NFBB Vol. 30 1955

JANUARY 1955 * * * Notice s .•........................•....... 1 * * * * Birds Banded Near Tokyo •........••...••.. 2 * * * * Some Bakersfield Records ••••..•.•••..•••• 3 * * * * Newell Shearwater Banded in Hawaii •..•••. 3 * * * * Chapter Minutes •••••••••••••••••••••••••• 4 * * * OFFICERS of the W. B. B. A. Russell H. Pray-----------------Editor President-------------Emerson A. Stoner Mrs. N. E. Ayer, Henry E. Childs, Jr., 285 East L Street--Benicia, California Johnson A. Neff, Paul H. Steele Secretary-------Mrs. Harold C. Austin 1116 Mandana Blvd.---Oakland 10, Calif. Business Manager-----Francis H. Boynton 163 W. State Street--Pasadena 2, Calif. Address contributions to the NEWS to Russell H. Pray, 662 Santa Rosa Avenue Berkeley 7, California The Editor of the News asks banders to write their interesting banding exper- iences and send them to the News. Every bander is interested in what other banders are doing so help make a better News with your letters and notes. Annual Banding Report forms were mailed to all lmown active banders in Western United States, Western Canada, Hawaii and Alaska ON December 26th. Members of W.B. B.A. are familiar with the Report as published in the News each April so it is not necessary to go into details. If you did not receive your form or if you lmow of any bander who did not, please see that a list of species banded with the numbers of each species is sent to Western Bird-Banding Association, E. A. Stoner, 285 East L Street, Benicia, California. This report covers the calendar year of 1954. A statement of 1955 dues was mailed to every W.B.B.A. member before the first of the year. We want to remind you that if you have not sent in your dues, prompt attention to the matter will be appreciated by the Business Manager. Dr. H. Elliott McClure writes from Japan, "I am afraid that I have been neglect- ing my duty as a bird-bander to keep the "News" informed of my activities. I have therefore prepared a little report ON the banding that we have done here in Tokyo as well as ON some of the returns and recoveries from the Bakersfield studies. I miss the fun of banding all species and especially the coterie of the banders. Need some good banding bull sessions to stimulate my ornithological appetite." and enclosed the following very interesting report. Bird banding in Japan is not done on the scale that it is in America. There are no volunteer banders; instead, the few birds that are ringed are done so by government officials with specific problems in mind. This has greatly limited the numbers and kinds of birds that are being marked, hence the amount of informati~n accruing is extremely sketchy. Literally millions of birds are caught each year by commercial netters, but when the GameManagementDivision was approached on the matter of utilizing these netters for banding information, they were not interested. If even a small percent- age of the take was banded and released, valuable information would be forthcoming. Although the average Japanese is interested in birds as pets, objects of art, and food, his economic level is such that only a chosen few could give the time or moneyto banding that the average Americanbander does. One rarely sees feeding stations, not because the people do not enjoy birdS, but because the food cannot be spared by the family. Finally, bird banding in Japan seems to have little future because of the politi- cal situation. Manysummerresidents migrate south to the Philippines or Formosa, and as far as Java. Japan is the winter homeof many species from Siberia and Manchuria. Other migrants pass through the Japanese Archipelago on their north and south trek. The outlook that bands would be returned from the various, "curtain" countries bordering Japan is hardly very hopeful. In spite of these problems we have been banding as manyindividuals as possible of the species related to our studies of Japanese B enceph~litis. In 1952 we be- gan a study of a heronry near Tokyo and have continued observations each year since. In 1953 we expanded our program to include a cormorant colony and a region where Blue Magpies nested. Following is a list of the species and number which we'have marked: ~ ~ Total Great Egret 4 150 154 PlumedEgret 104 81 296 481 Little Egret 156 127 211 494 Black-crowned Night Heron 176 198 304 678 Cattle Egret 1 21 22 Japanese Cormorant 16 16 Blue Magpie 37 147 184 464 1129 2029 Of these 2029 marked birds we have had two recoveries, both within ten miles of the place of banding; one was a Little Egret and the other a Night Heron. How-, ever, adult birds bearing bands have been seen at the heronry each year since banding started. The Great Egret, Egretta alba, resembles our Great White Heron, Ardea ~- dentalis, in