RARITY FOCUS

It was just last month when we wrote that we generally avoid highlighting our monthly rarities which might fall in the category of passing species, those that proved immediately illusive, and/or those on the far-off edges of North America.

Of course, we have had fairly recent exceptions, such as our July 2021 feature on a Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush the previous month at Barrow, Alaska. Also, back in our June 2019 issue we reviewed the springtime mega-rarities that graced Alaska that season including Eurasian shorebirds and songbirds that were found at places like the Pribilofs, St. Lawrence Island, Shemya, and Attu. See here:

https://conta.cc/3fDuAjk

This month, we also couldn’t ignore the impressive sprinkling of Eurasian species that turned up in Alaska, mostly around the Bering-sea islands, but not completely. It’s a phenomenon that is more usual in spring, not early fall.

The delicious migration rarities that made an exceptional showing in Alaska this year included the following (in general order of appearance during September):

•  St. Paul Island: Taiga Flycatcher, Spotted Redshank, Gray Wagtail, Eurasian Bullfinch, Baikal Teal, Garganey, Middendorff's Grasshopper-Warbler, Rustic Bunting, Jack Snipe, Eurasian Hoopoe, Marsh Sandpiper, and Brambling.
• Adak: Little Stint, Brambling, and Naumann’s Thrush.
• Shemya: Common Sandpiper, Temminck’s Stint, Pechora Pipit, Red-backed Shrike, Wood Sandpiper, and Tree Pipit.
• Gambell: Pechora Pipit, Gray-streaked Flycatcher, Siberian Stonechat, Blyth’s Reed-Warbler, Brambling, Rustic Bunting, and an astounding Icterine Warbler, an eastern European breeder.
• Elsewhere: Citrine Wagtail and Pin-tailed Snipe on the Kenai Peninsula, Brambling at Unalaska, and Common Crane on King Island.

A review of the Icterine Warbler’s potential origins and route – as well as coverage on some of the season’s wonderful Alaskan rarities - can be found here, by Amy Davis, North American Birds associate editor:

https://www.aba.org/aba-areas-first-icterine-warbler-at-gambell-alaska/

BIRD MIGRATION EXPLORER

Created from an admirable partnership among ten organizations – including the National Audubon Society, Birds Canada, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology - the Bird Migration Explorer was released and officially announced last month.

This new software device is a state-of-the-art digital platform that reveals migration data consolidated for over 450 bird species found in North America. This free and interactive platform is currently available in English and Spanish, and it allows curious users to review some of the most interesting migration data currently available for these migratory species.

So far, the project includes over 4.2 million point-to-point migratory bird connections across the hemisphere, as well as visualizations for 19 selected “Conservation Challenges” that migratory birds are exposed to throughout the year across the Americas.

Read more about this from Birds Canada:

https://www.birdscanada.org/first-of-its-kind-digital-platform-launches-just-in-time-for-fall-migration

Also explained by the project team at the National Audubon Society:

https://www.audubon.org/magazine/fall-2022/the-bird-migration-explorer-lets-you-interact

With a three-minute video here:

https://www.birdscanada.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/BME-Explainer-Video_720p.mp4

And which is fully accessible here:

www.birdmigrationexplorer.org

BOOK NOTES: KINGFISHER DISCOVERY

Marina Richie’s book Halcyon Journey: In Search of the Belted Kingfisher (Oregon State University Press, 2022) is a more than an inquiry into the Belted Kingfisher. It’s a lot more.

Her book is an inviting combination of outdoor exploration, citizen science, personal reflection, and meaningful discovery, both inward and outward.

It begins with the question of what makes the Belted Kingfisher “special,” but over seven breeding seasons along her local and cherished Rattlesnake Creek in Missoula, Montana, Marina Richie gets deep into kingfisher natural history and discovers plenty. She is dedicated to the task, watching and recording carefully, both inside and outside her blind. And the reader joins her in discovering the natural history, mythology, poetry, posture, color, flight, physiology, and attraction of kingfishers. Sometimes her discoveries are with dear colleagues or inspired researchers, but mostly on her own.

