November 01, 2009


A seagull had to be put down after it became tangled in fishing wire between two trees in Palmer Park.

The bird had got so stuck in the wire the fire fighters were unable to help and had to call the RSPCA to shoot the bird down.

James Blake, crew manager for Dee Road, said: “We are unable to take the engines into Palmer Park because of the chalk mines underneath so it was quite a tricky situation.

“It was about 30ft up and the wire was all wrapped around it, the wire was everywhere and the RSPCA had to get a gun out to put it down.

“The wire was like fishing wire but it could have been from kites or something like that, although there was no-one out flying kites at the time.�

The fire crew were called out at 11.30am on Friday.

The News Journal • November 1, 2009

Over the next few nights, David LaPuma and dozens of other birders will point telescopes, spotting scopes and binoculars toward the sky to count the birds that fly past.
One of the tools they'll use is one that's not in their bag of magnifiers: The moon.
Thanks to the full circle of white sitting in the sky, they'll be able to note the direction of travel and estimate a bird's size in comparison to the lunar crater Tycho. And when the evening of moonwatching is complete, they will submit the data to the Fall Migration Moonwatch Project 2009.
It's not always easy. The birds often whirl past the moon, making it almost impossible to tell what kind they are, said LaPuma, a researcher in the ecology and evolution program at Rutgers University Cook College in New Jersey. With 60 birds crossing the moon in an hour, an experienced bird watcher may see one and say, "Oh, that looks like a duck," he said.
LaPuma hopes that moonwatching and other tools can help birders sift through the feathered fliers and gain a better understanding of when, how and why birds migrate.
This information will help protect declining species, find patterns or changes in bird movements, and identify and protect critical habitats, LaPuma said.
Some birds get to one place and stay there. But for most species, migration is a way of life and survival.
And there's lots of things researchers already know about migration. They know a warmer spot isn't always the motivation for a bird on the move -- some are following the food.
"The birds are going to be stopping over where the food resources are," said Anthony Gonzon, who is compiling Delaware bird data for the state's Breeding Bird Atlas. "This time of year, the abundance of insects is declining."
A good stopover place is often an area that has fruits, nuts, seeds and berries, Gonzon said.
Contrary to popular belief, birds aren't always like humans in their resting patterns.
In migration, hundreds of species move at night.
East of the Rocky Mountains, an estimated 300 to 400 species of birds can and do migrate at night, said Andrew Farnsworth, a scientist in the evolutionary biology program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Many of the night fliers are songbirds -- warblers and sparrows -- but owls and even waterfowl will migrate at night, he said.
Why? Scientists believe the atmosphere is smoother at night and birds can travel farther and faster with less effort. They may also be less vulnerable to predators.
Those who study migration believe there likely are three primary strategies that birds use: piloting, in which birds use familiar landmarks to move from place to place much like our daily commute; orientation, when birds use the sun, stars and Earth's magnetic field to navigate; and true navigation, in which birds use a mechanism to correct their course in windy conditions or bad weather.
Some birds travel great distances -- like the red knot in its spring migration from South America to Delaware Bay and then on to Arctic breeding grounds. Others, like neotropical migrants, travel short distances of 150 to 200 miles every night and then stop in critical habitats to refuel.
"The birds are going to be stopping where the food resources are," Gonzon said.
Some species follow ridge lines and some travel along coast lines, he said.
And sometimes, as they start their migration, large numbers of birds will build up on the edge of weather fronts and use the upper atmospheric winds to their advantage, he said.
These birds aren't wimps. They are often hundreds of feet above the ground. Typically, they fly just after dusk and begin to fall out an hour or two before dawn, Gonzon said.
Radar, acoustic devices
Watching the moon and counting the birds isn't the only tool researchers use.
Some scientists use radar to track bird movement. That gives a picture of the numbers of birds that are migrating.
But to find out what is moving, researchers use acoustic devices and computers to pick up flight calls of birds in migration.
Still others rely on teams of volunteers to ground-truth the high-tech data sets by sending teams out the following morning to see what is feeding and resting in migratory hot spots.
On Thursday night, for instance, LaPuma could look at a radar image and see that a big flight of birds was moving through the region. Scientists can tell the difference between birds and thunderstorms, for instance, or birds and dust, or birds and insects.
Birds typically fly 10 to 15 knots faster than the wind speed and they don't always travel downwind, according to experts at New Jersey Audubon
Insects, dust and rain are all wind-blown and move in the same direction and speed as the wind.
If the object in the radar moves 10 knots faster than the prevailing wind and is travelling crosswind or into a headwind, researchers know it is almost always birds.
Radar gives a broad-brush picture of migration, said Vince Elia, a research associate at New Jersey Audubon. It can help tell where groups of birds are headed, he said. But it does not tell what kind of bird.
Often in that radar image, there is a range of birds in a wide variety of sizes, he said.
That's where scientists like Andrew Farnsworth come in.
Farnsworth, a research associate in the conservation program at Cornell University Ornithological Labs, has moonwatched and used radar, but he also uses sound and recordings of migration flight calls to determine what is moving through an area.
Using computers, researchers have been able to come up with signature calls -- different from the chirps and tweets we hear in our backyard -- that many species use in migration. These sounds may help the birds stay together or space themselves in flight, he said.
Farnsworth said migration work is important because for some species it may be the only way to get a snapshot of habitat and population data.
Some birds breed in places where no one is doing surveys and these species may slip through the data collection done in the Christmas bird counts.
So for some species, a migration count may be the best way to gather data, he said.
But for other species, it is yet another tool in coming up with management and conservation strategies. The data could be especially important as rural areas become urbanized and as climate change impacts habitats, he said.
On a good night for migration, 30 to 45 minutes after the local sunset, "you see this incredible blooming in the sky," Farnsworth said of the radar images.
And then, as the birds land, the radar gives a clear picture of places where birds spend the day and what locations might be at risk, he said.
LaPuma combines radar data and other tools and produces a Web site called Woodcreeper to keep people informed about birds' migration.
The fall migration, for instance, usually starts in September and ends in November.
The spring migration is compressed and typically occurs in April and May in our area.
But in the end, LaPuma sees it all as an important tool in protecting critical habitat.
"You can predict where birds are going to be," he said. "It's fun stuff."

