This season’s BirdSpotter contest is celebrating teachers and students who attract birds with feeders and bird baths outside their classroom windows as an impetus to learn about birds. While many schools are operating remotely this year, some students are homeschooled outside the public and private school systems with students involved in most of their education activities at home. Whether schooling remotely or homeschooling, in both cases, students are spending more time at home, and many have welcomed Project FeederWatch as part of their studies – as curriculum or extra-curricular activities. Read more

Bozeman, Montana. December 28, 2020. Today, wild sheep advocates are celebrating a successful trap and transfer and the establishment of a new bighorn population in Montana’s Little Belt Mountains, which occurred this past Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF), Montana WSF (its state chapter), domestic sheep producers, and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks have been working for the past several years to reintroduce bighorn sheep into new suitable habitats. Recently, fifty bighorn sheep we helicopter captured in HD482, south of the Missouri Breaks, and safely released into the Little Belts.

“In the year of Covid, wild sheep conservation doesn’t stop – nor does WSF, and now we all have something to celebrate,” said Gray N. Thornton, President, and CEO, Wild Sheep Foundation. “WSF is proud to work hand in hand with Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks, Montana Wild Sheep Foundation, Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s Outdoor Fund, and many other partners to restore bighorn sheep to an area where they have been absent since the early 20th century.

This effort showcases WSF’s successes in partnering with agencies, industry, and chapter and affiliates to help restore and manage wild sheep and other wildlife throughout the world. It is how we put and keep wild sheep on the mountain.” Read more

(Kaunakakai, Moloka‘i) – Surveys and investigations by the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) staff suggest that recent instances of deer dying on Moloka‘i are due to severe drought conditions. DOFAW began receiving reports earlier this month of deer being found both on roadways and on private lands in West Moloka‘i.

Staff have conducted surveys and investigations to determine the causes of death. At this time, the animals appear to be dying of starvation due to the extreme drought that the island experienced over the summer. On Dec. 28, a visit by a veterinarian from the Hawai‘i Dept. of Agriculture (DOA), Division of Animal Industry, confirmed DOFAW staff observations. Read more

Washington — The Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) is excited to announce the recent publication titled “Best Management Practices for Trapping Furbearers in the United States” in Wildlife Monographs. This new publication is a culmination of over two decades of scientific research – by far the largest trap testing study ever conducted. The article is a product of AFWA’s Furbearer Management and Best Management Practices (BMPs) for Trapping Program, a program created to improve animal welfare in U.S. trapping programs by identifying traps that achieve internationally acceptable injury thresholds while remaining efficient and safe, and promoting their use among trappers, researchers, and managers who use traps to capture wildlife.

“We are excited to see the largest trap research ever conducted published in this prestigious journal,” said Sara Parker Pauley, Director of the Missouri Department of Conservation and President of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. “The Association is also pleased to see the program’s continuing dedication to address societal concerns of modern regulated trapping and furbearer management.” Read more

Now that you have your feeders stocked and ready for “winter finches” to appear, according to a new article that’s hot off the “electronic presses” of the American Birding Association (ABA), feeding stations in many areas are already experiencing some exciting visits by northern finches, such as Purple Finches, Pine Siskins, Evening Grosbeaks, Pine Grosbeaks, Red Crossbills, White-winged Crossbills, Hoary Redpolls, and Common Redpolls. Perhaps you are already hosting one or more of these species, as this winter’s “invasion” progresses.

Here is an update from the ABA: Birders in the eastern United States and southeastern Canada are reporting a banner year for irruptive boreal birds, including remarkable records and a “super-flight” of finches. Typically, only some of the irruptive finch species found in the East will undergo an irruption, but in super-flight years, the search for food drives representatives of all 8 species south, An enormous movement of northern finches was recorded from in late summer into fall at migration hotspots like the Tadoussac Bird Observatory in Quebec, Cape May in New Jersey, and Hawk Ridge in Duluth, Minnesota. By mid-fall, a Common Redpoll made it to Albuquerque, New Mexico; Evening Grosbeaks were spotted in the Florida Panhandle; Pine Siskins were reported in northern Mexico and into the Atlantic to Bermuda; and Hoary Redpolls visited Cleveland, Ohio.

These birds rely on the seed production (masting) cycles of trees in the core of their ranges. Entire populations of trees will synchronously produce millions seeds some years, but produce no seeds other years. Irruptive “finch” movements follow these seed cycles, but birders in the United States usually don’t see many finches in years when there is food in the boreal forest. Southward movements correspond with years of mast failure, when these birds must search for alternate foods, including seeds of ornamental plants and well-stocked bird feeders. The latter are particularly popular with Pine Siskins, Purple Finches, Evening Grosbeaks, and Common Redpolls. Read more

Project Snowstorm continues to provide exciting new information revealed by satellite telemetry that shows the movements of individual Snowy Owls. This includes a long-term study of a third-year female Snowy Owl referred to as ‘Stella’ that shows her movements from wintering areas to summer range in the high Arctic, including specific migration routes from 2018 through 2020. This fall, the updated map of her telemetry locations illustrates that this female Snowy began her migration south September 17 after spending the summer on King Edward Island, just north of continental Canada and west of the northern tip of Hudson Bay. After migrating almost directly south, last week her position was in the southeast corner of North Dakota, near the borders of Minnesota and South Dakota.

This interesting Snowy Owl spent the summers of 2018 and 2019 even farther north in Nunavut – on Victoria Island as a yearling in ’18, and on Lougheed Island as a second year bird in ’19 – not far from the North Pole! After taking a pretty straight line series of flights along the west side of Hudson Bay, it continued south through Manitoba, crossing the border into North Dakota November 24.

Where will “Stella” winter this winter? Although this owl migrated to the border between the Dakotas last winter too, for an unknown reason it doubled back north to spend the winter just north of the border in southwest Manitoba. In 2019, this owl wintered in northeast Montana, migrating through Saskatchewan during spring and fall. But to complicate the movement history of this individual Snowy Owl, she was originally observed and fitted with its transmitter in southern Ontario, adjacent to the state of New York. Read more