[wisb] Birding Community E-Bulletin (long)

Although I have often edited this e-Bulletin in the past, I am incorporating 
the entire bulletin in this message again this month; it is all of high value. 
See the reference to Chris West, frequent contributor to Wisbirdn, in the 
rarity section.

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THE BIRDING COMMUNITY E-BULLETIN
            July 2009
 
 
This Birding Community E-bulletin is being distributed to active and concerned 
birders, those dedicated to the joys of birding and the protection of birds and 
their habitats. You can access an archive of past E-bulletins on the website of 
the National Wildlife Refuge Association (NWRA):
www.refugenet.org/birding/birding5.html
 
 
RARITY FOCUS
 
The monthly rarity was difficult to pick this month. We generally like to 
select a bird that is a species rare across North America and one that is seen 
by multiple observers over at least a several day period.
 
Some rarities on the fringes of Alaska (e.g. Eye-browed Thrush, Hawfinch, and 
Rustic Bunting) or in Florida (Zenaida Dove on Key Largo) were either present 
for too short a duration, or else were not immediately accessible for other 
birders to enjoy.
 
The only bird - a great find - that came close to our preferred standards was a 
Gray-collared Becard (Pachyramphus major) found on 5 June by Jillian Johnston, 
Anne Pellegrini, and Ryan Davis at the South Fork Zoological and Botanical 
Area, near the Southwestern Research Station (Portal area in the Chiricahua 
Mountains) in Arizona.
 
Although P.D. Hulce, Bob Weaver, and Chris West relocated the bird later the 
same day and took numerous photographs, other observers had difficulty 
relocating the bird. Here are Chris West’s photos:
http://community.webshots.com/album/572865969AtXaSw
 
Gray-collared Becard is a widespread, but uncommon, species in Mexico that 
ranges south to El Salvador and Nicaragua. It mainly occurs in lowland and 
foothill woodlands. The species is reported to be apparently expanding its 
range northward.
 
Interestingly, a little over a decade ago the Gray-collared Becard appeared in 
a mini-series article in BIRDING (Dec ‘98) titled, "Next New Birds for the ABA 
Area." The species was picked as the first runner-up - after a core half-dozen 
species - chosen by an expert panel to someday be discovered someplace in the 
Arizona/New-Mexico region.
 
The becard was originally found along the first two miles of gravel road 
leading into South Fork. Later, it, or possibly even a second individual, was 
found at the Sunny Flat Campground.
 
Despite continual searches, the Gray-collared Becard(s?) was seen by only about 
a dozen observers through 19 June. Regardless of whether one or two birds were 
involved, this event constitutes the first occurrence of the species north of 
Mexico.
 
 
TERN/PLOVER QUANDRY IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
 
Gull-billed Tern (subspecies: Gelochelidon nilotica vanrossemi) has only two 
breeding sites in the western United States: in southern California at San 
Diego Bay and the Salton Sea. Both sites are on National Wildlife Refuges (San 
Diego Bay NWR and Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR). At San Diego Bay NWR, Gull-billed 
Terns face a Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to control their population by 
destroying their eggs. Why?
 
Egg destruction is intended to hopefully protect two Endangered birds in the 
area, the western Snowy Plover and the California Least Tern. Unfortunately 
Gull-billed Terns are known to prey on the young and possibly the eggs of the 
two Endangered species. While addling of 43 percent of the Gull-billed Tern 
eggs at San Diego Bay NWR may do the trick for the Snowy Plovers and/or Least 
Terns, it may also jeopardize the Gull-billed Tern. The 43 percent figure was 
chosen, however, to stabilize, not decrease, the Gull-billed Tern population. 
The issue is complicated by the fact that the western population of Gull-billed 
Tern is considered a Fish and Wildlife Service Bird of Conservation Concern, 
and a California Bird Species of Special Concern. The challenge is to manage 
Least Terns, Snowy Plovers, and Gull-billed Terns in such a way that will 
reverse the current downward trend in the fledgling success of the Least Terns 
and Snowy Plovers, while at the same time avoiding significant adverse effects 
on the Gull-billed Tern population.
 