["They suck the blood of little nestlings," Wurst said. "They're killing peregrine chicks when they're very young."]

Peregrine falcon numbers continue to rise in New Jersey, but the species is still recovering from the effects of dangerous chemicals released into the environment decades ago.

That's the conclusion drawn by the 2009 peregrine falcon report, which was released earlier this month by the state Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Fish and Wildlife.

New Jersey has 24 documented nesting pairs of peregrine falcons this year, up from 20 nesting pairs that were identified in the 2008 report.

The number of nesting pairs increased after four pairs were discovered along bridges that connect New Jersey to Pennsylvania.

Many of the existing pairs can be found along New Jersey's coastal areas. This year, those nests were considered very successful, with 11 of 14 pairs producing 27 new peregrine falcon chicks during the course of the year.

With new discoveries made each year, it is possible that even more peregrine falcons could be found throughout the state.

"They can be really hard to pin down," said Kathleen Clark, a biologist with the Division of Fish and Wildlife's endangered species program who helped put together this year's report.

Many peregrine nests in New Jersey are found on manmade structures such as bridges and the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort, where three peregrine chicks hatched in 2009.

Because of these nest-building trends, pairs can be difficult to track. Clark said the birds often build nests in places that are difficult to monitor and in many cases cannot even be seen. That's why even though a peregrine may be spotted, biologists cannot confirm whether it is from New Jersey until they have found a nest.

"I know there are peregrines still in Newark," Clark said. "But I can't find them."

The difficulty in tracking down nesting pairs extends into southern New Jersey as well. A nest for a pair of peregrines may be located underneath a portion of bridge that runs along Great Bay Boulevard in Little Egg Harbor Township's Mystic Islands, but biologists will not list the peregrines as a nesting pair unless they see it with their own eyes.

"We haven't gotten underneath that bridge to get a look at that pair," said Ben Wurst, habitat program manager for Conserve Wildlife New Jersey.

Peregrine populations have rebounded significantly since every nesting pair east of the Mississippi River was wiped out due to the overuse of the pesticide DDT in the 1960s. The chemical caused eggshells to thin and lowered the survival rate for peregrine chicks.

While DDT is no longer used as a pesticide in the United States, evidence of its past use can still be seen to this day. Clark said peregrine egg shells, especially along New Jersey's coastline, are still thinner than they should be.

A new threat facing many peregrines is a parasitic fly. Many nests that were inspected were home to several wingless flies that latched onto the birds.

"They suck the blood of little nestlings," Wurst said. "They're killing peregrine chicks when they're very young."   

Wurst said these pests can be eliminated with an alcohol spray, and the birds are not put at risk from the use of the spray.

To view the entire 2009 Peregrine Falcon report, visit:

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/pefa09_report.pdf

A peregrine falcon soars during the annual Hawk Watch at Cape May Point State Park.

