A few interesing birding links

An interesting piece on the science behind researching birds and bird strikes on airplanes. They have proven it was a flock of Canada Geese that took down the US Airways jet.

We all suspected that Canada Geese were the unlucky birds struck by the US Airways jet that came down in the Hudson River last month, and yesterday the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed it.

Now researchers are trying to determine if the birds were migratory geese, which weigh 6-11 pounds, or residents, which are typically fatter. Fat or lean, says an article in the New York Times, Canada Geese are too much for a plane’s engines to ingest.

via Birder’s World Field of View: Birds and airplanes and our April 2009 issue.

This one’s been kicking around birders for a while, but here’s some background on the study about the decline of red knots along the east coast; it’s due to over-harvesting of horseshoe crabs for use as bait.

Declining numbers of a shorebird called the red knot have been linked to bait use of horseshoe crabs.

Long-term surveys of red knots showed that the average weight of red knots when they leave Delaware Bay has declined significantly since their primary food source, eggs of horseshoe crabs, has been reduced. The study also revealed that red knot survivorship is related to departure weight, and that the population size of red knots has declined by more than 75 percent.

“We concluded that the increased harvest of horseshoe crabs led to a reduction in the food supply for red knots at a critical period in their annual cycle, and this led to a dramatic decline in population size,” said USGS scientist, Jon Bart, one of the authors of the study.

via USGS Release: Decline of Shorebird Linked to Bait Use of Horseshoe Crabs (2/12/2009 4:38:47 PM).

Here’s one that shocked scientists: we know that birds migrate long distances, but what they’re just finding out is that some of them are flying much faster than previously expected.What’s really fascinating here is how they’ve miniaturized the tracking tools so that even a small songbird like a Purple Martin can be fitted with them without impacting their ability to survive. It’s known that some species like Bar-tailed Godwit travel literally tens of thousands of miles, but now we’re seeing that even smaller birds are doing astounding things during migration.

Migrating Purple Martins can fly up to 358 miles (577 km) per day, and Wood Thrushes can cover 168 miles (271 km) per day, according to groundbreaking new research published today in the journal Science. Previous studies estimated songbirds could fly at roughly 93 miles (150 km) per day.

via Birder’s World Field of View: New research: Songbirds migrate three times faster than expected.

Finally, while some can argue about global warming or climate change until we’re all blue in the face, we have a 40 year tracking of birdwatching data that shows significant changes to the ranges species live in and the timing of their migrations; spring is arriving days earlier than it used to, and birds are shifting their ranges northward, a clear indication things are getting warmer.

this is one of the things that attracts me to birding as a hobby: it’s one of those disciplines where the “citizen scientist” or even the interested amateur can make a difference and help move a scientific discipline forward — even merely tracking what birds shows up to a feeder over time can help us better understand what’s going on in the larger world around us.

Perhaps you’ve already heard news of a National Audubon Society report about climate change’s effects on North American birds. Audubon announced on Tuesday that some 177 species of North American birds have shifted their range northward over the last 40 years, during the same period that average January temperatures rose by 5 degrees Fahrenheit across the continent.

The Audubon scientists found the pattern in data collected by volunteer birders on yearly Christmas Bird Counts. The consistent northward shift in so many different species – among them forest birds, feeder birds, ducks, and seabirds – points to a single, powerful cause: our warming planet.

Audubon describes their findings as part of the “grim reality” of global climate change, pointing out that more local or species-specific explanations simply wouldn’t be evident in so many species or so much of the continent. But the really frightening part is that this evidence is nowhere near the first of its kind.

via 40-Year Study Shows Birds Feeling Climate Change Effects « Round Robin.

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