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Some fantastic photography by a BC birder/photographer: https://petapixel.com/2024/04/21/how-a-photographer-captured-his-spectacular-dream-eclipse-photo/ -- From an Island in the Pacific, Richard James, Victoria, BC

The sounds of silence around the world: anecdotal yet scary. Also I’ve noticed being back in southeast Vancouver Island the past 4 years after over 30 years away (as a resident) that many local bird species have declined in sheer numbers. Only a few have increased (eg vultures in summer). Lately when I drive along the local highways for 10-30 km I hardly see any birds, except crows/ravens & sometimes starlings. I play a game with my 8 yr old son to get a prize for the 1st bird that one of us sees. We can often drive for 10 km or more before seeing anything. I wonder what it’ll be like when he’s a senior around here (& I’m long gone). I’ve been a birder for over 50 yrs, have been involved in wildlife mgt & taught for over 15 yrs in universities, including ornithology at UBC Okanagan 2 yrs ago. I have several publications on seabirds, estuaries, sense of place & sustainability. Plus I’ve been the organizer for the Ladysmith Xmas Bird Count for the past 4 yrs. So U think that I have some expertise in this area of concern. A lot of posts on these sites involve chasing rarities. However, there’s more for us all to consider than a few oddities showing up in our neighborhoods. Bob Hay Cassidy, BC https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/22/readers-on-changes-to-the-natural-world-around-them-aoe ps I saw the recent post about birdlife comeback around Wellington, NZ: a great initiative to have sanctuaries & control feral predators. But there’s much more to do globally, such as restricting neonicotinoids in agricultural applications. Otherwise the decline in nature sounds & birds will make us all the poorer.

FYI - another Silent Spring unfolds … its happening here too Bob Hay Cassidy, BC https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/16/nature-silent-bernie-krause-recording-sound-californian-state-park-aoe

Hello, I'm sending this email to let you know about the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) and the need for additional participants to complete survey routes here in BC. Information on the BBS can be found here and a brief summary of why this survey is important is provided below. There is a route vacancy map here and you can contact WIllow English, the National Coordinator for Canada, at bbs@... or 343-573-1192 for further information. I've run a route for a number of years and it's a great way to get outside and have fun while keeping your birding skills sharp and contributing to an important monitoring and conservation program for birds across North America. All the best, Greg Ferguson Richmond -- BBS data is vital for avian conservation The BBS is the most important source of reliable data on population trends for many species in Canada. Environment Climate Change Canada is working on a new website on the State of Canada’s Birds in partnership with Birds Canada, which will showcase BBS data for many species and will be launched later this year. The site will feature accessible information on population numbers and trends. BBS data have also been used for highly impactful studies, such as the one showing that 3 billion birds have been lost from North America in the last 50 years. The trends produced by BBS data are also considered when assessing whether a species should be listed as a Species at Risk. Combining BBS trends with information on landscape and habitat changes has also provided the basis for conservation actions and habitat preservation. These are only a few of the many ways your volunteer efforts are vital to avian conservation. If you would like to know more, this paper has more details.

Just last week we were talking about bird collisions with buildings and now that very thing has claimed a celebrity. Flacco, the Eurasian Eagle Owl that escaped from a zoo and has been living free in lower Manhattan for the past 9 or 10 months collided with a building and died. It was a local celebrity with multiple posts on social media every day about its doings. Too bad. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/26/flaco-owl-death-new-york-central-park-zoo#:~:text=Flaco%20was%20found%20dead%20on,liver%2C%E2%80%9D%20the%20report%20said. In other strange news, if anybody is heading to Vegas in the next day or so, you may want to check the fountain in front of the Bellagio. A Yellow-billed Loon was swimming around in there yesterday! Bizarre! Daniel Bastaja danielbastaja@...

