When we guard birds, do we harm birding?

A good essay about the next great birders recently made the rounds via Facebook and other sites. Laura Kammermeier's blog post touched on the challenges that many beginning birders might encounter, including this part:

Beginners soon sense what really goes on in birding circles: the catty judgment about who knows what more than who. Some segments of birding operate like an exclusive country club where the cost of entry is not piles of cash, but loads of birding cachet. But whom does that leave behind — and what is the cost?

Regrettably, we’ve all seen the enthusiasm of novice birders stamped out by the corrective whoop-di-doo of birding hotshots. We’ve seen dialogue on listserves squelched by those who assert that feeder sightings, backyard raptor kills, and birding trivia has “no place on this list.” We’ve seen legions of birders too afraid to ask questions for fear of being wrong, stupid, clearly “not a REAL birder.”

That resonated with me, given the magazine's focus on expanding the community. In each issue, on page 2, you'll see WildBird's mission statement, which says "WildBird urges readers to share their appreciation for birds and to consider beginners' education... as means of ensuring avian species' survival."

In one discussion of Laura's blog post, a New Jersey birder mentioned a recent Long-eared Owl roost at which some birders stood guard all day, pretending to watch something in the field across the street. My friend (whom I'll call DL) said the sentry birders told him that's what they were actually doing -- trying to misdirect others.

Like DL said, owls are sensitive and need to be protected, but why would the birders want to keep the roost's location secret from naturalists who might become more interested in avian conservation or birders who've long wanted to see LEOWs? That seems counterproductive to building support for bird conservation. To quote DL: "That really left a sour taste in my mouth."

Do you know birders who've guarded a species' site? What did you think of their decision?

Long-eared Owl courtesy of Terry Sohl

Scott Weidensaul to receive award April 24

At Mill Grove -- the first American home of French artist, naturalist and author John James Audubon -- birder and Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Scott Weidensaul will receive the first John James Audubon Center Award for Art Inspiring Conservation. His work will be honored at Friends of a Feather, a gala reception at the facility in Audubon, Pa. Weidensaul's most recent book, "Of a Feather: A brief history of American birding," debuted in September 2007.

Sponsored by Audubon Center at Mill Grove, the award seeks to honor an artist who conveys the value of nature, interprets conservation challenges and inspires action to protect birds and other wildlife.

“John James Audubon used a brush to transform how Americans look at nature; Scott Weidensaul uses words to the same magical effect,” said Jean Bochnowski, director of the center.

Scott Weidensaul does more than write about birds. As a federal licensed bird-bander, he leads teams from the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art (Millersburg, PA) to harmlessly catch, band and release hundreds of Saw-Whet Owls each fall. Much of what is now known about the migratory patterns of these tiny and elusive raptors comes from the work of Mr. Weidensaul and hundreds of other volunteer researchers.

Tickets for the gala reception begin at $65; contact the center at 610-666-5593 x105 or millgrove@audubon.org.

New birding platforms at Stone Harbor Point

Stone Harbor, N.J., recently announced the completion of two viewing platforms that received approval by an esteemed guest, a Snowy Owl, to the south Jersey shore.


The platforms at Stone Harbor Point -- located about 15 miles north of Cape May -- were built with funds from a grant obtained from National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (for which WildBird's Conservation Corner columnist, Peter Stangel, works). The NFWF grant also allowed for a stewardship program conducted by Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey; during nesting and shorebird stopover seasons, monitors will manage and conserve the area. New Jersey Audubon Society will help with educational signs at the platforms.

One last look at that beautiful owl on the new platform:

Owler mentions concerns about Western Screech-Owls

In Thursday's Seattle Times, self-taught owler and licensed bander Jamie Acker talks about his work on Bainbridge Island. He's studied owl distribution on the island since 1996.

What began as a hobby has led to illuminating findings, including some trends over the past 12 years. Natives of the East Coast, barred owls have been slowly expanding their territory westward. The first individual was reported on Bainbridge in 1992, and Acker counted 86 barreds during the 2008 Audubon Christmas Bird Count.

"People keep asking, 'What's their saturation level?' — but we just don't know," he said. Acker has documented one barred owl continuing to nest even with a greatly reduced territory, as new barred neighbors close in. Though he emphasizes his evidence is only circumstantial, Acker is concerned about how the increase in barred owls might relate to the decline in Western screech owls. Counting 12 screech pairs 12 years ago, he was unable to locate even one individual during the recent Christmas Bird Count.

"This is a common trend among those who do owl research, yet nowhere do we see them being listed as a species of concern," he said. "To me, their numbers are crashing. They are a species we should be watching and caring for."

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Barn Owls detect horizontal sound changes

From nature.com:

Barn owls are better at tracking sounds that move horizontally than those that move vertically, researchers have found. The technique used to make the discovery could one day be used to assess hearing and cognitive skills in humans who cannot communicate.

The work, published in PLoS ONE, relies on a phenomenon noted by Ivan Pavlov, of salivating dog fame, in the 1920s. Pavlov saw that animals respond to stimuli such as sudden movements or novel noises with a set of automatic responses, including muscle tensing and pupil dilation.

Avinash Bala, a neurologist at the University of Oregon in Eugene, and his colleagues have used this response to monitor when barn owls (Tyto alba) recognize a new sound.

The researchers played the owls sounds whose positions differed either horizontally or vertically, and measured the birds' pupil dilation using a beam of infrared light bounced off the cornea.

Read on for more, interesting details.