Birder's World Field of View

Kaufman receives ABA's Peterson Award

Many thanks to John Riutta over at Born Again Birdwatcher for passing along the great news that Kenn Kaufman was awarded the American Birding Association's Roger Tory Peterson Award for the Promotion of Birding at the association's convention this weekend.

The ABA bestows the award only infrequently and only to truly very special people: those who can look back on a "lifetime of achievements in promoting the cause of birding." Past recipients include Arnold Small (2000), Pete Dunne (2001), David Sibley (2002), and Victor Emanuel (2004).

Who better to join this stellar group than Kenn?

Besides being an expert birder, a naturalist, a teacher, and the author of our popular "ID Tips" column, Kenn is an accomplished author, a talented artist, a photographer, a conservationist, the youngest person ever to receive one of the ABA's other major awards -- the Ludlow Griscom Award -- and a real pleasure to work with. (Read a short bio.) I've learned so much from him, and I've enjoyed every moment.

Congratulations, Kenn, from me and everyone here at Birder's World! -- C.H.

Scenes from Sequoia

Henry Detwiler is a good friend of the magazine. He's a birder and tour leader from Yuma, Arizona, and a member of the Arizona Rare Bird Committee. He's written stories for us describing the birding at Kofa Queen Canyon in the massive Kofa National Wildlife Refuge and at California's Salton Sea.

The other day he sent photos from a trip he took to Giant Sequoia National Monument. The photos were so great, I asked if we could post them here, and he agreed. Enjoy. — M.M.

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Red-breasted Nuthatch

"We had a great time in Giant Sequoia National Monument. It was a long drive, but the beautiful immense trees, pretty wildflowers, mountain breezes, and of course the high-country birds made it all worth it. In addition to the regular Steller's Jays, American Robins, and House Wrens, we got some more exciting bird fare. Singing Winter Wrens, MacGillivray's Warblers, and Cassin's Finches were along several of the many creeks, and both White-headed Woodpeckers and Red-breasted Sapsuckers were present at several stops. Up close to the edge of the tree line on the road to the Needles, we chased the booming of several Sooty Grouse until they wore us out. I swear they have ventriloquil talents unmatched by any bird I know. Either that or they can burrow under the ground when predators get too close!" — Henry Detwiler

See more of Henry's photos here.

New research shows that much of bird classification is wrong

It’s been about a year since I wrote here about how swiftly, how dramatically, our conception of the world of birds is changing these days.

I was at the last annual AOU meeting then, and at the time, much of the buzz still centered around a certain woodpecker in Florida. But for my money, the most exhilarating moment of the meeting was delivered by scientists who were using mtDNA and nuclear data to shed light upon a group of birds known as nine-primaried oscines -- tanagers, cardinals and grosbeaks, New World sparrows, New World blackbirds, and wood-warblers.

The methods the scientists described sounded highly technical and their discussions were loaded with jargon, but their conclusions were thrilling.

Among them: that our Scarlet, Western, Hepatic, and Summer Tanagers aren't really tanagers; that five genera currently assigned to the New World sparrows are probably better placed elsewhere in the songbird tree; that two genera now placed among the tanagers appear to belong within the sparrows; and that Olive Warbler and the chats don’t properly belong with the wood-warblers.

I remember thinking then how lucky I was to be present at just the moment when an established worldview was swept away and we were asked to look at the avian tree of life, or a part of it, in a new way.

I have that feeling again today.

Because today, scientists who have spent the last five years examining DNA not just from the nine-primaried oscines but from all major living groups of birds are publishing their findings, and they are every bit as thrilling as those announced last year. Indeed, they promise not only to send the writers of biology textbooks and field guides back to their drawing boards but to shake our understanding of evolution.

Godwit and Whimbrel watchers needed

Have you seen this band? The Whimbrel in the foreground above wears a band that was attached to its leg on Chiloe Island in Chile, a wintering site for tens of thousands of Whimbrels and Hudsonian Godwits. Seven weeks after it was banded, the bird was found in March 2007 at California's Mystic Lake — about 6,500 miles from Chile.

We featured the photo in “Birding Briefs” in our August 2008 issue.

Researchers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies have banded individuals of both species in hopes that resightings will uncover their migration routes. Ornithologists in Colombia also banded 38 Whimrels this past spring in Sanquianga National Park.

Besides the Whimbrel above, one banded godwit has been resighted. It was found May 12, 2007, on the Naknek River, east of King Salmon, Alaska, and was the first known resighting in the state of a Hudsonian Godwit banded in South America.

Jim Johnson of the FWS Migratory Bird Management office in Alaska and his colleague Brad Andres gave us these instructions on what to look for:

“Over the last two years, we have been color-flagging Whimbrels and Hudsonian Godwits on Chiloe Island, Chile,” they say. “Over 20,000 each of godwits and Whimbrels spend the boreal winter in the vicinity of Chiloe. Using a cannon net, we have marked 323 godwits and 135 Whimbrels.”

South Carolina sanctuary earns international recognition

The largest remaining forest of bald cypress and tupelo gum trees in the world has been named a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance.

Francis Beidler Forest in south-central South Carolina, a 15,000-acre sanctuary owned primarily by the National Audubon Society, received the designation May 30 at the annual meeting of the U.S. National Ramsar Committee in Washington, D.C. It becomes the 23rd Ramsar wetland in the U.S. and the first Audubon property so honored. (Its blog is here.)

Ramsar is the Iranian city where the Convention on Wetlands was adopted in 1971. Ramsar wetlands include the Everglades, Chesapeake Bay, Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin, Delaware Bay, and Bolinas Lagoon in California.

Beidler Forest was named an Important Bird Area in 2001. Among the 140-plus bird species found in the forest are Watch List species such as Red-headed Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Prothonotary Warbler (above), and Swainson's Warbler.

Audubon President John Flicker said Beidler Forest's designation "will help us to defend it from the many ongoing threats to its health, such as sprawl, poorly controlled mining and timber operations, and industrial agriculture. The Ramsar designation will show that the Beidler Forest is a place that deserves attention and protection." — M.M.

How to visit Beidler Forest.