Other strategies such as hazing, trans-locating adult Gull-billed Terns, or 
cross-fostering eggs into the Salton Sea population are not favored by the 
Service. Broader management issues for all three species include habitat loss 
(e.g., housing and commercial development), human recreational disturbance, and 
wildlife predation from feral cats and wild predators. Addressing these issues, 
some critics claim, is more important to consider than Gull-billed Tern 
predation on the terns and plovers.
 
Some critics even wish to include the western Gull-billed Tern as Endangered 
under the Endangered Species Act, without having much insight into how such a 
move might actually resolve the dilemma.
 
Although the numbers involved are not that large (e.g., the immediate San Diego 
Bay populations are about 50 pairs of Gull-billed Terns, 80 pairs of Least 
Terns, and 2 pairs of Snowy Plovers), the implications are much larger. The 
foraging range of the Gull-billed Terns is wide and includes other more distant 
colonies of Least Terns and nesting areas of Snowy Plovers. This issue clearly 
illustrates some of the very difficult choices facing bird conservationists and 
land managers today.
 
While the project was ultimately suspended for the 2009 nesting season, 
additional information is being sought in expectation of some action in 2010.

For the draft Environmental Assessment on managing the Gull-billed Terns at San 
Diego Bay, see:
http://www.fws.gov/sandiegorefuges/new/FinaldraftEA4_21_09.pdf
 
 
RECORDING RECOGNTION
 
Every year the Librarian of Congress selects a number of "culturally, 
historically, or aesthetically significant," sound recordings each at least a 
decade old - to be included in the National Recording Registry. These 
selections are made under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act 
of 2000. For example, this year's selected 25 recordings, announced in early 
June, include Etta James' "At Last!," The Who's "My Generation," the original 
cast recording of "West Side Story," the "Gang Busters" radio program, and Mel 
Brooks and Carl Reiner in their 2000-year-old man routine.
 
The latest selection, announced in June, includes a 1935 recording of a pair of 
Ivory-billed Woodpeckers, made by Arthur Allen and Peter Paul Kellogg of 
Cornell University at the old-growth Louisiana bottomland forest known as the 
Singer Tract.
 
With the latest additions , the archives will total a collection of 275 
contributions. A summary of the latest 25 recordings is found here:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/nrpb-2008reg.html
 
 
MARBLED MURRELET ASSESSMENT RELEASED
 
We have previously discussed the ongoing controversy over the Endangered 
Species Act listing of Marbled Murrelet, most recently in November 2008:
http://www.refugenet.org/birding/novSBC08.html#TOC05
 
In mid-June, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a report concluding 
that continued protection of Marbled Murrelets in Washington, Oregon, and 
California (listed as Threatened under the ESA since 1992) should be 
maintained. This five-year review replaces a flawed 2004 report in which 
political influence trumped scientific and legal conclusions to try to 
eliminate protections for the species.
 
The new report finds that the tri-state murrelet population is distinct and 
separate from other populations in Canada and Alaska and that the species’ 
decline has been largely caused by extensive removal of late-successional and 
old-growth coastal forest which serve as nesting habitat for the murrelet. This 
announcement comes as current administration officials reconsider logging 
standards in old-growth forests in the region. Protection for the Marbled 
Murrelet, as well as for salmon and Northern Spotted Owl are involved. Changes 
in food sources and dangers from fishing gear are other threats to the murrelet 
cited in the report.
 
This most recent report documents a serious 34 percent decline in the 
Washington, Oregon, and California Marbled Murrelet population between 2001 and 
2008. It also indicates that the central California population has declined by 
75 percent since 2003.
 
The timber industry has filed multiple lawsuits in an attempt to remove 
protection for the Marbled Murrelet. To date, however, those lawsuits have been 
unsuccessful. With the recent report confirming the disturbing status of 
murrelets, the Fish and Wildlife Service has at last moved to dismiss the last 
of these pending cases.
 
