Innholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2021 i BirdWatching

In May, about 90 volunteers with Tucson Audubon Society spent around 500 hours surveying five mountain ranges in southeastern Arizona over three weekends. Their goal: to count Elegant Trogons in the only region in the U.S. where the species nests. They tallied only 68 trogons, about two-thirds of the 201 birds found in 2020. In nine years of surveys, it was by far the smallest trogon count. Jennie MacFarland, Tucson Audubon’s bird conservation biologist who coordinates the trogon surveys, told the Arizona Daily Star the decline is the result of an extreme drought gripping southern Arizona. The 18-month period through May was the driest period of that length on record at the Tucson airport, according to National Weather Service records. “Trogons need a lot of insects to raise their young. It’s…

As is the case with Long-eared Owl, Gyrfalcon, and some other raptors, goshawks’ relatively sparse appearance at any time other than during autumn migration makes reporting your sighting to local or state birding networks slightly problematic. I’ll go out on a limb here: While I (and perhaps many others whose primary interest in this species is birding) don’t object to trained people practicing legal falconry, I question whether birders should be “helping” falconers find nesting goshawks. I suggest withholding your report, via eBird or some other network, until a given nesting season has passed. We are already doing this for other “sensitive” species; please consider how your report could result in a negative consequence. Since the goshawk is nowhere common, it is always exciting to find one. Let’s protect their…

In a case of convergent app evolution, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recently unveiled a new song identification feature for its excellent Merlin Bird ID app. Like BirdNET, Merlin’s “Sound ID” feature was developed with AI technology, using known spectrograms to teach it to identify more than 400 North American species. Once you start Sound ID, a continuous spectrogram scrolls across the screen, and when a bird is identified, the species name pops up below, accompanied by a photo. Especially for someone with a hearing disability or who just doesn’t know birdsong, it can be like magic watching a succession of bird names appear before your eyes. No doubt it will make a terrific teaching tool, especially for those just getting into birding. The program is not without its limitations.…

I HAVE BEEN an avid bird photographer for 45 years, and my favorite way to photograph birds is from a floating blind. It is a special feeling to be in the quiet waters of a bay at dawn with hundreds of birds that pay little to no attention to you. My floating blind photography season begins in late April, when the ice melts near my Idaho home. On calm mornings, I drive to the lake and park close to the shoreline in a public parking area. I carry the 12-pound blind and photo gear 30 yards to the shore, mount my camera and lens to the Wimberley gimbal head that is attached to the blind, and slowly walk into the water. When the water is 2.5 feet deep, I slip…

WELCOME TO THE first issue of our new look! For the first time in more than a decade, we have given BirdWatching a top-to-bottom makeover. The content that you have come to know and appreciate remains largely the same, but thanks to our talented designer Jaron Cote, the packaging is fresh and new. The front news section, “Birding Briefs,” remains. Right after it is “On the Wire,” a new section where we highlight all kinds of bird-related media and gear, including books, podcasts, and more. You’ll find Laura Erickson’s “Attracting Birds” column in a new spot, between “On the Wire” and Pete Dunne’s “Birder at Large.” Kenn Kaufman and Brian Small’s “ID Tips” column is in the same place, after the feature stories, but it’s now four pages instead of…

The Bahama Oriole is a stunning songbird found only on the Andros islands in the Bahamas that is listed as critically endangered on the international Red List. A 2016 population estimate by BirdLife International found it to number just 93-180 mature birds. A paper published this spring in the journal Avian Conservation and Ecology found, however, a much higher number: 1,269-2,765 individuals were estimated to be living in more than 700 square kilometers on North Andros. The study, based on point counts conducted in spring 2017, reports that the orioles are “most abundant in pine forest, and not dependent on developed habitats during the breeding season.”…

