More Backyard Bird Firsts for the Season

Yesterday our Chimney Swifts returned. I love having these guys flying around above our house darting here and there snapping up bugs. I am constantly working on trying to attract more insect eaters to my backyard habitat. This followed the arrival of our first Cat bird on April 25. This morning we were treated to our first Cat bird serenade.

42,000 Reasons a day not to increase Offshore Drilling

The oil lobby says, oh, oil drilling has come a long way, since the bad old days of Santa Barbara. Funny thing is, it goes just fine, except when it doesn't--when birds drown in oil slicks, fish are sickened and die. God help us if this spill reaches the already-endangered wet lands along the Louisiana coast, etc.

(Via Mother Nature Network)

ALL IS NOT WELL: As response teams struggle to plug an underwater oil well that's leaking 42,000 gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico daily, the oil slick on the surface has already tripled in size since Sunday, the Houston Chronicle reports. The sheen now covers 1,800 square miles - up from 600 two days ago - and is steadily drifting toward the U.S. Gulf Coast, threatening disaster for the region's bayous and beaches. The greatest concern is focused on Louisiana's Chandeleur and Breton barrier islands, home to thousands of nesting seabirds, but oyster beds on the eastern side of the Mississippi River are also at risk, as is the commercial oyster fishery that depends on them. "It is an area of great concern, not just for the environment and the fishing but economically, with what it would do to tourism," says an emergency management director in coastal Alabama. "That tax revenue drives the whole state." As winds shift, some experts say the growing oil spill could reach land by this weekend. Meanwhile, officials are still trying to close valves on the leaking well using robot submarines, and say they could install a large dome to cover the leak in as little as two weeks. Family members of oil workers lost in last week's explosion are suing BP and Transocean Ltd., the rig's operator, accusing them of violating safety standards, and the Huffington Post reports today that an offshore-oil advocacy group has been fighting safety regulations for years. In a PowerPoint presentation to federal regulators in 2009, the Offshore Operators Committee asked, "What do HURRICANES and New Rules Have in Common?", followed by a slide answering that "Both are Disruptive to Operations And are costly to Recover From!" (Sources: Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, Huffington Post)

Drill Baby Drill...Yeah, right

Via Mother Nature Network: SPILL WATERS RUN DEEP: The well of a sunken offshore oil rig is gushing 42,000 gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico daily, creating an environmental disaster in the wake of an explosion that sunk the rig last week and likely killed 11 workers. The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search for the missing workers Friday, following reports from surviving crew members that they were near the site of the explosion when it occurred. Meanwhile, response teams scrambled over the weekend to close the rig's leaking well using a robot submarine, necessary because the leak is under about a mile of sea water. After initial attempts failed on Sunday, officials with BP - which owns the rig - said they now plan to lower a large dome over the well, with the goal of funneling the oil up to a collection tank on the surface. High winds and waves have kept skimmer boats (pictured) from cleaning up more than about 48,000 gallons of oil from the surface, letting the oil slick grow to about 600 square miles, although the same weather conditions helped keep it safely away from the Louisiana coast. The slick is expected to remain at least 30 miles off shore for the next three days, but ecologists are worried how it could affect coastal marine life if the oil does eventually drift closer to land. The dome-lowering strategy was used to successfully close oil leaks on damaged oil rigs after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but BP officials point out it has never been used in water this deep before. (Sources: Houston Chronicle, Associated Press, Reuters)

Bird-brained Means Really Intelligent [Updated]

In my last post, I mentioned that I saw a diseased House Finch while spending time out with our cardiac kitty (of that I'll return). I mentioned that I try to catch the little fellows when I see them, because a course of antiobiotics has been known to cure the eye disease.

Last summer was the first time I made the effort to catch one of these guys. A male had rested on one of my tube feeders and showed little sign of sensing my presence. I spent several days trying to sneak up and put a hat or towel over him. This appeared to cause an interesting change in behavior at my feeders--at least among the House Finches. Prior to my attempting to stalk our sick finch, the flock that fed at my feeders--all commoners in the Mid-Atlantic--was very tame. Several species seemed to differentiate between when I was adding food to the feeders and when I was bringing our cats out--and would actually flock to the feeding spots when I was doing the former. Afterward, I noticed that as soon as I opened our back door, all of the House Finches would fly away.

Not too long after, I read about a study done at the University of Washington about American Crows being able to identify the people who were capturing and banding them and other crows on the campus also identifying the threatening people.

[Updated to correct study location and link to the paper.]

Firsts for the Season

This past week I had the opportunity to spend a bit more time outside than usual. Since I was home sick on Friday and the weather was gorgeous, I spoiled cardiac cat mercilessly by sitting with him for hours in the backyard. On Friday, we saw our first American Goldfinches--both females in their drab olive colors and Saturday we saw our first Chipping Sparrow. Since my backyard bird species count is in the 60's I pay a lot more attention to when birds arrive and their behavior rather than I do for new species.

Sadly we also saw our first House Finch suffering from the finch eye disease. As a result I'll be taking down my feeders and sanitizing them. Because so many people feed birds in this area, I don't really subscribe to the school of thought that I should keep my feeders down for a few weeks to let the feeding flock disperse. I also try to catch these guys and take them to a wild bird rehabilitation specialist in the area, because the disease is treatable.

Happy Easter!