There are also important side-stories – sometimes fanciful indigenous tales, sometimes with the author’s late father, sometimes with her son – that add to the narrative. We also travel with Richie to other locales, punctuated her encounters with other kingfisher species – to the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, to the U.K., to South Africa – and we learn along with her.

It’s not only a “journey,” as indicated in her book’s title, it’s a combined discovery.

Ever the student of nature, ready to learn from her kingfishers and, moreover, to simultaneously learn about herself, she also shares with us her view that “our kinship with all life is at stake. Unless enough of us spend time in the field immersing, noticing, reveling, and wondering, we won’t act in time to save ourselves. We don’t have to be biologists; we only have to be curious.”        

IBA NEWS: AFTER IAN

As of this writing, the state of Florida is still assessing the damage from Hurricane Ian, and the media has heavily focused on the area around Sanibel Island, a barrier island outside Fort Myers, Florida, that is home to fewer than 7,000 residents (but growing to 35,000 in the winter). It is a location that faced the brunt of the storm as it made landfall Wednesday afternoon, September 28.

The popular J. N Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge encompasses a large portion of Sanibel and Captiva Islands north of Sanibel/Captiva Road. It is also near the combined Cayo Costa/Pine Island Important Bird Area to the north. (Cayo Costa is a State Park, and Pine Island National Wildlife Refuge is a small NWR.)

One of the most popular birding spots in Florida, the Ding Darling Refuge is an Important Bird Area of state importance, and a site that that receives over 750,000 visitors annually. It is known for a number of key species, including Black-whiskered Vireo, Black-necked Stilt, Brown Pelican, Gray Kingbird, Mangrove Cuckoo, Prairie Warbler, Reddish Egret, and Roseate Spoonbill.

After the hurricane hit, search-and-rescue priorities were uppermost, with people remaining unaccounted for, although fortunately all refuge staff and interns were reported safe and unharmed.

Damage assessments continue, and the key staff are in direct communication with the city, state and county authorities. The refuge – closed until further notice - has sustained considerable damage, but, reportedly, “nothing that can't be repaired.” Refuge access via the access causeway alone will be a massive project. For ongoing details from the “friends” of the refuge at the “Ding” Darling Wildlife Society, see here:

https://dingdarlingsociety.org/articles/dingstrong

The National Wildlife Refuge Association will also be working hard to secure funding to repair losses to critical habitats, repair damages to refuge facilities, and assist the associated communities affected in rebuilding.

For background on the J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge and its IBA status, see here:

https://www.audubon.org/important-bird-areas/jn-ding-darling-national-wildlife-refuge

For additional information about worldwide IBA programs, including those in the U.S., go to the National Audubon Society's Important Bird Area program web site at:

https://www.audubon.org/important-bird-areas

NWR WEEK

And related to the subject of IBAs and Refuges across the country, National Wildlife Refuge Week occurs yearly during the second full week of October. The week of activities starts on Saturday, 8 October, with Urban Wildlife Conservation Day. Admission is free on Sunday, 9 October at all National Wildlife Refuges that might normally charge an entrance fee. Of course, nearly 500 bird-packed National Wildlife Refuges and Wetland Management Districts offer free admission year-round.

Also, during this special week, there are NWRs that will open up some roads, trails, and impoundments that are otherwise closed, an added treat for birders.

Learn more about this year’s celebration, including virtual and in-person events by visiting:

https://www.fws.gov/story/national-wildlife-refuge-week

 and 

https://fws.gov/events

CARS AND FLORIDA CRANES

And speaking of Florida, NWRs, and road access, there is a threat that automobiles are posing to the resident Sandhill Crane population in that state.

Sandhill Crane is listed by the USFWS as “Threatened” in Florida, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) estimates that there are fewer than 5,000 Florida Sandhill Cranes in this non-migratory population.

