Tag Archives: black tern

Screwed – Birds in BP’s Crosshairs

Conservation, Gulf Gusher, Opinion, Politics, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Neotropic cormorant, Galveston, Texas, Ted Lee Eubanks
The popular press apparently believes that the brown pelican is the only species being jeopardized by the Gulf gusher (someone please let Anderson Cooper know). The NWF would like for you to believe the threat is to the birds in your backyard. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been quoted saying “the distribution of the oil, it’s bigger and uglier than we had hoped.”

Just which birds are actually threatened by the BP fiasco? I will offer my best guesses, and then ask you to send your thoughts in as well. I will try to keep the list updated.

My list of 25 reflects those species that are generally limited to the immediate coast, whose populations are generally restricted to the Gulf of Mexico and the southern U.S. Atlantic (either throughout the year or during a specific season), and whose numbers are low and/or declining. In general I have avoided all pelagics (obviously threatened), since their numbers are relatively low in the Gulf (excepting the Dry Tortugas).

Of course, if we have a repeat of the storm surge associated with a Katrina, Rita, or Ike, all bets are off. Such a storm would push oil well inland, and an entirely new suite of birds would be at risk. In addition, an Ike-type storm, moving from east to west, would spread surface oil and put the Texas coast more at risk. If that happened (particularly if the oil makes it to the southern tip of the state) then all whooping cranes are at risk, as well as the species such as redhead that winter in the Laguna Madre.

Speculation about possible impacts from a hurricane have been all over the map. Here is a quote from Dr. Jeff Masters of Weather Underground. I urge all to read his entire article. His discussion of the potential effect of storm surge is enlightening (and frightening). As one with a house on Galveston Island, and the unwilling recipient of 3 feet of storm surge from Ike, I can only imagine the impacts of oil floating atop those waters.

A hurricane moving through the Gulf of Mexico spill will very likely make the disaster much worse, spreading out the oil over a larger region, and bringing the oil to shores that otherwise might not have seen oil…Jeff Masters

Even if all of the oil evaporated tomorrow (we wish), the Deepwater Horizon blowout is a moment when the America people can see what is at risk from treating the Gulf as if it were an industrial park.

    Reddish egret, Galveston, Texas, Ted Lee Eubanks

  • Fulvous whistling-duck
  • Mottled duck
  • Lesser scaup
  • Red-breasted merganser
  • Common loon
  • Eared grebe
  • Northern gannet
  • Neotropic cormorant
  • Reddish egret
  • Roseate spoonbill
  • Clapper rail
  • Whooping crane (Florida)
  • Snowy plover
  • Wilson’s plover
  • Piping plover
  • American oystercatcher
  • Red knot
  • Franklin’s gull
  • Least tern
  • Black tern
  • Royal tern
  • Black skimmer
  • Horned lark (coastal)
  • Nelson’s sharp-tailed sparrow
  • Seaside sparrow

Birds of the Gulf: Black Tern

Conservation, Research, ,

Black tern, South Padre Island, Texas, 25 June 2010
In this alleged advanced age we presume that all has been discovered, all is known. Why bother looking around your backyard or neighborhood or state when surely scientists and naturalists have covered all of the angles? What could possibly be new to find?

If you live on or around the Gulf of Mexico, particularly that segment in Texas, the answer is everything. Consider the black tern. Black terns are a marsh-nesting bird, breeding in the Northern American interior away from the coasts. This tern is a migrant along our Gulf coast, thus we only see them as they come or go. Fall flocks can number in the tens of thousands, and such aggregations have been noted at tidal flats such as San Luis Pass for over a century.

Yet in mid-summer, for example late June, black terns are found in sizable numbers along our coast. They do not breed here. They do not winter here. These are nonbreeders, mostly young birds, that migrate only as far north as the Gulf before settling in for the season.

Black tern, South Padre Island, Texas, 25 June 2010
As I said, most are young birds, the product of last year’s breeding season. But this is not always the case. On 25 June I counted over 300 black terns feeding around the South Padre Island jetties (Texas). Most were what I presume to be second-year birds, but several (perhaps 1 out of 15 or 20) were in immaculate breeding plumage. Are these failed breeders? Are these early migrants (which I sincerely doubt)? Or is there something else at work here, something that we have yet to learn or to understand?

With the Gulf Gusher still spewing offshore, wouldn’t it be important to know how many of these black terns are summering along our coast? This tern is a Category 2 Candidate for the U.S. Endangered Species List, and is either listed or is being closely monitored in states along its southern breeding range. Surely these young birds are important to the future of the species, and they are, at this moment, at risk.