BirdScope 11 Autumn 25(4)-For Annetta(2).pdf - All About Birds

BirdScope Vol. 25 (4) Autumn 2011 7coast to coastBy Marshall IliffAs destructive and dangerous as theycan be, hurricanes can make for legendarybirding. Strong winds push seabirdsfrom tropical waters to northernshores or far inland—and these days birdersare primed to find them, using smartphonesto stay on top of weather forecastsand safety warnings, and to instantlytrade sightings. After a storm passes, theeBird project, jointly run by the CornellLab of Ornithology and Audubon, providesa single location for storm sightingsto be collated, mapped, and studied.I waited out Tropical Storm Irene onthe shores of Quabbin Reservoir, centralMassachusetts. As the storm approached,the rain pelted and the winds slowly intensifiedto about 45 mph by about 1:00p.m. That’s when my friends and I sawour first storm bird—a Parasitic Jaeger—and next a flock of Hudsonian Godwits.Around 4:00 p.m., a few Black Ternsand two distant jaegers signaled a shiftin the wind. The next hour of birdingwas one of the most exciting of my life.An odd bird high in the sky baffled meat first, but it turned and revealed a longtail—an adult White-tailed Tropicbird, atleast 800 miles from home! Next, an adultSooty Tern flew through my field of view.Sooty Terns range widely, but they’renever seen north of the Carolinas exceptduring storms. I had half-expected to seethe terns, but was completely shockedby the tropicbird. My day was capped offwith an incongruous sighting of a Leach’sStorm-Petrel, usually an open-ocean birdthat stays low to the water, flying high inthe sky and heading south over the woods.Hurricane Irene turned into a trulyhistoric storm for birders, as hundreds ofeBird reports filed from the storm’s pathmade clear. It was the best storm everWindswepteBird users find rare visitors in storms’ pathsBirders in Cape May, New Jersey, bravedIrene’s winds and were rewarded withthree White-tailed Tropicbirds. Cornellalum Tom Johnson caught two at once inhis camera frame.for White-tailed Tropicbirds—a total of14 showed up, one getting as far as NewHampshire. Sooty Terns—the quintessentialstorm bird—were seen in a dozenstates; similar-looking Bridled Ternswere displaced as well, but as in previousstorms they stayed along the coasts.Leach’s and Wilson’s storm-petrels appearedfar inland. Grounded shorebirdswere seen all over, with Hudsonian Godwitsbeing the star attraction. Irene alsobrought two non-seabird rarities: a BlackSwift to New Jersey (most likely from asmall population in the Caribbean) anda Great Kiskadee to New York City. Bothwere first records for the East Coast.With sightings from Irene and TropicalStorm Lee (which struck the GulfCoast the week after) so well documentedin eBird, the storms of 2011 may offer newinsights into how storms affect birds. Weknow that size, strength, path, and speedof a storm all have different effects, andwe look forward to exploring the detailsmore fully. Thanks to everyone who contributessightings—rare or mundane—towww.ebird.org.Tom JohnsonSapsucker Woods Society A legacy for science, conservation, and educationA planned gift in the form of a bequest or life income agreement is an idealway to plan for your future, benefit your family, and extend theLab’s mission of bird research and conservation.By Anna AutilioTo study the behavior of AcornWoodpeckers in northern California,one must study the acorns.Walter Koenig, senior scientist at theCornell Lab of Ornithology, has beeninvestigating these unusual, communallybreeding woodpeckers for morethan 30 years, and he’s still turning upsurprises about why some birds forgobreeding on their own and choose tohelp others raise their young.Acorn Woodpeckers live in groupsof up to 15 individuals, but only ahandful of these actually breed. Theothers help group survival by tendingnestlings and storing thousands ofacorns in granary trees for the winter.Because of complicated