You can find a copy of the review at:
http://www.fws.gov/westwafwo/pdf/Mamu2009_5yr_review%20FINAL%2061209.pdf
 
 
BARBADOS SWAMP SHOOTING RANGE BECOMES SANCTUARY
 
"Swamp shooting" has been taking place on Barbados for generations. It is 
nothing like waterfowling in the U.S. or Canada today; it’s more like a 
throwback to the mass bird-shootings and market gunning that was so prevalent 
in the latter part of the 19th century in the United States. Because of their 
social and racial status - most are well-to-do Caucasians - the shooters on 
Barbados have significant economic and political influence on the island.
 
On Barbados, tens of thousands of southbound migrating shorebirds are annually 
shot on artificial lakes and salt lagoons using lures, caged birds, and 
amplified birdcalls to attract the migrants. As many as 30,000 to 45,000 Lesser 
Yellowlegs, Greater Yellowlegs, Whimbrels, Stilt Sandpipers, Pectoral 
Sandpipers, American Golden-Plovers, and lesser numbers of other shorebirds are 
shot annually. (In particular, observers have charged that remarkably high 
numbers of American Golden-Plovers are being shot in Barbados every year.)
 
We wrote about this situation in September 2007:
http://www.refugenet.org/birding/sepSBC07.html#TOC08
 
Fortunately, there has recently been some hopeful news from the island. Packers 
Conservation Wetland, a 10-acre swamp with six ponds and four acres of mixed 
swamp-forest, was operated as a shooting swamp from 1982-2004. Two former 
shooters have now leased the land and are financing restoration of the area.
 
Bird Studies Canada and BirdLife Caribbean have contributed additional funds to 
support the future management of this sanctuary. Assuming there is enough 
rainfall and runoff, the wetland should be poised for use as a shorebird 
sanctuary in time for the regular 15 July beginning of the shooting season.
 
See news from Bird Studies Canada here:
http://www.bsc-eoc.org/organization/newsarchive/6-05-09.html
 
 
TIP OF THE MONTH AND BOOK NOTE: TIME TO STUDY YOUR SHOREBIRDS
 
On a similar shorebird theme, we have combined our usual tip of the month and 
our book note for this month. It's time to bone up on your shorebirds. Many 
shorebirds are already starting to leave their Arctic nesting areas and are 
beginning to migrate southward.
 
Both of your two editors have a special affinity for shorebirds, and we 
strongly endorse both their appreciation and their conservation. We encourage 
you to look at your field guide ; study the videos; review those fascinating 
shorebird vocalizations; and share the experience with a new birder.
 
There are some great shorebird books out there, a few which we have previously 
mentioned in the E-bulletin. Some of our favorites (in chronological order) 
include:
            SHOREBIRDS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, Dennis Paulson (Univ. of 
Washington, 1998)
            SHOREBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, Dennis Paulson (Princeton University 
Press, 2005)
            SHOREBIRDS OF NOTH AMERICA, EUROPE, AND ASIA, Stephen Message and 
Don Taylor (Princeton University Press, 2005)
            THE SHOREBIRD GUIDE, Michael O'Brien, Richard Crossley, and Kevin 
Karlson (Houghton Mifflin, 2006)
            SHOREBIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, EUROPE, AND ASIA: A Photographic 
Guide, Richard Chandler (Princeton University Press, 2009)
 
 
TIME TO BUY YOUR MIGRATORY BIRD STAMP
 
July is the month to buy your new Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation 
[Duck] Stamp at your local Post Office, National Wildlife Refuge, or various 
sporting outlets. Some 98 percent of the proceeds go to secure National Refuge 
System wetland and grassland habitat, and the Stamp also serves as a pass for 
refuges that charge for entry.
 
