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Documentary Highlights Threatened Sage-Grouse and Sagebrush Ecosystem

By on May 13, 2015 in Conservation
Greater Sage-grouse

Greater Sage-grouse

Ithaca, NY — One of the biggest conservation challenges in the nation’s history is coming to a head this year and it is resting on the shoulders of an increasingly rare bird—the Greater Sage-Grouse. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology‘s film, The Sagebrush Sea, reveals the hidden world of this iconic species at a time when its fate is being decided in state houses, agencies, and courtrooms across the West and in the nation’s capital.

The Sagebrush Sea makes its broadcast premiere May 20, on NATURE at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time/7:00 p.m. Central on PBS. (Check local listings.)

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is under court order to decide by September if the Greater Sage-Grouse should be protected under the Endangered Species Act. If the grouse is listed, states fear it could cost their economies hundreds of millions of dollars in oil and gas revenue and threaten the ranching culture that defines many local communities.

“The listing debate is taking place largely in a vacuum of public understanding about the species and the ecosystem,” says Cornell Lab producer Marc Dantzker, “And that’s where we hope our film can make a real contribution. People who drive by on the highways and even many of the people who live within it, think this vast region that covers parts of 11 western states is empty, but it isn’t.”

At least 250 birds, mammal, and other vertebrates live in the sagebrush region, some of them found nowhere else. The documentary shows this treeless, high desert habitat as few have ever seen it—up close, in stunning ground-level and aerial scenes that bring to light the unexpected diversity of life too easily overlooked.

“Many compare the situation with the Greater Sage-Grouse to what happened with the Northern Spotted Owl, but on a much larger scale,” says Dantzker, referring to the heated battles of the 1990s that pitted Pacific Northwest logging interests against protection of a declining bird species. At one time there were many millions of Greater Sage-Grouse—16 million, by some estimates. Now most estimates are between 200,000 and 300,000.

“Everyone in the country is going to be hearing about the Greater Sage-Grouse in the coming months and we want them to know that it is more than a controversy–it is an amazing national treasure, as splendid as any bird on earth. And it is at the center of an ecosystem that is unique, underappreciated, and embodies the spirit and the romance of the American West,” says principal cinematographer Gerrit Vyn.

The documentary, more than two years in the making, begins on a springtime lek—the open stage where Greater Sage-Grouse males strut and perform their age-old displays, hoping to be one of the fortunate few able to pass on his genes. The females hold all the cards as they stroll the lek with a discerning eye.

The males are captivating with their intricately patterned spiked tail feathers and thin head plumes. Dantzker studied their display for years. He says, “Their intricate strut is just a few seconds long so you need to slow it down to really appreciate it. First they inflate an air sac inside their heavy white neck pouch. Then they strum the pouch’s bristled white feathers with their wings. Lastly, they heave the neck pouch up and pull their heads down, squeezing out two balloons and belting out a pair of ringing pops. There’s nothing like it anywhere on earth.” They do this hundreds of times each day for months, all while defending a territory. With a lifespan of only about four years, males don’t have much time to fulfill the genetic imperative.

The sage-grouse are just one of a suite of animals that has adapted over the eons to survive in this unforgiving landscape, including three other bird species found nowhere else: the Sage Thrasher, Sagebrush Sparrow, and Brewer’s Sparrow. The sage is also home to pronghorn, mule deer, prairie dogs, Golden Eagles, sagebrush lizards, and pygmy rabbits.

“There are ways to balance human land-use needs with the needs of the animals that depend on the sage to survive,” says Dantzker. “We produced this documentary because we believe that understanding and appreciating the region’s natural beauty will make people more willing to take a balanced approach toward development and at the same time make conservation and preservation a priority.”

BirdWords: The Belted Kingfisher

By on March 27, 2015 in BirdWords

Belted Kingfisher Female

The Belted Kingfisher by Linda Aldrich

If you’ve ever heard a loud rattling call and seen a flash of blue and white splash into the water, you have spotted a Belted Kingfisher, one of the more interesting denizens of the waterways of our area.

Follow the flight of this bird to a perch above the water and you will see a 13 inch stocky, big-headed creature with a stout dark bill, shaggy topknot of feathers on its head, small feet and a relatively short tail. The male bird has a slate blue head, wings and tail. The breast is white and encircled with a blue band which is the belt that gives it its name. The female has all of those features plus a second rusty red belt and reddish flanks. In most birds with plumage differences between the sexes, the male is more colorful; however, Ms. Kingfisher is the one sporting the flashier feathers in this species.

