The Birders Report

Ithaca, N.Y. February 7, 2013 – The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has collected the first known comprehensive video documentation of one of the world’s rarest birds on its tundra breeding grounds in Chukotka, Russia, and posted the video online at www.birds.cornell.edu/sbs. Cornell Lab videographer Gerrit Vyn captured footage of the first moments when Spoon-billed Sandpiper chicks venture away from their nest.

I have posted just one of the four videos posted on the Cornell Lab site, including the cutest video of the chicks leaving the nest.

The little spoon-bills are some of the last of their kind. The global Spoon-billed Sandpiper population has plummeted to about 100 breeding pairs, with the population declining by 25 percent annually in recent years. At that rate, the species could be extinct within a decade. The spoon-bill topped a recent International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) global list of species closest to extinction.

“The Spoon-billed Sandpiper is one of the most remarkable little birds on earth, and it may go extinct before most people even realize it was here,” said Dr. John Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “We hope that with this priceless video footage we quickly connect people, conservation organizations, and governments to these amazing birds, and galvanize an international conservation effort.”

In 2011, the Cornell Lab dispatched videographer Gerrit Vyn to join an expedition with Birds Russia and the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force to Chukotka in extreme northeastern Russia where the tundra borders the Bering Sea. Vyn’s assignment was to record the first-ever high-definition video and sound recordings of spoon-bills on their breeding grounds, for archival into the Lab’s Macaulay Library (the world’s oldest and largest biodiversity media archive). Vyn spent eight weeks during the months of June and July documenting their breeding cycle, from arriving on spring migration to courtship and nesting to raising young (videos posted at www.birds.cornell.edu/sbs).

Vyn wrote about his experience in an article for the winter 2013 issue of the Lab’s Living Bird magazine. “These videos, still photographs, and sound recordings might well be the 21st-century digital equivalent of a Passenger Pigeon specimen in a museum. But…I wanted my videos and photographs to be more than just a final record of a lost species for the archives. I hoped they would serve as a way to finally introduce this enigmatic and charming species to the world—to enlist peoples’ aid in a global effort to save the Spoon-billed Sandpiper.”

Scientists believe Spoon-billed Sandpipers are declining primarily because of the elimination of migratory stopover habitat along Southeast Asian seacoasts, particularly in the Yellow Sea region, and due to subsistence hunting by people on spoon-bill wintering grounds on the coastal mudflats of China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and other nearby countries.

The Spoon-billed Sandpiper population has been monitored on their breeding grounds on the Russian tundra since 1977, when a survey estimated 2,500 breeding pairs in Chukotka. By 2003 the population had dropped to around 500 pairs. In 2008 the IUCN listed the species as critically endangered on its Red List.

Vyn said that he hopes the plight of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper also awakens global attention to the crisis along the entire East Asian–Australasian Flyway, where an estimated 51 percent of China’s coastal wetlands have been lost, as well as 60 percent of South Korea’s coastal wetlands. More than 100 waterbird species use the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, and it contains more IUCN-listed globally threatened and near threatened bird species than any other flyway in the world.

“Through its devastating population crash, the tiny Spoon-billed Sandpiper is telling us that the Yellow Sea is rapidly passing the tipping point,” wrote Vyn.

Vyn’s participation in the expedition was funded by contributions by The Melinda Whener estate to the Cornell Lab.

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Media Resources:

Video: Clips at www.birds.cornell.edu/sbs may be embedded in your site and include scenes of courtship, foraging, and the hatching of chicks. To get embed code, right-click on video and choose “copy embed html,” then paste.

Still Images: Photos for print or web available, including the images in the release.

Sound Files: Professional quality audio recordings of more than a dozen vocalizations given by the Spoon-billed Sandpiper as well as other bird species and atmospheric recordings from the nesting grounds.

Contact:
For interviews with Gerrit Vyn and spoon-bill images and sounds, please contact Pat Leonard, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, (607) 254-2137, pel27@cornell.edu

Delevan National Wildlife Refuge View From the Photography Blind

According to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex website, Delevan National Wildlife Refuge comprises 5,797 acres, including seasonal marsh, permanent ponds, and uplands. It is predominately a hunting refuge for waterfowl and pheasant. Wildlife observation takes place from the county roads, on the perimeter of the refuge.

There is one notable exception to this, the US Fish & Wildlife Service has had the foresight to install a photography blind on the refuge, away from the hunting area. The image at the top of the post is the view from the photo blind. That is where these images were taken (click on photos for full sized images).

Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) Immature In Early Morning Light

The sun didn’t rise over the early morning cloud cover until around 8 am. This immature Turkey Vulture was one of the first photo ops I had, other than the ubiquitous American Coots which you will see later 😉

Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) were a plenty, chattering back and forth and occasionally perching on the snag located in front of the blind.