size and action but has black instead of yellow feet and legs. It is a resident species all the year but is muchmore commonduring summer. The Plumed Egret, Egretta intermedia, is the AmericanEgret, Cosmerodius albus, of the Orient. In Japan it is an abundant summerresident. The smallest of the egrets, the Little Egret, Egretta garzetta, would probably be indistinguishable in the field from Snowy Egret, Leucophoyxthula. It is a commonpermanent resident. The Cattle Egret, Bubulcus ibis, which has orily in recent years becomeestablished in North America, is uncommonin the Tokyo area. It reaches its northernmostdistribution in Honshu. The ubiquitous circumpolar Black-cro"WIledNight Heron, Nycticorax nycticorax, is the same as in America. The Japanese Cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo, resembles the Double- crested Cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus, with which we are familiar, except that dur- ing breeding season its head and neck is nearly white. Most beautiful to the Ameri- can eye would be the Blue Magpie, Cyanopica cyanus, which is a powder blue and grey with a shining black skull cap and which has no counterpart in American fa.una unless it would be the Magpie, .!3:.£! :eica. WIl!+eworking in Bakersfield, California, we banded more than 10,000 birds up to June 1950. Since that time 43 returns or recoveries have been reported to me from Washington. This does not include all of the recoveries as several were re- ceived between 1947 and 1950 for which I do not have records available here. Someof the more interesting of these reports are as follows: Gambe1's Spar- row banded on December19, 1946, recaptured and released on February 29, 1952;, Gambel's Sparrow banded November21~ 1947, retrapped and released December11, 1951; English Sparrow banded July 11, 1949 as a nestling at Shafter movedto Lost Hills by February 15, 1951, a distance of several miles; MourningDove, banded as a nestling June 4, 1947, shot in Ocottan, Jalisco, Mexico, on Januar.1 4, 1953; Bullock Oriole banded July 7, 1948, in Hunnolive grove near Bakersfield and retaken in same grove on April 30, 1953; English Sparrow banded as a nestling April 23, 1948, and found dead June 1, 1954, a mile or two away from its nest site. H. Elliott McClure Department of Virus and Rickettsial Diseases 406th Medical General Laboratory APO500, San Francisco, California Bob Pyle writes from Hawaii. "I have mybands here but no time or opportunity to use them. The last two bands I've put on have been on a Fairy·Tern and a Newell Shearwater - the latter being the first of its kind recorded in recent decades. Both were in the Honolulu Zoo temporarily but both died before they could be released. tel enjoy reading of the L. A. Chapter activities in the NEWSand wish I could be there in person. Give mybest wishes to all the members." The following account is taken from an article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin of June 4, 1954. "A Newell Shearwater new into an Oahu sugar refinery at 4 a.m. of a recent morning, and thereby announced to the bird-lovers of the world that he is not extinct, as had been feared for someyears. He is the first of his kind to land in hands that recognized it for more than half a century. All seven of them are in the Territory, according to George C. Munro, dean of Hawaii's ornithologists and author of the book, Birds of Hawaii. Twoof the seven are at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum. Newell, whose Hawaiian name is Ao, flew through an open windowinto the Sugar Refinery at Aiea the morning of May 21. An employe of the refinery, picked Newell up, was bitten for his troubles, and telephoned the Hawaiian HumaneSociety for help. The bird later ended up at the Honolulu Zoo, where he was identified as a Newell Shearwater, or Pu:ffinus newelli, or Ao. Newell is a very tame-type bird. He'll eat from humanhands, and doesn't run in fright when approached by a humanbeing. But he III burrow inside grass or be- hind your feet, just to hide. He walks like a duck with two sprained ankles, is black on top and white underneath, and gulps smelt, a type of fish, that are half as long as he is, with great relish. He makes a noise like '''ao'' which is why the Hawaiians, who ate his predecessors whenthey were plentiful, call him Ao. At one time, Newell used to be in great numberon Maui, Molokai, Kauai and Hawaii, according to Mr. Munro's book. After being eaten by people, (some Hawaiians believed the Aowas an omenof death), mongooses, cats and pigs, he became scarce, and then became the rarest of any shearwaters liVing in Hawaii. September: The first fall meeting of the Northern California Chapter, W.B.B.A.

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