How to Become an Urban Naturalist

Cedar Street, Roxbury

"Want to get wild?"

This is probably not a question we hear every day. But there's no reason why we can't. Too often we think that nature is "out there", in a forest, wilderness or body of water far away from our daily urban lives. Not true! Nature -- even wild nature -- is all around us if we have the eyes to look. And it's not just squirrels and Canada geese, though they are part of the package. It's tree blossoms and the matings of birds in the spring, the appearance of bees, butterflies and moths, rodents large and small, mushrooms, mosquitoes and a plethora of wildlife familiar and unfamiliar. In any urban wild walk, dozens, perhaps even hundreds of species can be discovered and enjoyed.

If you're looking for places to get wild in Boston, the city has a list of locations that are part of its Urban Wilds Initiative, many of which are hidden gems, like Cedar Street, here in Roxbury. The Arnold Arboretum has a great list of public educational programs, often free, to help tune you in to trees.

Curiosity can be your guide, but it helps to have a good resource for what you may come across. The Washington Post has been collecting an archive of urban creatures and events that apply to many other locations as well -- check it out.

The wild is all around us. Urban wild adds life to our artificial cities. Getting wild is just as easily said as done. Happy Earth Day.

The Birds of Paradise Project

Fifteen of the 39 species of birds of paradise

Kudos to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for launching its Birds of Paradise Project on the Internet. Thirty-nine species of these incredible birds live in Papua New Guinea and after 8 years of determined field work, Ed Scholes (Cornell) and Tim Laman (National Geographic) captured them all on film. If you remember the scene in Planet Earth with the excited little black bird with a blue bib that inflates himself into a large fan and dances all over a log to impress a female, then you've seen one of these spectacular birds.

You can get an introduction to the project here:



 These are some seriously good looking birds and you can also see footage of all 39 species here:

I encourage you to explore the project and see for yourself how sexual selection has produced such unique species.

 Amazingly, the birds of paradise have so far avoided the species crisis and none are listed among recent extinctions. So far, they have avoided the fate of many parrots and parakeets of being loved to death, or suffered from invasive species that took such a toll on the Hawaiian honeycreepers and honeyeaters. But deforestation is a problem in Papua New Guinea and it will be a tragedy if we let it affect these incredible birds the way it is affecting orangutans in Indonesia.

Imagining Nature

I recently wrote about the cultural values of species. Here's a slightly different take on the same thing. In this month's issue of Brevity, Brian Doyle writes a piece called "Imagining Foxes" in which he remembers going for a walk deep into the woods with his siblings as children. They try to hear the sounds of cars and traffic in the distance but they are so deep in the woods that they can no longer hear these man-made sounds. Doyle recounts the animals that they saw, and much as they wished to see a fox, they did not. But the woods were so alive with creatures that he imagines they smelled the fox with his "scent of old blood and new honey, and we heard his sharp cough and bark, and if you looked just right you could see his wry paw prints in the dust by his den". By the sound of the essay, this memory is 30 or 40 years old but because of the vibrancy of the woods, it still lives in his mind. Doyle goes on to say:

"[I]f we never take our kids to the little strips of forests, the tiny shards of beaches, the ragged forgotten corner thickets with beer bottles glinting in the duff, they’ll never even imagine a fox, and what kind of world is that, where kids don’t imagine foxes? We spend so much time mourning and battling for a world where kids can see foxes that we forget you don’t have to see foxes. You have to imagine them, though. If you stop imagining them then they are all dead, and what kind of world is that, where all the foxes are dead?"

What kind of world, indeed?  Read Brian Doyle's complete essay here.

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Climate Change and Biodiversity

Pine damage in Rocky Mtn NP due to bark beetles

You've heard of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the IPCC). This week we're going to start hearing about the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (the IPBES). If only the powers that be could have come up with a name that would lend itself to a better acronym. Nevertheless, in the midst of the sixth mass extinction, it's high time nations met to start dealing formally with the crisis and begin rolling back the high rate of species extinctions.

During President Obama's second inauguration speech today, he paid special attention to climate change Though his measures, like increasing home appliance efficiency, reducing emissions from power plants and making the federal government itself more effective, are progressive, they fall short of the sweeping changes that are necessary to prevent the planet's temperature from increasing by 2 degree celsius. As Thomas Lovejoy describes in his NY Times Op-Ed, we're already seeing the nasty effects of climate change at the current global warming of 0.8-0.9 degrees Celsius. For example, the present temperature increase has now tipped the balance in favor of bark beetles in western North America that are now decimating coniferous forests. Most of the 900 known extinctions since the year 1600 were caused by the introduction of invasive species, habitat destruction, pollution, and over-exploitation. Given the sensitivity of ecosystems to small changes in temperature, we could soon see climate change vault to the front of the list as the cause of species extinctions, particularly if we see the predicted 2 degree Celsius rise.  It's time to get serious about this stuff.