To highlight this fact, we draw your attention to a new, revised listing of 
Migratory Bird Conservation Fund amounts (MBCF is sustained by Stamp dollars 
plus other funding - some import duties, permits, fines, etc.) as percentages 
of the funding used to acquire individual refuges in the past:
http://www.fws.gov/realty/pdf_files/MBCF_acres_per_Refuge.pdf
 
The list is very revealing. For example, here are some of those percentages for 
a small selection of popular and much-birded refuges:
 
Parker River in Massachusetts                     99.3%
Bosque del Apache in New Mexico          99.2%
Pea Island in North Carolina                      99.2%
Quivira in Kansas                                  99.1%
Horicon in Wisconsin                               98.7%
Bombay Hook in Delaware                   95.1%
Santa Ana in Texas                                 94.9%
Okefenokee in Georgia                              88.2%
Laguna Atascosa in Texas                          86.0%
Edwin B. Forsythe in New Jersey          84.3%
Blackwater in Maryland                    77.6%
 
These past investments and the continual use of Stamp funds for refuge habitat 
are outstanding examples of reasons to buy a Stamp.
 
 
STAMP COST INCREASE ON THE BACK-BURNER?
 
In the meantime, the old argument that "there is already too much land in 
federal ownership" has impacted recent efforts to update the Migratory Bird 
Hunting and Conservation [Duck] Stamp. In early June, the proposed legislation 
(H.R. 1916) to increase the price of the Stamp from $15 to $25 in 2010 was 
pulled back by committee supporters at the last minute due to a number of 
amendments filed by Republicans.
 
At least seven amendments were submitted, amendments mainly aimed at limiting 
the amount of land acquisition authorized under the program. GOP members are 
apparently concerned that the funds can only be spent on land acquisition and 
not for other beneficial expenditures or purposes.
 
This may sound reasonable, but the issue of other purposes was what drove the 
original 1958 revisions to the Stamp Act in the first place - to protect and 
direct the Stamp dollars into the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund for habitat 
acquisition. President Eisenhower's Secretary of the Interior - "Generous Doug" 
McKay had actually been blatantly using the Stamp funds for other purposes, and 
in some years 80-90 percent of the Stamp proceeds were shunted to other 
activities. At that time the conservation community insisted on seeing the 
funds go to habitat acquisition, and that’s where we have been ever since, with 
98 percent going to secure wetlands and grasslands for the Refuge System.
 
For now, the fate of H.R. 1916 remains unclear, but the effort may reappear 
when clear passage looks more certain.
 
 
IBA NEWS: GREAT SALT LAKE, SELENIUM, AND BIRDS
 
Great Salt Lake in Utah is sufficiently significant as a focus for Important 
Bird Area status that no less than five major bays on the lake (i.e., 
Farmington, Ogden, Bear River, Gilbert [or South Arm] and Gunnison [or North 
Arm]) are considered IBAs unto themselves.
 
Consequently, ongoing developments pertaining to selenium limits at the lake 
deserve notice.
 
Selenium is a naturally occurring mineral which also turns up in sewage 
discharge and industrial operations; at high enough levels it can cause 
deformities among birds. When the State of Utah formed an advisory panel to 
develop a limit to the amount of selenium in Great Salt Lake, they settled on a 
regulation for a selenium level that kills about 10 percent of Mallard embryos.

This position was not acceptable to some members of the advisory panel, but the 
waste water dischargers and Kennecott Copper pushed for higher discharge 
levels, and they persuaded others on the panel to accept a tolerably toxic 
solution.
 
The Fish and Wildlife Service has now sent a letter to the Environmental 
Protection Agency asking that EPA reject the new selenium regulatory level, 
because the destruction of these Mallard eggs is in violation of the Migratory 
Bird Treaty Act - a taking or killing prohibited by the MBTA. This unusual 
situation may actually represent the first time that the Fish and Wildlife 
Service has invoked the MBTA to fight water discharge regulations.
 
Moreover, there is little data to indicate whether the new standard might 
jeopardize other migratory species that depend on the vast lake, species even 
more sensitive to selenium than Mallards.
 