relationshipsin a colony—up to seven males competefor the affections of two or threefemales—the helpers aid in raisingtheir own siblings or half-siblings.In a recent paper in AmericanNaturalist, Koenig and his colleaguesdescribed an unexpected finding: thehelper woodpeckers seem to improvethe group’s breeding success mostwhen the acorn crop is good, and lesswhen it is poor. Previously, scientistsIt’s also simple to establish: contactScott Sutcliffe (607-254-2424) oremail cornellbirds@cornell.eduto find out more.Helpers Help in Times of Plentyhad found that helpers in other speciesprovide more benefit when timesare difficult, gathering more foodwhen it is harder to come by. Koenig’sresult is surprising because thegroups clearly benefit from helpers’aid when acorns are plentiful.“A lot more birds are born in goodyears than bad years,” Koenig said.When there’s plenty of food to goaround, the woodpeckers benefit byhaving lots of birds to store food andlater feed it to the young. But in leanyears, the group doesn’t do as wellbecause helpers eat what scarce foodis present, leaving less for future reproductionefforts by the group.The yearly crop of acorns is highlyunpredictable, so to determine agood crop year from a bad one, theacorns themselves had to be tallied.“We had to go do it ourselves,” saidKoenig, who has conducted an acornsurvey every year since 1980. Acornsmay not have been what the scientistsoriginally expected to study, butthe accumulated numbers have sheda great deal of light on their real researchsubjects.360-683-7265Bob Hutchison, rbrycehut@wavecable.comwww.OlympicBirdfest.orgApril 12–15Galveston FeatherFestGalveston Island, Texas832-459-5533NatureTourismGalv@juno.comwww.GalvestonFeatherFest.comApril 27–30Balcones Songbird NatureFestivalBalcones Canyonlands NWR512-965-2473Cathy Harrington, friends@friendsofbalcones.orgwww.BalconesSongbirdFestival.orgApril 30–May 5New River Birding and NatureFestivalNew River Gorge National RiverFayetteville, West Virginia304-574-4258Dave Pollard, goshawk@birding-wv.comwww.birding-wv.comMay 3–6Georgia Mountain BirdFestUnicoi State Park and LodgeHelen, Georgia706-878-2201, ext 305Ellen Graham, ellen.graham@dnr.state.ga.uswww.gamtnbirdfest.comMay 10–13Kachemak Bay Shorebird FestivalHomer, Alaska907-235-7740Christina Whiting, shorebirdster@gmail.comwww.HomerAlaska.orgBalconesSongbirdNature FestivalAPRIL 27~30, 2012Texas Hill CountryBird and Nature Toursregistration begins Feb. 15Sunday ~ FREE Family EventsBalcones CanyonlandsNational Wildlife Refugebalconessongbirdfestival.orgMay 12NJ Audubon World Series of BirdingCovers the entire state of New Jersey609-884-2736Sheila Lego, birdcapemay@njaudubon.orgwww.WorldSeriesofBirding.orgMay 18–24Cape May Spring WeekendCape May, New Jersey609-884-2736Sheila Lego, birdcapemay@njaudubon.orgwww.BirdCapeMay.orgMay 27–30Down East Spring Birding FestivalCobscook Bay Area, Eastern Maine207-733-2233Kara McCrimmon, birdfest@thecclc.orgwww.DownEastBirdfest.orgMay 25—28, 2012: Come bird in Maine at the annualDown East Spring Birding FestivalFresh Water and Ocean Boat ToursGuided Hikes ~ Expert Talks ~ More!Moosehorn National Wildlife RefugeMachias Seal Island ~ Pristine Cobscook Baywww.downeastbirdfest.orgbirdfest@thecclc.org207-733-2233Call or email: Cobscook Community Learning Center, Trescott, ME 04652May 31–June 314th Acadia Birding FestivalMount Desert Island/Bar Harbor/SouthwestHarbor, Maine207-288-8128Michael J. Good, info@acadiabirdingfestival.comwww.AcadiaBirdingFestival.comThank You,Lab SponsorsThe support we receive fromsponsors helps ensure our continuedsuccess. For more information aboutbeing a Lab sponsor, contactMary Guthrie at msg21@cornell.edu.Aspects, Inc.BirdJamBirdola ProductsCHS Sunflower, Inc.Droll YankeesThe HummKayteeLindblad ExpeditionsLyric Wild Bird FoodPine Tree Farms, Inc.America’s Pet StoreSwarovski OptikWild Birds Unlimited(corporate headquarters)Wild Birds Unlimited(Sapsucker Woods)