 Read the rest of Lovejoy's op-ed here. As for the IPBES, bring it on!

Appalachian Salamanders

Who knew that Appalachia was a hotspot for salamanders? I saw a couple of brillian orange fellows on the Appalachian Trail last summer. Here's a nice little video from the Smithsonian describing what they're about.

An Overpopulation Primer

World Population Day only comes around once a year, so it's great that actress and activist Alexandra Paul has taken the time to spell out the overpopulation problem is in this great 8-minute TED talk.

The sooner we take this topic out of the closet and start talking about it the better! Ready to do something? Check your state's reproductive health report card here.

Crisis? What Crisis? II (A list of extinct birds)

Carolina Parakeet, extinct in 1914

The modern extinction crisis has hit birds hard -- it's not just the passenger pigeon and the great auk that are gone, according to the list created by Martin Fowlie at Birdlife International, there's 130 more:

Species	Category
King Island Emu Dromaius ater	EX
Kangaroo Island Emu Dromaius baudinianus	EX
New Zealand Quail Coturnix novaezelandiae	EX
Double-banded Argus Argusianus bipunctatus	EX
Mauritius Shelduck Alopochen mauritianus	EX
Reunion Shelduck Alopochen kervazoi	EX
Amsterdam Duck Anas marecula	EX
Mauritius Duck Anas theodori	EX
Labrador Duck Camptorhynchus labradorius	EX
Auckland Islands Merganser Mergus australis	EX
Large St Helena Petrel Pterodroma rupinarum	EX
Small St Helena Petrel Bulweria bifax	EX
Alaotra Grebe Tachybaptus rufolavatus	EX
Atitlan Grebe Podilymbus gigas	EX
Colombian Grebe Podiceps andinus	EX
Reunion Ibis Threskiornis solitarius	EX
Black-backed Bittern Ixobrychus novaezelandiae	EX
Reunion Night-heron Nycticorax duboisi	EX
Mauritius Night-heron Nycticorax mauritianus	EX
Rodrigues Night-heron Nycticorax megacephalus	EX
Pallas’s Cormorant Phalacrocorax perspicillatus	EX
Guadalupe Caracara Caracara lutosa	EX
Reunion Kestrel Falco buboisi	EX
Hawkins’s Rail Diaphorapteryx hawkinsi	EX
Red Rail Aphanapteryx bonasia	EX
Rodrigues Rail Aphanapteryx leguati	EX
Bar-winged Rail Nesoclopeus poecilopterus	EX
Wake Island Rail Gallirallus wakensis	EX
Tahiti Rail Gallirallus pacificus	EX
Dieffenbach’s Rail Gallirallus dieffenbachii	EX
Chatham Rail Cabalus modestus	EX
Ascension Crake Mundia elpenor	EX
St Helena Crake Atlantisia podarces	EX
Miller’s Rail Porzana nigra	EX
St Helena Rail Porzana astrictocarpus	EX
Laysan Rail Porzana palmeri	EX
Hawaiian Rail Porzana sandwichensis	EX
Kosrae Crake Porzana monasa	EX
Reunion Gallinule Porphyrio coerulescens	EX
New Caledonia Gallinule Porphyrio kukwiedei	EX
White Gallinule Porphyrio albus	EX
North Island Takahe Porphyrio mantelli	EX
Mascarene Coot Fulica newtoni	EX
Canary Islands Oystercatcher Haematopus meadewaldoi	EX
White-winged Sandpiper Prosobonia ellisi	EX
Tahitian Sandpiper Prosobonia leucoptera	EX
Great Auk Pinguinus impennis	EX
Dodo Raphus cucullatus	EX
Rodrigues Solitaire Pezophaps solitaria	EX
St Helena Dove Dysmoropelia dekarchiskos	EX
Reunion Pigeon Columba duboisi	EX
Bonin Wood-pigeon Columba versicolor	EX
Ryukyu Pigeon Columba jouyi	EX
Passenger Pigeon Ectopistes migratorius	EX
Liverpool Pigeon Caloenas maculata	EX
Norfolk Island Ground-dove Gallicolumba norfolciensis	EX
Tanna Ground-dove Gallicolumba ferruginea	EX
Thick-billed Ground-dove Gallicolumba salamonis	EX
Choiseul Pigeon Microgoura meeki	EX
Red-moustached Fruit-dove Ptilinopus mercierii	EX
Rodrigues Blue-pigeon Alectroenas rodericana	EX