TWO DISPARATE OCCURRENCES spawned this column. The first was the completion of my part of the manuscript for my next book with Kevin Karlson — The Shorebirds of North America. Yes, there is a book by this title authored by the late Peter Matthiessen and published in 1967. We, Kevin and I, simply tired of waiting for an update on this extraordinary bird group and superlative treatment, so we decided to do it ourselves, a decision bolstered by Kevin’s thousands of stellar shorebird images. Buried in his hard drive, the images Kevin took while working as a shorebird biologist in the Arctic simply demand a showing. The book, published by Princeton University Press, will be available in 2022, and you can savor Kevin’s handiwork then. The other happenstance that spawned…

AT nearly 8,000 feet in elevation, the air in Gunnison, Colorado, was quite thin in comparison to my Midwestern stomping grounds. Even in May, snow was on every mountain that surrounded the town, and each morning, frost carpeted the area as the sun rose over a landscape with temperatures in the teens. Rocky cliffs near the outskirts of Gunnison gave way to rushing streams that sheltered beavers and a plethora of other riparian animals. In the blink of an eye, the sky could go from blue to gray and the weather from sun to snow. Originally dominated by sagebrush, the Gunnison Basin is now predominantly covered in lush grass meadows that are used mostly for agriculture and grazing. However, even though the place has the clear touch of man and…

MONROE COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA 37°30'15.91"N 80°27'11.20"W My first visit to the tower at Hanging Rock was in 1974. At that time, the hawk count was being done by the “three Georges and Ken.” George Flouer lived near the tower and was a member of the Brooks Bird Club. He convinced George Koch, George Hurley, and Ken Anderson, members of the Handlan Chapter of the Brooks Bird Club, to come from Charleston on weekends in September to conduct hawk counts. They were my mentors and turned me onto raptor watching. One September afternoon, I arrived at the tower to find George Hurley lying on his back on the tower deck. He said, “Thank God you are here, Jim. Take that section of the sky and start counting.” The sky was full…

BOOK Dead Serious: Wild Hope Amid the Sixth Extinction By Eli J. Knapp, Torrey House Press, 2021, paperback or e-book, 307 pages, $18.95. The latest book from Eli J. Knapp, a professor of intercultural studies and biology at Houghton College and a world birder, takes as its jumping-off point a 1983 essay about extinction by conservation biologist Michael Soulé. He listed 18 things we need to know about extinction — rarity, inbreeding, catastrophe, competition, predation, and the like. Knapp considers each of the 18 points, one per chapter, but he avoids the trap of writing about this heavy topic in a doom-and-gloom way. Instead, he tells personal stories of mishap and adventure, relates historical vignettes, and considers scenic detours that relate to the critical forces that lie behind the sixth…

Much sought-after by birders, often trained and used by falconers, and eagerly watched for at raptor watch locations across North America, the Northern Goshawk is an incredibly effective avian predator. Alongside the science we use to describe the species and analyze data, you know when you see a goshawk that there is something special, something different, about this bird. Any falconer, raptor bander, or raptor rehabilitator who has experience with the species will agree. Goshawks are highly focused hunters; they are described as “fearless.” Numerous anecdotal reports refer to goshawks attempting to take prey species larger than themselves. Scientists do not generally like to use anthropomorphic or pejorative terms such as “fierce” when speaking of wild animals, but even those words seem inadequate to describe the demeanor of a goshawk.…

CIBOLA NATIONAL FOREST, NEW MEXICO 34°42'15.0"N 106°24'40.2"W After spending several years counting migrating raptors at hawk watches throughout the western United States, I can tell you that it doesn’t get much better than visiting a hawk watch during the fall migration season. And the Manzanos may just be one of the best of the bunch. The observation post sits at an elevation of 9,195 feet on a northeast-facing, postcard-perfect limestone outcrop. The site has great weather compared to others, and you’ll still get to see a large variety of migrating raptors flying right over your head — from Sharp-shinned Hawks to Golden Eagles. Annual counts typically range from 5,000 to 7,000 migrants of up to 18 species. You might even be lucky enough to see a late-season Rough-legged Hawk. My…