Black Phoebes (Sayornis nigricans) were busy hawking insects from perches and zipping back and forth from one stand of bulrush to another.

Of course there were plenty of ducks and geese to keep any photographer busy. Mister and misses Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) were well represented.

There weren’t as many American Wigeon (Anas americana) as I would have expected.

Later, when the sun broke through and there was a mixture of sun and thin clouds, I was able to get some in-flight shots. Like these Greater White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons) that were spooked by something into flight.

At one point I was totally taken by surprise when I spotted a Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus) flying overhead. A bird I hadn’t seen all that day, although I wasn’t really in shallow marsh habitat.

Occasionally a Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) would be seen flying about.

Following several attempts at getting a good photograph of a Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus), which I still like to call the Marsh Hawk, I got this satisfying shot of a female in-flight.

However satisfying that Marsh Hawk was to see so close, there is one raptor I am always hoping will appear on the snag in front of the blind whenever I visit the National Wildlife Refuge. You guessed it, the Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)!

Oh, I almost forgot, I promised you some American Coot (Fulica americana) fun. There must have been a shallow spot in the water where, every time a coot swam over that spot, they decided to up end and swim for the bottom.

Well at one point, it turned into a full blown frenzy.

It was so fascinating and funny, I filmed it.

As I left the photography blind around noon, there was a huge flock of hundreds of White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi) foraging in the agricultural fields adjacent to the refuge.

Do you enjoy the National Wildlife Refuges in your area? National Wildlife Refuges have been underfunded since President Theodore Roosevelt created the first refuge in 1903 and Congress refused to appropriate money to manage it. Without adequate funding, habitats are not restored, invasive species are left unchecked, poaching and other illegal activities occur and our nation’s wildlife suffers¹.

America’s National Wildlife Refuge System is the world’s largest network of protected areas dedicated to wildlife conservation. For more than a century, the refuge system has been integral to bringing species such as the whooping crane back from the brink of extinction. Each year, tens of millions of people visit and enjoy national wildlife refuges in every U.S. state and territory, infusing nearly $1.74 billion into local economies and creating more than 32,500 U.S. jobs².

Would you like to be part of creating an additional income stream for our National Wildlife Refuge System? If you haven’t heard of our proposal for a Wildlife Conservation Stamp, please check out our new website where we will be promoting a plan to get an alternative stamp issued to increase revenue for our refuges.

We are looking for bird enthusiasts, photographers, bloggers, biologists, hikers, conservationists, wildlife rehabilitators, scientists, teachers, artists and anyone else with a common passion and concern for our nation’s wildlife and wild habitats to join us in encouraging our legislators to create an alternative to the Duck Stamp for non-consumptive users of the wildlife refuges.

If this sounds like a great idea to you, providing a consistent source of income for our refuges, separate but parallel to the current Federal Duck Stamp program, please send me an email with a short bio and a photo (at least 150 x 150 pixels) to place on our “About Us” page. We will keep you updated on our progress in this endeavor and entertain suggestions on the best way to implement our proposal.

I hope to hear from you soon! In the meantime, enjoy The Bird D’pot and Wild Bird Wednesday!

References: ¹National Wildlife Refuge Association, ²Defenders of Wildlife

Cat with American Coot photo by Debi Shearwater

Due to concern about the validity of the original headline of this post, I have changed the title from “Single Greatest Source” to “A Major Source” of Human-caused Mortality. Please read the actual study linked below as “peer-reviewed study”

The following is an excerpt from an article by the American Bird Conservancy (ABC). You can read the full story here.

Washington, D.C., January 29, 2013 – A new peer-reviewed study published today and authored by scientists from two of the world’s leading science and wildlife organizations – the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) – has found that bird and mammal mortality caused by outdoor cats is much higher than has been widely reported, with annual bird mortality now estimated to be 1.4 to 3.7 billion and mammal mortality likely 6.9 – 20.7 billion individuals.

According to Dr. George Fenwick, President of American Bird Conservancy, one of the leading bird conservation organizations in the U.S. and a group that has called for action on this issue for many years, “This study, which employed scientifically rigorous standards for data inclusion, demonstrates that the issue of cat predation on birds and mammals is an even bigger environmental and ecological threat than we thought. No estimates of any other anthropogenic [human-caused] mortality source approach the bird mortality this study calculated for cat predation.”

The study charges that, “Despite these harmful effects, policies for management of free-ranging cat populations and regulation of pet ownership behaviors are dictated by animal welfare issues rather than ecological impacts. Projects to manage free-ranging cats, such as Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) colonies, are potentially harmful to wildlife populations, but are implemented across the United States without widespread public knowledge, consideration of scientific evidence, or the environmental review processes typically required for actions with harmful environmental consequences.”

You can always get the latest bird news on my “Birds In The News” page!