Prairievogels

The western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) holds a special, almost magical, place in the hearts and souls of those inhabiting the prairies of North Dakota. While it is the state bird, the meadowlark is iconic in its stature because it’s one of the first true tests that winter has relinquished its icy grip on the plains. But across the U.S. — North Dakota is no exception — meadowlark numbers are in a state of decline. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the breeding population of western meadowlarks has been declining throughout the U.S. and Canada at about 1 percent per year since at least 1966.

The northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita), also called the hermit ibis or waldrapp, is a migratory bird. The Northern Bald Ibis likes to eat grasshoppers, ants, and other insects. They also eat frogs and snails. Once, the bald ibis lived in the Middle East, northern Africa and southern and central Europe, but due to hunting, loss of habitat and pesticide-use, the birds disappeared from most of these areas and is currently considered Critically Endangered. It became extinct in Europe 300 years ago; the bird is almost gone in Syria, with only a single individual recorded at the country's lone breeding site in 2013; and the only stronghold left is a small population of around 500 birds in Morocco.

Agriculture, oil and gas exploration and other human activity have reduced Alberta’s sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) population to about 50 birds. Once ranging as far north as Empress, Alta., sage grouse are now found only in the southeastern corner of the province, south of the Cypress Hills. Saskatchewan populations have had a similar fate, with grouse found in a small southwestern region in the Frenchman River valley and Grasslands National Park. “The sage grouse population decline has been severe,” said Alberta Fish and Wildlife biologist Joel Nicholson, noting most of the remaining North American population now lives in Montana and Wyoming. “We’re at a situation in Alberta now where we likely have 50 or fewer grouse, total population, and so we need to do some really significant immediate actions to prevent this population from becoming extirpated in Alberta.”

Bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus), arguably the most recognized and revered game bird in the nation, has seen its wild population free-fall over the past half-century or so. In some states within the birds' native range, which covers most of the United States from the Atlantic seaboard to the Great Plains, bobwhite numbers have declined by as much as 90 percent or more. That includes states such as Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina, where wild quail were so abundant they were a part of the region's cultural and social fabric. In some states where the birds were relatively abundant as recently as 30 years ago, bobwhites are considered "recreationally extinct," their numbers so low that hunting seasons have been either suspended or, if hunting is allowed, almost no wingshooters pursue the iconic game bird. No region of the bobwhites' range has escaped the collapse, including Texas. The statewide bobwhite quail population has, by some estimates, declined 70 percent or more over the past 60 years. In parts of Texas, the birds have all but vanished; East Texas and the Post Oak Savanna, which held fairly healthy bobwhite populations into the 1960s, are almost wholly devoid of wild quail, and the Blackland Prairies and Edwards Plateau regions hold only scattered, isolated islands of quail.

The finding raises questions about the adequacy of voluntary conservation measures proposed today for the rare grouse in a final rangewide conservation plan intended to preclude the need for Endangered Species Act protections. The study, by Western EcoSystems Technology Inc. of Laramie, Wyo., estimates the total population size at 17,616 individuals in 2013, more than a 50 percent drop from the 2012 estimate of 34,440 birds. The study also estimated there to be 2,036 occupied breeding areas (known as leks) in 2013 — a decline of more than 30 percent from the 2012 estimate of 2,930 leks. Lesser prairie chickens (Tympanuchus cupido) have been on the waiting list for federal protection since 1998. The species was proposed for listing as a result of a 2011 settlement between conservation groups and the Fish and Wildlife Service to speed protections for hundreds of species around the country.

Prairie chicken and grouse numbers are down sharply from the numbers of 2012, a wildlife biologist who monitors those populations on the Fort Pierre National Grassland says. Wildlife biologist Ruben Mares of the U.S. Forest Service said this year’s survey on the grassland’s Cedar Creek Monitoring Unit from April 29 through May 16 showed that the number of male prairie grouse sighted had declined significantly from the 2012 survey. Greater prairie chicken (Tympanuchus cupido) were down 37 percent, from 393 males in 2012 to 246 in 2013. Sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus, previously Tetrao phasianellus), were down by 57 percent, from 82 males in 2012 to 35 in 2013.

Sharp-tailed grouse counts in the northwest, the bird's primary range in Minnesota, were similar to 2012 while counts in the east-central region declined significantly, according to Minnesota DNR officials. During the spring mating season, observers look for and count male sharptails displaying on traditional mating areas, called leks or dancing grounds. Those figures are used to estimate the state's sharp-tailed grouse population. Despite several years of declining numbers, this year's statewide average of 9.2 grouse counted per dancing ground was similar to the long-term average since 1980. The 2009 average of 13.6 was as high as during any year since 1980. During the last 25 years, the sharp-tailed grouse index has been as low as seven birds counted per dancing ground. Overall, sharptail populations appear to have declined over the long term as a result of habitat deterioration. In recent years, the DNR has increased prescribed burning and shearing that keep trees from overtaking the open brush lands that sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus, previously: Tetrao phasianellus) need to thrive.

A well-known Yukon bird biologist says kestrels, the smallest member of the falcon family in North America, are rapidly disappearing from the territory. Dave Mossop says the American kestrel (Falco sparverius) population in Yukon has dropped by about 90 per cent over the past decade. He says the decline is about 65 percent in North America overall. “This is a little bird that sits at the top of the food web in which it lives,” he said. “And so, depending as it does on the whole system below it, it becomes a wonderful indicator species of things that are changing.”

Trying to research a bird that is disappearing is a nearly impossible task, if you ask Dave Mossop. The Yukon Research Centre biologist has been studying the American kestrel (Falco sparverius) – North America’s smallest falcon – since the 1980s. In those two decades, numbers of American kestrels in the Yukon have plummeted by 80 per cent. A bird that was once plentiful on telephone wires across the territory is rarely spotted these days. “It’s a real catastrophe and a wake-up call,” says Mossop, who became interested in the American kestrel by accident. He wanted to find out how larger birds like boreal owls and ducks were able to find nesting cavities in small Yukon trees. The kestrel also finds refuge in tree cavities, most often those left over from woodpeckers. While Mossop was tracking these cavities, he realized that the number with kestrels in them was dwindling. That was in the early ‘90s. Mossop started networking with other bird biologists around North America to see if they were noticing a similar trend. But in the ‘90s and the early part of 2000, only the Yukon was experiencing significant declines, he says. That changed in 2009 when a research conference was held to discuss the American kestrel. “It turned out the decline was being seen everywhere at that point and that led to people raising the alarm.”

Staniel is the old English word for the kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), the hovering falcon. Staniel is long forgotten now; our modern English name for the bird comes from the French crécerelle, and I was put in mind of all this recently on a weekend trip to Normandy, where I was delighted to find kestrels hovering all over the place, not least above motorway verges: on a 50-mile stretch of the A28 which runs between Alençon and Rouen, I counted 18 of them. Twenty years ago, this was also a typical sight on the M1, M4 and M6, so much so that the kestrel became nicknamed the motorway falcon; the long, undisturbed grass verges, even with heavy traffic thundering past, had turned out to be perfect hunting grounds for the voles and mice on which kestrels feed. But today it would be a rare occurrence indeed to spot 18 kestrels in 50 miles of the M1, for the bird is increasingly in trouble in Britain, with its numbers dropping by 32 per cent in the years between 1995 and 2010, and a staggering 36 per cent decline just between 2008 and 2009. In the 1960s, 70s and 80s, when birds of prey such as peregrine falcons and buzzards were struggling because of pesticide poisoning and persecution, kestrels were flourishing; but now the situation is reversed, and they are the most threatened of our common raptors.