Recently Filmed Male House Finch

National Audubon Society News

Washington, DC, June 20, 2008 - A bipartisan group of seven coastal governors are reiterating concerns about offshore drilling as Congress actively considers proposals that would revoke a 27-year moratorium on the practice.

While considerable media attention has focused on Florida Governor Charlie Crist's reversal of his position on the issue, nearly every other coastal governor remains opposed.

"Coastal governors know that offshore drilling is bad news for the environment and for tourism," said Mike Daulton, Director of Conservation Policy for the National Audubon Society. "It makes no sense for states to put our important beaches, fisheries and coastal habitats and multi-billion dollar tourism economies at such risk for so little gain."

The statements from the coastal governors follow.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R): "California's coastline is an international treasure. I do not support lifting this moratorium on new drilling off our coast." US News and World Report

Washington Governor Christine Gregoire (D): "For 26 years, our coasts have been protected by that moratorium and I believe that it should remain in place in perpetuity. With soaring gas prices, there is no better time to end our dependence on oil. As a country, we should be pursuing clean energy sources and investing in alternative energy technologies." Seattle Post-Intelligencer

North Carolina Governor Mike Easley (D): "It's just too much squeeze for the juice when you're looking at the real estate market that's on the coast, recreational fishing, the tourism and other economic interests that would be adversely affected by some problem that could easily arise from off-shore drilling," MSNBC

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine (D): "Our $35 billion economy is driven by tourism and the use of the shore." Associated Press

Oregon Governor Theodore Kulongoski (D): Lifting the ban would be "a short-sighted response to a long-term issue of creating a sustainable and secure domestic energy economy." Associated Press

Maine Governor John E. Baldacci (D): "We need an energy policy that looks to the future for answers, not to the past," Democratic Gov. John Baldacci's spokesman, David Farmer, said in a statement. "We need to cut consumption and develop renewable, clean sources of energy." Morning Sentinel (Maine)

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford (R): Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said, "We would certainly have some hesitation just based upon tourism and the natural beauty along the coast. We certainly wouldn't want to do anything that would kill the goose that laid the golden egg." Greenville News

Nature Conservancy and Their Quest To Protect the Golden Cheeked Warbler

Golden-cheeked Warbler


Range/Habitat: Golden-cheeked Warblers nest only in central Texas, in mixed Ashe-juniper and oak woodlands in ravines and canyons. This species winters in evergreen-oak forest habitat in parts of southern Mexico and Central America.

Threats: The Golden-cheeked Warbler is a federally endangered species. Tall juniper and oak woodlands, their primary habitats, have been cleared to build buildings and roads or to grow crops for livestock. Other habitat areas were flooded when large lakes were built.

What TNC is Doing: The Nature Conservancy of Texas has established the Fort Hood Center for Cooperative Ecological Research in conjunction with the U.S. Army and Department of Defense to work for the management and protection of endangered species within Fort Hood. In Guatemala, Defensores de la Naturaleza is working to protect critical wintering habitat for Golden-cheeked Warblers in the Sierra de la Minas Biosphere Reserve.

Illustrations by David Allen Sibley from The National Audubon Society

In Case You Didn't Know: Ivory Billed Woodpecker Rediscovered in Arkansas

Morning Edition, April 28, 2005 · A group of wildlife scientists believe the ivory-billed woodpecker is not extinct. They say they have made seven firm sightings of the bird in central Arkansas. The landmark find caps a search that began more than 60 years ago, after biologists said North America’s largest woodpecker had become extinct in the United States.

The large, showy bird is an American legend -- it disappeared when the big bottomland forests of North America were logged, and relentless searches have produced only false alarms. Now, in an intensive year-long search in the Cache River and White River national wildlife refuges involving more than 50 experts and field biologists working together as part of the Big Woods Partnership, an ivory-billed male has been captured on video.

"We have solid evidence, there are solid sightings, this bird is here," says Tim Barksdale, a wildlife photographer and biologist.

For an NPR/National Geographic Radio Expeditions story, NPR science correspondent Christopher Joyce joined the search last January along Arkansas’ White River, where a kayaker spotted what he believed to be an ivory-billed woodpecker more than a year ago. Many other similar sightings over the last 60 years have raised false hopes.

But this time, Joyce reports that experts associated with the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in New York and The Nature Conservancy were able to confirm the sighting. They kept the find a secret for more than a year, partly to give conservation groups and government agencies time to protect the bird’s habitat.

The Nature Conservancy has been buying and protecting land along the White and Cache Rivers for years, along with the state and the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. Since the discovery, they've bought more land to protect the bird.

Regal Snow Bunting On The Prow

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Protect The Cerulean Warbler

A new reserve for one of my favorite birds is being set aside by the American Bird Conservancy and Colombian conservation group, Fundación ProAves. They announced "the creation of South America's first protected area for a songbird that breeds exclusively in North America. The reserve will protect wintering habitat for the Cerulean Warbler."

"'This Cerulean Warbler reserve is a groundbreaking step in the conservation of migratory song birds" said Mike Parr, Vice President for Communications at American Bird Conservancy. "This is the first South American preserve designed to protect a bird species that solely nests in the United States and Canada.'"

"The new reserve currently includes 500 acres of subtropical forest in the Rio Chucurí basin of Santander, Colombia. The area, one of the last natural remnant forest fragments in the region, shelters high populations of wintering Cerulean Warblers. The reserve also contains three Critically Endangered bird species: the Gorgeted Wood-Quail, Colombian Mountain Grackle, and Chestnut-bellied Hummingbird, along with many other threatened and endemic birds."

"'The Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act, currently up for reauthorization in Congress, provided critical funding that helped to show that this region is important to the long-term survival of the Cerulean Warbler," said Parr, "this project and others like it provide a strong justification for the renewal of the Act.'"

Useful Link:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Cerulean_Warbler.html

Don't Mess With This Blue Winged Kookaburra