More insight from ongoing research at UBC. Feed: The Revelator Posted on: Wednesday, February 7, 2024 5:01 AM Author: Rebecca Heisman Subject: Is Our Food Waste Creating a Murder of Crows? Last summer a team of researchers from the University of British Columbia headed into the field to study the food web linking aocal bird community. But their destination wasn’t a temperate rainforest or rocky coastline — it was urban Vancouver on trash day. Their goal: untangling hidden ways in which food in the city’s trash cans may shape its ecosystem. The project is the brainchild of Dan Forrest, a Ph.D. student at the university’s Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, who says urban trees held special significance for him while he was growing up in Philadelphia. “I depended on these urban parks and green spaces to get a bit of respite from the urban hustle and bustle,” he says. But not everyone enjoyed the same benefits he did. “I saw that these spaces weren’t distributed evenly everywhere around the city.” Some people, often those in richer, whiter neighborhoods, had greater access than others to urban nature. Even then, he worried the trend would expand and worsen. “I knew that urbanization was fast becoming one of the major forces for change in our world.” When he arrived in Vancouver as a grad student, he and other students and faculty members noticed large numbers of crows and gulls coming onto campus to raid trash cans. How, they wondered, was the easy availability of food waste affecting the urban ecosystem? It’s not a small question, as 30-40% of food in the United States — and as much as 60% in Canada — ends up uneaten and in the trash. This can be a bonanza for urban wildlife — including crows, who tend to thrive in cities. Photo by Burkhard Kaufhold on Unsplash But if food waste attracts unusual numbers of these gregarious, intelligent birds, could it create ripple effects through the rest of the local bird community? In addition to eating trash, crows often prey on other birds, raiding their nests to eat eggs and young. According to Forrest, Vancouver’s robin population has been declining for decades, while black-capped chickadees have been holding steady or even increasing; he wonders if this could be, at least in part, because robins’ open cup nests are more vulnerable to crows than chickadee nests hidden in tree cavities. These questions eventually became the focus of his dissertation research, which began last summer. Forrest and a group of undergraduate research assistants woke up before sunrise to walk through neighborhoods across the city, note trash receptacles with visible food waste, and observe the behavior of birds in the area. “What were they doing? Were they eating, calling, interacting with another species?” says Forrest. “And if they were eating something, what was it?” He’s still analyzing the data, but it’s already clear that human trash “is making up a substantial portion of crows’ diet [in Vancouver],” says Forrest, and “they’re congregating in areas where there’s lots of food waste.” The next step will be to connect the presence of crows with overall urban bird diversity across Vancouver neighborhoods, drawing on a range of data sources. In addition to nest predation, “there could be a number of different reasons why there are fewer [bird] species around where there are crows — because they’re scared of the crows, or they’re being outcompeted by the crows,” says Forrest. Photo by Veronica Dudarev on Unsplash Forrest is already in touch with the city government, and if it does turn out that crows attracted by trash are having negative impacts on bird communities, he hopes to work with officials to make changes that will benefit both birds and people, such as introducing more crow-resistant trash bins or improving trash pickup services in lower-income areas — changes that could be made in other cities, too. Forrest’s project adds to a rich body of research on the dynamics of urban bird communities. Past studies have uncovered complex relationships between bird feeders (another artif

Hello I thought the following research papers would be of interest to this group. Best, Greg Richmond Demographic mechanisms and anthropogenic drivers of contrasting population dynamics of hummingbirds. 2024. English et al. Biol Conserv 289. Western screech-owl occupancy in the face of an invasive predator [Barred owl]. 2023. Rugg et al. Global Ecol and Conserv 48.

Group I see no reports for 2 weeks and wondering if it’s just lack of visitation or if it’s actually gone. Any negative reports? Keith Taylor

Group I am now down to just a few required photos I know are available. A good night of collecting last evening thanks in part to Mike Yip. Any further help like sending contact emails for Mike Tyson and Don CEcile would be appreciated. Keith Taylor

hello everyone! Can tou tell me if these are black turnstones in winter plumage ? It was filmed on Bowen Island. Thanks in advance! Véro

Group: Some of you may know I'm attempting to place a photo of every bird species seen on Vancouver Island with a photo taken on the Island. I have been greatly successful and the list attached notes those still required. A Gyrfalcon photo must be out there as with the long stay Falcated Duck. Danny Tyson has a shot of the Campbell River Garganey of which I have a copy from American Birds that is unrecognizable and hope his copy can be recognized. I've written Mike Bentley who has an excellent Philadelphia Vireo shot from Jordan River with no answer as yet. Any help is appreciated. Keith Taylor

Not exactly about BC birds, but a great article in this week’s New Yorker magazine about the fight to save South Asia’s vultures. Like many New Yorker feature articles, it is a bit long, but very interesting. As many of you are aware, many vulture populations in Asia suffered 99% population declines. .. one of the sharper bird population declines in history. Some species went from too numerous to count to critically endangered in a matter of a decade or so. All because of the use of diclofenac. Another tragic example of how nature is being devastated by man’s activities. Anyway, I hope this link works. :) https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-nepal/consider-the-vulture?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_013124&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_term=tny_daily_digest&bxid=6476ec260d84718081016f12&cndid=74152650&hasha=ab8768ecda2feeb1877dba4e42ad12ea&hashb=c41a5acd37891ee61ab84a039c043deac28e79ef&hashc=127080106935e5485585deb34e67b07d3fae062b88076ab5e2b8d42c65f7a8a3&esrc=OIDC_SELECT_ACCOUNT_PAGE&mbid=CRMNYR012019 Daniel Bastaja danielbastaja@... <mailto:danielbastaja@...>