BIRDCHAT for Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Messages are displayed in the order they were received.  Subject  From  Time   Birding Community E-bulletin - April 2008   Barbara Volkle and S   8:48am   RFI Puerto Vallarta, MEXICO   Raul Arias de Para   9:17am   Birds and Windpower resources   Rob Fergus    11:41am

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Subject: Birding Community E-bulletin - April 2008
From: Barbara Volkle and Steve Moore <barb620(AT)theworld.com>
Date: 23 Apr 2008 8:48am

THE BIRDING COMMUNITY E-BULLETIN for April 2008 is now available.

This Birding Community E-bulletin is being distributed through the 
generous support of Steiner Binoculars as a service to active and 
concerned birders, those dedicated to the joys of birding and the 
protection of birds and their habitats.

This issue marks the 48th E-bulletin we have produced, four years of 
sharing bird, birding, and bird conservation information. You can 
access an archive of our past E-bulletins on the website of the 
National Wildlife Refuge Association (NWRA):
<http://www.refugenet.org/birding/birding5.html>http://www.refugenet.org/birding/birding5.html
  and on the birding pages for Steiner Binoculars
<http://www.steiner-birding.com/bulletin.html>http://www.steiner-birding.com/bulletin.html

The April 2008 edition includes the following topics:

RARITY 
FOCUS 

    - Common Crane in Nebraska
MEXICAN GOVERNMENT DESIGNATES 45 NEW WETLANDS UNDER RAMSAR
   - Mexico is helping to safeguarding 2.7 million hectares of 
habitat
MARBLED MURRELET CRITICAL HABITAT MAINTAINED
   - the designation of critical habitat not revised
NATIONAL AVIARY BULLETIN
   - impacts of human population and resource consumption on birds 
and the environment
AMBER-ENCASED "FEATHERS" ANALYZED
   - dinosaur-era feathers found preserved in amber
FARM BILL EXTENSION HAS EVERYONE GUESSING
   - new Farm Bill not yet to be passed by Congress
TRANSLOCATED BERMUDA PETRELS RETURN TO BERMUDA ISLET
   - translocated Bermuda Petrels return
BOOK REVIEW: YOUNG BIRDER'S FIELD GUIDE (EAST)
   - for young birders who live in the East and are curious about 
birds
TIP OF THE MONTH: NESTWATCH IS WAITING FOR YOU
   -  Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology's newest citizen-science 
program

- - - - - - - -
You can access an archive of past E-bulletins on the National 
Wildlife Refuge Association (NWRA) website:
<http://www.refugenet.org/birding/birding5.html>http://www.refugenet.org/birding/birding5.html
  and on the birding pages for Steiner Binoculars
<http://www.steiner-birding.com/bulletin.html>http://www.steiner-birding.com/bulletin.html

If you wish to receive the bulletin or have any friends or co-workers 

who want to get onto the monthly E-bulletin mailing list, have them
contact either:

Paul J. Baicich at paul.baicich-at-verizon.net
Wayne R. Petersen, Director Massachusetts Important Bird Areas (IBA)
Program Mass Audubon at wpetersen-at-massaudubon.org

If you wish to distribute all or parts of any of the monthly Birding
Community E-bulletins, they simply request that you mention the 
source
of any material used. (Include a URL for the E-bulletin archives, if
possible.)

Enjoy!