Cars pose one of the most significant threats to these Sandhill Cranes. Adult Sandhill Cranes accompanied by their “colts” don’t necessarily fly off when a vehicle is headed toward them. Often, they simply choose to stand their ground, or else simply slowly walk off. Unfortunately, occasionally impatient drivers have been documented driving directly into family groups, killing or severely injuring the birds. Clearly, deer are not alone among large road encounters in Florida!

This situation is described, along with serious advice on avoiding disaster, in the September 2022 Eastern Crane Bulletin (on pp. 11-12):

https://kyc4sandhillcranes.files.wordpress.com/2022/09/eastern-crane-bulletin_september-2022-1.pdf

ACCESS MATTERS: FRIENDLY FARMER

In early September in Wayne County, Ohio, an Amish farmer, Henry Miller, discovered a family of ducks at his modest farm pond. The pond is about a third of an acre in size on Miller’s sheep farm. The ducks were unfamiliar to him, so he contacted a young birding relative who identified this newly hatched duck family as that of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks.

This species historically occurred and nested in the U.S. in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, but it has been gradually spreading up the Texas Coast. Since the late 1960s, the species has also been found in central and south Florida – particularly in late summer and early fall – and has become a year-round resident in most of peninsular Florida, sometimes also appearing in Georgia and the Carolinas. In fact, the species has already also nested in some surprising locations – such as Wisconsin and Delaware – and late-summer appearances north of the bird’s “normal” range are no longer a huge shock.

Nonetheless, Ohio did not witness its first Black-bellied Whistling-Duck record until 2004, so discovering an adult (presumably the female) with 9 or 10 ducklings in Wayne County was a big deal.

This first nesting record for Ohio was of real interest to the state’s birding community. Regrettably the immediate area where the new duck family was located, was fairly inaccessible for viewing. Henry Miller kindly removed fence sections and cut back overgrowth so visiting birders could gain access to the site. Indeed, the Miller family very generously went to some lengths to accommodate birding visitors. (There was even a visitor sign-in log.)

The Miller family really didn’t have to do this. But they did, and it proves again that welcoming access for birders is absolutely essential and appreciated under circumstances like this one.

You can read the full story of these Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks and the corresponding welcome (with photos) here, from Jim McCormac:

https://jimmccormac.blogspot.com/2022/09/black-bellied-whistling-ducks-nest-in.html?fbclid=IwAR3PJQVNfCFS-W_Ysf9KP6PGIjVatPNMO74CJObV_NKWQmVJ3oZVH7grmHc

And there are other photos and a short video here, taken by Tom Fishburn:

https://fowlman1954.smugmug.com/Nature/Species-of-Creation/Bird-Species/Waterfowl/Whistling-Ducks-Black-bellied-Dendrocygna-autumnalis/2022-Millersburg-Black-bellied-Whistling-Duck-Family/

TAKE A HIKE

A new study published in the journal, Molecular Psychiatry, offers convincing evidence that a simple walk in nature can lower activity in stress-related brain regions. The experiment revealed that participants who walked for an hour “in a forest” showed decreased amygdala activity during a stress task, while those who walked for an hour in the city did not.

“There has been solid research showing that exposure to nature is beneficial for mental health and cognition, but no study so far has examined neural mechanisms lying behind these effects,” explained Sonja Sudimac, one of the study’s key researchers.

While the study did not emphasize the added element of bird watching, it seemed to verify what many birders have often felt after spending time outdoors: relaxed and renewed.

For more information on this study, see:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/experiment-reveals-that-a-one-hour-walk-in-nature-reduces-amygdala-activity-which-may-protect-mental-health/ar-AA12lVeB?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=77dd8b9a242148e6916994acf70ae9f6

LAST WORD

Finally, if you have any friends or co-workers who wish to be included in the monthly Birding Community E-bulletin mailing list, you can simply refer them to this link:

https://bit.ly/35Xd3hO