A look back at 2011’s top stories for bird lovers
SEVERAL IMPORTANT stories regarding birds and bird watchers in 2011 had local connections.
In January 2011, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency discussed the possibility of opening a hunting season on sandhill cranes in Tennessee. The proposal was supported by the Tennessee Wildlife Federation, an organization of hunters, and opposed by the Tennessee Ornithological Society and other groups that support nonconsumptive use of wildlife. Eventually, the TWRA board of directors failed to approve the proposal, postponing a decision for two years.
The local birding community lost two of its longtime members. Carolyn Bullock, who had served for many years as treasurer and membership chairwoman of the Memphis chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society passed away, as did Fred Carney, a charter member and former president of the chapter. Carolyn was a recipient of the Tennessee Ornithological Society’s Distinguished Service Award, and Fred was possibly the last person definitely to have seen an ivorybilled woodpecker.
The spring floods of 2011 were devastating not just to people who live along the Mississippi River, but to wildlife as well. There is no knowing how many low-level and ground-nesting birds were forced off their nests, leaving eggs or nestlings to perish. Rising water inundated the sandbars used as nest sites by least terns and flooded the tunnels of burrow nesters, such as belted kingfishers and bank swallows.
Small birds that nest on the ground in bottomland hardwood forests, such as ovenbirds and Kentucky warblers, could fly to higher ground and nest again, but larger species, wild turkeys in particular, could not so easily relocate. Young turkeys (poults) that had not yet learned to fly could hardly outrun the rising water. Adult birds could escape, but could not easily find cover and shelter on higher ground.
A important issue was the continued failure of anyone to document the presence of ivorybilled woodpeckers in the Big Woods of eastern Arkansas. The more time passes, one is forced to wonder whether the sightings of 2005 and 2006 were valid, or if they were sightings of the very last living ivory-bill.
The year 2011 also saw the release of “The Big Year,” the first major studio movie about birdwatching. The birding community had viewed the release with anticipation mixed
with trepidation. There was a lot of concern that birding and birders would be ridiculed and stereotyped. While the film was neither a critical nor box office success, it was a sweet tale about honor and friendship that showed respect to birders and to birding.
A lot of buzz (or hum) was generated in November by the appearance at Strawberry Plains Audubon Center near Holly Springs, Miss., of a calliope hummingbird, North America’s smallest bird. This species is almost never seen east of the Rocky Mountains. While the appearance of Western hummingbirds in the Southeast in autumn and winter is an increasingly common phenomenon, no calliope hummingbird had ever before been observed in northwest Mississippi.
A story of potentially mammoth impact in the birding community began unfolding around Christmas at Hiwassee Wildlife Management Area near Birchwood, Tenn. A hooded crane, not normally seen outside of Asia, was observed and photographed by hundreds of birders. There had been only two previous observations of hooded cranes in North America, in Idaho in 2009 and Nebraska in 2010. Neither sighting has been accepted as “valid” by the bird records committee of either state, meaning that there is skepticism that the birds might have escaped or been released from captivity.
Heightening the skepticism is the fact that several captive hooded cranes were released from a private collection in Idaho a few years back. Regardless, thousands of birders have converged on the wildlife management area and on Birchwood, in the anticipation that the sighting will be accepted.
This incident is certain to be raised when TWRA commissioners next consider a sandhill crane hunting season. Opponents of a season will surely claim that migrating cranes are more valuable alive as magnets for eco -tourism than as targets for hunters.
On January 8, 2012, The Commercial Appeal ran two stories in its general news section regarding events of direct interest to birders: one about an influx of snowy owls into the Midwest and another about the appearance of a falcated duck from Asia in California. As birding becomes a more popular activity, look for more such stories in the mainstream media.
But the most important bird story of any year is always the sighting that most excited you. It might be an exotic species from far away or just a new or unusual species at your feeder. Whether or not they make headlines, birds are an enduring source of interest for anyone who appreciates what goes on outside their door.
Van Harris is a former president of the Memphis chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society, a member of the Mississippi Ornithology Society and the Mississippi chapter of the National Audubon Society. Send questions to shelbyforester1223@bigriver.net.