The feet of the Belted Kingfisher and its kin are unusual, too. Like a chicken, three toes point forward and one points to the back; but, unlike other bird groups, the forward-facing toes are partly fused together at their bases – a characteristic that probably comes in handy in nesting season. Belted Kingfishers dig a tunnel in a vertical bank above water to raise their families in.

They start work by flying full tilt into the bank beak first, then kick loosened soil out behind them with their feet. Both male and female construct the tunnel which is usually 3 to 6 feet deep (although one ambitious pair tunneled for 15 feet). At the end of the tunnel, they hollow out a chamber in which the female lays 5 to 8 white eggs. Both parents participate in incubating the eggs for about 3 weeks and then feed the voracious chicks (each eats 8 fish a day) for 4 weeks until they exit the tunnel. In past years, a pair of Belted Kingfishers has nested in a bank above the Sacramento River visible across the river from Anderson River Park.

The Belted Kingfisher’s fishing behavior is fun to watch. One of these birds will sit on a branch over-hanging water until it sees a fish near the surface. It will splash into the water (stop-motion videos show its eyes closed) and grasp the hapless fish firmly with its stout bill. The kingfisher than flies to a near-by branch and “tenderizes” its catch by bashing it against the branch, finally swallowing it whole. Occasionally, the bird will hover above the water to spot and catch a fish.

Although the Belted Kingfisher is the only kingfisher in most of the United States, there are about 90 species worldwide. These include the smallest, the tiny 4 inch African Dwarf Kingfisher, a forest dweller that eats insects (in common with many non-fishing species) and the Giant Kingfisher of Africa which is an 18 inch sturdily-built lunker. Surprisingly, the famous Laughing Kookaburra of Australia is actually a kingfisher.

BirdWords: Beaver Dams Help Bird Habitat

By on March 24, 2015 in BirdWords

Beaver Dam

Article by Jeannette Carroll

Last October found the Sacramento River dropping lower and lower. The slough along Redding’s Cascade Park dropped to ankle-deep water. The ducks were gone. But wait, despite low Keswick Dam releases, residents along the slough noticed the water level begin to rise.

Puzzled, they followed the slough down to Cascade Park and discovered an amazing beaver dam more than 50 feet in length and 3 feet high, constructed of tree limbs and branches, twigs, grass and mud. Its height gradually increased to 4 or 5 feet. The dam survived December’s downpours and, even after our dry January, continues to hold water in a pond that extends over a quarter mile. The pond is well appreciated. Birds, like all creatures, need the right habitat. The Cascade beaver pond is creating a winter home for mallards, wigeons and other dabbling ducks. The dabblers are those who tilt bottoms-up to browse for pondweed, snails and underwater insects.

Along the pool’s edge, an egret patrols in its sharp-eyed hunt for fish, frogs,or just about any animal it can gulp down its long white neck. A steel-blue kingfisher rattles over the pond, taking advantage of the still water to spot its prey. Even a Barrow’s goldeneye, a diving duck typically found in the deeper river, has found a place to rest in the quiet pond.

Of course, any engineering project has costs, too. Without the dam, the slough would now be a riddle of exposed rocks. Shorebirds such as killdeer and yellowlegs, and also jays and sparrows, might pick for food in the trickles through those rocks. As it is, they will be confined to the drier habitat below the dam.

For people, beaver dams can be positive or negative, too. Fortunately, the Cascade pond is only wetting the slough, not posing a threat to area homes.

In the Midwest beavers are being reintroduced in some areas to hold water, a sort of substitute snowpack in the face of dry summers.

Beavers are native in Shasta County and throughout most of North America. Like the dipper, a bird of our mountain streams, they have an extra set of transparent eyelids that enables sight under water.

Beaver families form colonies and may have as many as eight members. Reaching maturity in three or four years, they breed in January or February, and usually have three or four kits. Because they are mainly nocturnal mammals, beavers are not often seen. Residents near Cascade Park have found a second dam on Olney Creek, but checking early and late, have not seen these great engineers at work. Still, they are out there, shaping habitat that some birds and people can enjoy.

BirdWords: Help out with the Great Backyard Bird Count

By on January 25, 2015 in BirdWords
Acorn Woopecker

Acorn Woopecker Juvenile

Launched in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, the Great Backyard Bird Count was the first online citizen-science project to collect data on wild birds and to display results in near real-time.