Barbara Volkle
Northboro, MA
barb620(AT)theworld.com

* * *
MEXICAN GOVERNMENT DESIGNATES 45 NEW WETLANDS UNDER RAMSAR
   - Mexico is helping to safeguarding 2.7 million hectares of 
habitat
MARBLED MURRELET CRITICAL HABITAT MAINTAINED
   - the designation of critical habitat not revised
NATIONAL AVIARY BULLETIN
   - impacts of human population and resource consumption on birds 
and the environment
AMBER-ENCASED "FEATHERS" ANALYZED
   - dinosaur-era feathers found preserved in amber
FARM BILL EXTENSION HAS EVERYONE GUESSING
   - new Farm Bill not yet to be passed by Congress
TRANSLOCATED BERMUDA PETRELS RETURN TO BERMUDA ISLET
   - translocated Bermuda Petrels return
BOOK REVIEW: YOUNG BIRDER'S FIELD GUIDE (EAST)
   - for young birders who live in the East and are curious about 
birds
TIP OF THE MONTH: NESTWATCH IS WAITING FOR YOU
   -  Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology's newest citizen-science 
program

BirdChat Guidelines: http://www.ksu.edu/audubon/chatguidelines.html
Archives: http://listserv.arizona.edu/archives/birdchat.html


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Subject: RFI Puerto Vallarta, MEXICO
From: "Raul Arias de Para" <birding(AT)canopytower.com>
Date: 23 Apr 2008 9:17am

Hello fellow birders,

I'll be in Puerto Vallarta for a week at the end of May. Any recommendations
for a "free lancer"  that could take me birding a couple of times. 

Thank you very much,

Best,

Raul

Canopy Tower

PANAMA

 

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Subject: Birds and Windpower resources
From: Rob Fergus <birdchaser(AT)hotmail.com>
Date: 23 Apr 2008 11:41am

For folks interested in the impacts of windpower development on birds and other
wildlife, the National Wind Coordinating Collaborative (NWCC) has a lot of
online resources that might be of interest.
 
NWCC is a U.S. consensus-based collaborative of agency, nonprofit, and business
interests formed in 1994 to identify issues affecting the use of wind power,
establish dialogue among key stakeholders, and catalyze appropriate activities
to support the development of environmentally, economically, and politically
sustainable commercial markets for wind power.  Over the past 14 years, the NWCC
 has developed a wealth of resources addressing the impacts of windpower on
birds and other wildlife, most of which are available on the NWCC website
(www.nationalwind.org).
 
Links to most of the NWCC wind and wildlife resources are here: 
www.nationalwind.org/workgroups/wildlife
 
These include the following recent publications:
 
*  Assessing Impacts of Wind-Energy Development on Nocturnally Active Birds and
Bats: A Guidance Document (the Journal of Wildlife Studies Paper November 2007)
*  Critical Literature Review: Impact of Wind Energy and Related Human
Activities on Grassland and Shrub-Steppe Birds (October 2007)
*  Songbird Protocol (Updated June 2007)
*  NWCC Mitigation Toolbox  (May 2007 - 962KB PDF)
The toolbox describes various mitigation measures or tools that can be used in
the decision-making process. To help guide future decision making, this toolbox
provides information about existing mitigation policies and guidelines, as well
as on whether strategies are based on sound scientific research. It indicates
the effectiveness of various methods of avoiding, minimizing, or compensating
for direct and indirect impacts on wildlife caused by wind power facilities. The
 toolbox is a living document and is updating twice annually.
 
There are also minutes and reports from meetings, and powerpoint presentations
on a lot of issues, including a recent presentation on Lesser Prairie-Chicken
impacts in Texas
(http://www.nationalwind.org/workgroups/wildlife/LPCsandHabitatinTX-NWCCwebcast.pdf).
 
There's an embarrassment of riches here, one could easily spend a week just
reading all the great material here.
 
So bookmark the NWCC wind and wildlife resources page and make it a point to
check there as a starting point when looking for good information on wind and
wildlife issues.
 
NWCC puts out a brief bi-monthly email update, so if you want to keep up with
the latest NWCC happenings including events and resources under development, you
 can subscribe by sending an email to Taylor Kennedy (tkennedy AT resolv.org).
 
 
Rob Fergus
Senior Scientist | Urban Bird Conservation
National Audubon Society
Warminster, PA

Rob Fergus                     
Perkasie, Bucks, Pennsylvania
http://birdchaser.blogspot.com

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