[Someone needs to SWAT him. Pathetic.]

Baseball has UNMOLESTED Squirrels on the field...
Football has UNMOLESTED Pigeons on the filed...
Basketball has IDIOTS who kill wayward Bats and the CROWD goes Wild! 
After killing the Bat, the BIG MAN got hand sanitizer so he didn't catch rabies.
So, ends my editorial for the day.

Someone needs to SWAT him. Pathetic.   

[Carla, of course everybody remembers you.]

I'd love to see you all.  Am I invited?  Do you even remember me? 
Carla P.

ahhhh      Carla, of course everybody remembers you.   

[Kudos to Donna!!]

Kudos to Donna!!            bguitar

Thanks Kris, Carol and jeanne..  ..I was real happy to see Beauty at the nest. Hope she makes a few more appearances.

Wow Ei, they were very lucky indeed. Good for them. So will banding be on Tues night here for Weds morning there? Time here anyone?

They didn't list the time, but I would guess it's the same as before...9-10AM...which will be Tues night 5-6pm eastern time.



Love those pantaloons!

Thanks Ei. I'll be watching. 

From Utah to Anglesea, in the name of falcons

Utah is a long way from the small coastal town of Anglesea.

But that didn't stop four falcon enthusiasts from Salt Lake City in Utah, USA, from making a detour on their recent Australian holiday to see firsthand the peregrine falcons they have long been following on the webcam....

Story here...Sheila even came to visit!

Wow Ei, they were very lucky indeed. Good for them. So will banding be on Tues night here for Weds morning there? Time here anyone?

I love this pic!!

[Just got this very good news from Bat Conservation Times:]

Just got this very good news from Bat Conservation Times:

The U.S. Congress has approved $1.9 million in federal funding for research to identify the cause and seek solutions to White-nose Syndrome – the disease that is devastating bat populations throughout the northeastern United States and threatening bat species across North America.
 
The funds, included in the final version of the 2010 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill, mark a dramatic increase from the initial allocation of just $500,000 for monitoring affected bat populations. The WNS-research support was added by a joint committee that resolved differences between House and Senate versions of the bill. Both houses of Congress approved it on Thursday (October 29).
 
The bill now goes to President Obama, who is expected to sign it into law.

Dot in PA

SWEET!!!!!!!!   

You are a tender soul, Aafke, and that is why we all love you - Janet

 

Aafke, I feel so bad for the other 2  . Maybe you can help "Sonic" the hedgehog make it through the tough Winter. I'm sure he wonders where his mom and sibling are. Very cute pics, I may add. 

Good catch Donna!  Larry O and I found Beauty on the Mercury statue, which is just in front of the nest box, this morning.  Still no Archer sightings.

Thanks Carol....I look through the archives every day hoping to catch one of them..Paid off today. 

Seems the gals just don't want to leave their "lap of luxury". It's probably still too early and Beauty just may go too. One never knows with falcons.  ???

Only for a brief visit...haven't seen a falcon there since Oct 11th I believe. 


<a href="http://shakymon.com/thruway/archive/MainCamera_HighRes/20091101/MainCamera_HighRes_20091101-1240.jpg?" target=_blank><img src="http://shakymon.com/thruway/archive/MainCamera_Thumbnail/20091101/MainCamera_Thumbnail_20091101-1240.jpg?" >[/url]

Published Date: 30 October 2009
By Staff Copy
WORK to to install a nest box to attract peregrine falcons to Stamford has been completed – thanks in part to Batman and Robin.
Stamford Chamber of Trade, the town partnership and the town council, have worked together to install the box in St Mary’s Church tower last week.

It is hoped the peregrines will help reduce the increasing pigeon population and be a boom for tourism.

Cedars Steeplejacks, of Grantham, installed the box – with Batman and Robin integral in the work!

Richard Mitchell, a bat expert and predictably known as Batman, worked with his colleagues, Robin Saly and Will Skellett to install the box.

Chamber president Tim Lee said: "If the peregrines nest here, it will be a beautiful natural asset for the town."

He said the birds already nest in Ketton, Lincoln, Louth and Grantham.

The birds almost became extinct 30 years ago but are now protected and numbers have hit 1,400 nesting pairs nationwide.

The chamber was given the go-ahead by the church owners, the Diocese of Lincoln, to install the box.

Jeff sent some pics of the Ice caves he visited. Pretty cool!   

Snowball is one awesome bird. So smart. Thanks Ei.