Why do we count birds? Because bird populations are dynamic and constantly in flux, no single scientist or team of scientists could hope to document and understand the complex distribution and movements of so many species. This is why citizen science is so important.

Birds are known as sentinel animals. They can detect risks to humans by providing advance warning of a danger, whether it be exposure to a particular hazard (the canary in the coal mine), or changes in the environment (climate change).

Scientists use information from the Great Backyard Bird Count, along with observations from other citizen-science projects, such as the Christmas Bird Count, Project FeederWatch, and eBird, to get the “big picture” about what is happening to bird populations. The longer these data are collected, the more meaningful they become in helping scientists investigate important far-reaching questions like climate change.

The best thing about the GBBC is that it’s easy to do and it’s fun too! The event runs for four days starting February 13th and ending on the 16th. All you have to do is tally the numbers and kinds of birds you see for at least 15 minutes on one or more of the count days, from any location, anywhere in the world! Although it’s called the Great Backyard Bird Count you can count birds, at a nearby park, nature center, your schoolyard, or neighborhood, anywhere you find birds!

In addition to accepting bird observations from anywhere in the world, you can now use the eBird/GBBC program to keep track of your bird life list, yard list, and any other lists which will be automatically stored and updated. You may explore what is being reported by others and you can keep on reporting your birds year round through eBird. Every sighting reported in the Great Backyard Bird Count becomes part of a permanent record that anyone with Internet access can explore.

This year during the GBBC, we’re issuing a call to all of the more experienced birders to introduce someone new to bird watching! Take them out on a bird walk with you or watch feeders together from indoors. Sharing your enthusiasm about birds and showing them how to participate in bird counts is what matters most.

“People who care about birds can change the world,” said Audubon chief scientist Gary Langham. “Technology has made it possible for people everywhere to unite around a shared love of birds and a commitment to protecting them.”

Get all the information you need to participate at http://gbbc.birdcount.org/

BirdWords: Snow Geese Flock to Central Valley

By on January 10, 2015 in BirdWords
Snow Goose

Snow Goose at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

My sister is not a bird watcher, but as she and her family drove back to the Bay Area after a Redding Thanksgiving we received her text: “What’s a big white bird with black wingtips?”

After confirming that they were near Willows and that there were many of the birds we told her “snow geese.”

Small wonder that the birds grabbed her attention. Every winter hundreds of thousands of them, in squealing tornadoes in the sky and squawking blankets over fields and ponds, inundate the Central Valley after nesting in the high arctic, mostly on the islands between Alaska and Greenland.

First the arctic story. The tilt of the North Pole toward the sun in the spring and summer creates a polar season in which the sun never sets, for up to as much as six months right at the North Pole. This abundance of daylight spurs plant growth, in which the grasses, sedges and algae lock great quantities of solar energy into their cells through photosynthesis. That energy is then available to feed geese and ducks and shorebirds by the millions. The birds eat either the plants or the hordes of invertebrates that eat the plants. It’s calorie-rich season, perfect for raising hungry offspring.

Snow geese typically lay a handful of eggs in a tundra tussock, usually in late May. The eggs hatch in some 23 days. Both parents then tend to the young, which follow them about, foraging on their own within a day of hatching. The goslings grow quickly, developing the strength to migrate south in the fall.

Spring snows can disrupt nesting, but mild weather has helped our Pacific flyway geese do very well over the last 10 years. Their numbers grew 53 percent from 2012 to 2013 alone, up to nearly 1.4 million.

In the Redding area, the geese and many arctic nesters find winter habitat at refuges like the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge in Willows. While some 95 percent of original Central Valley habitat has been paved, built upon or turned into farms, the refuges and unburned rice fields help compensate. Many farmers flood their fields through the winter, providing rich grazing and resting grounds that have helped geese thrive, perhaps to record numbers.

However, our drought limits the extent of field flooding both on farms and refuges. The birds, with less water available, squeeze into wherever the water is — a crowded condition that risks spreading disease. For the snow geese, nesting success may be countered with winter die-offs.

Still, in a time when so many species are in decline, the snow geese are flourishing. They remain a sight and sound that harkens to a wilder and inspiring time, and make it well worth a visit to the refuge or at least an open eye as you drive south on Interstate 5.

Note: The Wintu Audubon Society will be conducting a trip to the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge on Jan. 24. See our calendar page for all the information.

Send your bird questions to education@wintuaudubon.org