Mauritius Blue-pigeon Alectroenas nitidissima	EX
Norfolk Island Kaka Nestor productus	EX
Rodrigues Parrot Necropsittacus rodericanus	EX
Raiatea Parakeet Cyanoramphus ulietanus	EX
Black-fronted Parakeet Cyanoramphus zealandicus	EX
Paradise Parrot Psephotus pulcherrimus	EX
Mascarene Parrot Mascarinus mascarinus	EX
Seychelles Parakeet Psittacula wardi	EX
Newton’s Parakeet Psittacula exsul	EX
Mauritius Grey Parrot Lophopsittacus bensoni	EX
Broad-billed Parrot Lophopsittacus mauritianus	EX
Jamaican Red Macaw Ara gossei	EX
Dominican Green-and-yellow Macaw Ara atwoodi	EX
Jamaican Green-and-yellow Macaw Ara erythrocephala	EX
Lesser Antillean Macaw Ara guadeloupensis	EX
Cuban Macaw Ara tricolor	EX
Guadeloupe Parakeet Aratinga labati	EX
Carolina Parakeet Conuropsis carolinensis	EX
Guadeloupe Amazon Amazona violacea	EX
Martinique Amazon Amazona martinicana	EX
St Helena Cuckoo Nannococcyx psix	EX
Snail-eating Coua Coua delalandei	EX
Reunion Owl Mascarenotus grucheti	EX
Rodrigues Owl Mascarenotus murivorus	EX
Mauritius Owl Mascarenotus sauzieri	EX
Laughing Owl Sceloglaux albifacies	EX
Gould’s Emerald Chlorostilbon elegans	EX
Brace’s Emerald Chlorostilbon bracei	EX
St Helena Hoopoe Upupa antaios	EX
Bush Wren Xenicus longipes	EX
Stephens Island Wren Traversia lyalli	EX
Kauai Oo Moho braccatus	EX
Oahu Oo Moho apicalis	EX
Bishop’s Oo Moho bishopi	EX
Hawaii Oo Moho nobilis	EX
Kioea Chaetoptila angustipluma	EX
Chatham Bellbird Anthornis melanocephala	EX
Lord Howe Gerygone Gerygone insularis	EX
Huia Heteralocha acutirostris	EX
North Island Piopio Turnagra tanagra	EX
South Island Piopio Turnagra capensis	EX
Maupiti Monarch Pomarea pomarea	EX
Eiao Monarch Pomarea fluxa	EX
Nuku Hiva Monarch Pomarea nukuhivae	EX
Ua Pou Monarch Pomarea mira	EX
Guam Flycatcher Myiagra freycineti	EX
Chatham Fernbird Bowdleria rufescens	EX
Aldabra Warbler Nesillas aldabrana	EX
Robust White-eye Zosterops strenuus	EX
Kosrae Starling Aplonis corvina	EX
Mysterious Starling Aplonis mavornata	EX
Norfolk Island Starling Aplonis fusca	EX
Rodrigues Starling Necropsar rodericanus	EX
Reunion Starling Fregilupus varius	EX
Bonin Thrush Zoothera terrestris	EX
Kamao Myadestes myadestinus	EX
Amaui Myadestes woahensis	EX
Grand Cayman Thrush Turdus ravidus	EX
Bonin Grosbeak Chaunoproctus ferreorostris	EX
Lanai Hookbill Dysmorodrepanis munroi	EX
Lesser Koa-finch Rhodacanthis flaviceps	EX
Greater Koa-finch Rhodacanthis palmeri	EX
Kona Grosbeak Chloridops kona	EX
Greater Amakihi Hemignathus sagittirostris	EX
Lesser Akialoa Hemignathus obscurus	EX
Greater Akialoa Hemignathus ellisianus	EX
Kakawahie Paroreomyza flammea	EX
Ula-ai-hawane Ciridops anna	EX
Hawaii Mamo Drepanis pacifica	EX
Black Mamo Drepanis funerea	EX
Slender-billed Grackle Quiscalus palustris	EX

These are extinctions in the last 500 years. If you think that the worst is over and we know better now, I'm here to tell you that the worst is yet to come and though we mean well in our conservation efforts, our numbers and our appetite for land and resources is the new force of nature. The prospects for the crisis getting worse before it gets better are embedded in this list of not 21, not 210, but 2122 endangered birds. You can also read about bird poaching in Cyprus, where in 2010, some 2 million migrating birds were caught and sold to be eaten.  See also how Todd McGrain has been memorializing five extinct North American birds through The Lost Bird Project. If you want to do something to help birds this holiday season, why not join the Christmas Bird Count? You can probably find a site near you.