to show that the species is harmed, to the fishing industry to show that any horseshoe crab harvest will not harm the recovery of the red knot and several other migratory birds.

I like that. We should do this across the board and make all industry financially responsible for proving that their actions won't harm the environment. Fat chance it will happen anytime soon, at least not without a major shift in the way Americans think. Not when you've got clueless people like the one who was the first commenter (of only two as I write this) in the first article I linked to above:

Maybe part of the problem is the Red Knots eating the eggs. If the eggs can't hatch then it only makes sense the population of the horseshoe crab will go down.

Why comment when you have absolutely no concept about what is going on here? It's not like this hasn't been going on for thousands of years. I lost a few perfectly viable brain cells from the searing stupidity in that comment; I'm amazed this person can actually turn on his/her computer. (Hey friend, why don't you go back to watching Survivor or Dancing With the Stars and let the thinking people run things around here for, oh, say the next few thousand years. Okay? Maybe our species will survive then.)

Today was my Best Birding Day So Far This Year; I was hopeful that I would hit 30, but came up 3 short in the end. On a positive note, I added 4 new species to the year list, bringing that total to 45; all were within the range of the Bryce checklist area, too. The additions are Killdeer, Wilson's Snipe (a big surprise I found hanging around the edges of a pond where I was checking out the ducks), Vesper Sparrow, and Savannah Sparrow. The only (bird) species I managed to photograph was this male Greater Sage-grouse. They should be lekking soon, if not already, and the spot where I shot this one seems to be a major hangout for them. This was the third time I found them there and, who knows, it just may be one of the leks . . .

Birds weren't the only thing happening today, either. Since it was quite a bit warmer and the winds were a little calmer than yesterday, the Utah Prairie Dogs were up surveying the scene again. I am kind of surprised that I have not seen any chipmunks yet and, to date, only one Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel. Maybe later in the week if the weather holds (though the weather has already proven that it can be schizophrenic this time of year 'round these parts).

(Today's birds: American Robin, Common Raven, Horned Lark, Mountain Bluebird, Greater Sage-grouse, Ferruginous Hawk, Western Meadowlark, Townsend's Solitaire, American Kestrel, European Starling, House Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon & Gray-headed), Red-tailed Hawk, Western Scrub-jay, Killdeer, Savannah Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, Canada Goose, Wilson's Snipe, Western Bluebird, Steller's Jay, Bald Eagle, Turkey Vulture, Mallard, Golden Eagle, Pygmy Nuthatch, White-breasted Nuthatch.

I didn't do much bird chasing on my day off today, but did go check out the Utah Prairie Dogs to see what they were up to. There are a lot more out and about now as the weather continues to warm; some of the colonies that were not active are now showing signs of stirring, with the occasional head peering out from behind a mound of snow. This one knew there was nothing to munch on near the hole and had ventured out to where the snow had melted beside a road. Looking at those paws, it appears things are a little on the gooey side, too.

While I wish I could say that I had seen them (better still, wish I could get a photograph), but all I can come up with for now are more tracks. The difference in these tracks and the last ones is this: these are about 100 feet from the front door of my trailer. Apparently momma and her kittens have been roaming around North Campground sometime in the past couple of days (top one is a kitten; the last one, according to the books I've checked, would be the front paws side by side when "bounding") . We had snow Saturday night so that means these were made since that time or they'd be covered just like the first set I found. There's also some prints in the mud near the campground's restrooms a 100 or so yards away - they've been wandering around here just a little. Spooky in a way, yet kind of exciting; will definitely have to keep a closer eye on Roxy when we're outside . . .

The New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council has done the right thing and reversed their decision from last month regarding the harvest of Horseshoe Crabs on Delaware Bay and has set the limit at "zero". I think the state of Delaware is still going to permit the taking of 100,000 males and I am unaware of any attempts to reverse that at this point, but a least with the NJMFC decision the crab population will have a chance to recover a little, which can only be good in the long run fro the Red Knot.

In the meantime, we are still waiting for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to make a decision on listing the Red Knot as an endangered species. They were petitioned (again) a little over a week ago, maybe something will happen soon and that would probably bring things to a halt in Delaware, too.

(Hat tip to John at A D.C. Birding Blog for this latest Red Knot news.)