It is now up to the EPA whether or not to deny the Utah selenium standard and 
force the state to adopt a stricter standard to protect all birds.
 
For more on Utah IBAs, see:
http://www.audubon.org/bird/iba/utah/
 
For additional information about worldwide IBA programs, and those across the 
U.S., check the National Audubon Society's Important Bird Area program web site 
at:
http://www.audubon.org/bird/iba/
 
 
FIELD GUIDE TO THE FARM BILL
 
Do you find the Farm Bill confusing, especially when it comes to the varied 
conservation-and-bird elements? Does the alphabet-soup of CRP, WRP, GRP, EQIP, 
FRPP, and CSP have your head spinning?
 
This publication - prepared by the U.S. NABCI Committee and the Intermountain 
West Joint Venture - should help clarify the situation for you. It is a 42-page 
downloadable booklet written by Randy Gray, an expert with over three decades 
of farm-conservation experience.

The guide covers historic Farm Bill evolution, administration, maximizing 
benefits, performance measures, and much more. An emphasis on bird conservation 
is particularly appreciated. You can download your own copy here:
http://www.fishwildlife.org/pdfs/FarmBillGuide.pdf
 
 
CAP-AND-TRADE: BIRDS-AND-WILDLIFE
 
As June was coming to an end, the U.S. House of Representatives in a close vote 
(219-212) passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act. This cap-and-trade 
system is intended to limit the effects of climate change by putting a cap on 
greenhouse gas emissions while investing in significant energy efficiencies and 
technologies. The bill also establishes a Natural Resources Climate Change 
Adaptation Fund, to assist federal and state agencies in protecting wildlife. 
(The fund, starting with a market set-aside of 1% could increase to 4% or 5% by 
2040.) The bill also charges the U.S. Department of Agriculture with 
implementing agriculture and forestry carbon offset projects, including 
conservation programs.
 
The Senate has yet to act on this, but it did reject a similar piece of 
legislation last June. See our coverage here:
http://www.refugenet.org/birding/julSBC08.html#TOC03
 
We will surely revisit this issue in future issues of the E-bulletin.
 
 
SHAMELESS VANITY
 
As the Birding Community E-bulletin enters its sixth year of publication and 
distribution, we are continuing to share some remarks from some of our readers. 
As previously noted, we will include one or two comments each month this year. 
These will be placed at the very end of each E-bulletin so you can simply stop 
reading right now if you'd like!
 
"These days it's challenging to keep up with all the information that comes at 
us. When I see the Birding Community E-bulletin in my inbox, I open it eagerly, 
knowing that the information it contains has been sifted down, by two 
knowledgeable and skillful birders, to what's most important, useful, and 
interesting."
         -Lisa White, Director of Guidebooks, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 
Publishing Company
 
"I always enjoy the E-bulletin.  It is one of the very few electronic 
newsletters that I read end to end!"
        - Alan Wentz, Senior Group Manager of Conservation, Ducks Unlimited
 
- - - - - - - - -
You can access past E-bulletins on the National Wildlife Refuge Association 
(NWRA) website:
www.refugenet.org/birding/birding5.html
                                   
If you wish to distribute all or parts of any of the monthly Birding Community 
E-bulletins, we simply request that you mention the source of any material 
used. (Include a URL for the E-bulletin archives, if possible.)
 
If you have any friends or co-workers who want to get onto the monthly 
E-bulletin mailing list, have them contact either:
           
            Wayne R. Petersen, Director
            Massachusetts Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program
            Mass Audubon
            718/259-2178
             wpetersen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                        or
            Paul J. Baicich            
            410/992-9736
             paul.baicich@xxxxxxxxxxx
                                                           
We never lend or sell our E-bulletin recipient list.


********************************

Bill Mueller
Milwaukee
414-698-9108
on the web: http://home.earthlink.net/~iltlawas/index.html
blog: http://bluebirdslaugh.blogspot.com/
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