{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-c03aa079.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-517835be.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='Bizarre bird migrations could be linked to drought and scarce food' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54bf11d8eafeecae140543' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54bf11d8eafeecae140543' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nBizarre bird migrations could be linked to drought and scarce food\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003eMad Island, Texas - 16 February 20121. Wide of large pink birds taking flight in the Mad Island Nature Conservancy2. Bird perched on rock3. Wide of Mad Island sign4. Mid of bird expert making bird calls5. Close of Bird expert Richard...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003eMad Island, Texas - 16 February 2012\u003cbr/\u003e1. Wide of large pink birds taking flight in the Mad Island Nature Conservancy\u003cbr/\u003e2. Bird perched on rock\u003cbr/\u003e3. Wide of Mad Island sign\u003cbr/\u003e4. Mid of bird expert making bird calls\u003cbr/\u003e5. Close of Bird expert Richard Kostecke making and listening to bird calls\u003cbr/\u003e6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Richard Kostecke, Bird expert, Mad Island Nature Conservancy:\u003cbr/\u003e\"The big news this year in Texas was the weather and fire. So, we had actually a one-year drought of record, so it's the worst drought, single-year drought that Texas has seen. We've also had historic wild fires, spanning across the state.\"\u003cbr/\u003e7. Wide of waterway\u003cbr/\u003e8. Wide of low water mark seen on rock\u003cbr/\u003e9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Richard Kostecke, Bird expert, Mad Island Nature Conservancy:\u003cbr/\u003e\"So some of the things we're seeing particularly with birds, is there is either direct loss of habitat, so you don't have wetlands available for some of these species any more. Habitat quality and condition is just poor. The vegetation didn't do well this year, it didn't put out buds, it didn't flower, it didn't put out seed or fruit, so a lot of those food sources are lower than they might be.\" \u003cbr/\u003e10. Wide of muddy water\u003cbr/\u003e11. Wide of sparse grass in water\u003cbr/\u003e12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Richard Kostecke, Bird expert, Mad Island Nature Conservancy:\u003cbr/\u003e\"So we're seeing smaller numbers of many birds that we typically expect more of, but it's also causing some displacement. The birds have to find suitable habitats, so they're moving around different places.\"\u003cbr/\u003eMad Island, Texas - December 2011, Exact date unknown \u003cbr/\u003e13. Wide of whooping cranes\u003cbr/\u003e14. Mid of cranes\u003cbr/\u003eMad Island, Texas - 16 February 2012\u003cbr/\u003e15. SOUNDBITE: (English) Richard Kostecke, Bird expert, Mad Island Nature Conservancy:\u003cbr/\u003e\"They also have some whooping cranes that are wintering as far north as Nebraska, which is very unusual.  And there is a whole bunch of cranes, roughly about a third of the known population that have not yet been accounted for.\"\u003cbr/\u003e16. Wide of small white bird\u003cbr/\u003e17. SOUNDBITE: (English) Richard Kostecke, Bird expert, Mad Island Nature Conservancy:\u003cbr/\u003e\"We have some ducks that have gone unusually far south. So there is the country of Belize apparently had a bunch of new records of different species of waterfowl that they've never seen before.\"\u003cbr/\u003eMad Island, Texas - December 2011, Exact date unknown \u003cbr/\u003e18. Wide of whooping cranes flying \u003cbr/\u003eMad Island, Texas - 16 February 2012\u003cbr/\u003e19. Wide of large birds in distance\u003cbr/\u003eFrom whooping cranes spending their entire winter in Canada to ducks flying farther south than normal, scientists in Texas have noticed some strange trends in bird migrations of late. \u003cbr/\u003eThey believe flocks are becoming more desperate for food and habitat, which have become scarce because of the state's stubborn drought.\u003cbr/\u003eThe unusually mild winter in the Northeast and Midwest has even persuaded some birds they could stay put, fly shorter distances or turn back north earlier than normal.\u003cbr/\u003eThe list is disturbing.\u003cbr/\u003eEndangered whooping cranes flew 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometres) from Canada to Texas, where they usually spend the whole winter. \u003cbr/\u003eThey pecked around a little before turning around and flying back. \u003cbr/\u003eIn Nebraska, other cranes never left.\u003cbr/\u003eSome ducks just kept flying south, all the way to Belize in Central America. \u003cbr/\u003eA snowy owl was spotted near Dallas, only the sixth time that's ever happened.\u003cbr/\u003eMigratory birds often use the winter months to rest, eat and gain energy for the long journey back to their nesting grounds, so biologists can only guess at the effects of this season's peculiar movements.\u003cbr/\u003e\"The big news this year in Texas was the weather and fire,\" said Richard Kostecke, a bird expert and associate director of Conservation, Research and Planning at the Nature Conservancy in Texas.  \u003cbr/\u003e\"We had actually a one-year drought of record, so it's the worst drought, single-year drought that Texas has seen.  We've also had historic wild fires, spanning across the state.\"\u003cbr/\u003eAt the Nature Conservancy's Mad Island preserve alone, wetlands have been depleted from 1,100 acres (445 hectares) to a mere 200 acres (81 hectares). \u003cbr/\u003eKostecke says the weather has adversely affected vegetation that many types of birds rely on.\u003cbr/\u003e\"The vegetation didn't do well this year, it didn't put out buds, it didn't flower, it didn't put out seed or fruit, so a lot of those food sources are lower than they might be,\" said Kostecke. \u003cbr/\u003eIn a typical winter, the Texas Gulf Coast is packed with tens of thousands of birds - songbirds, waterfowl, catbirds, gnatcatchers, warblers and other migrants. \u003cbr/\u003eBut this year, an annual count done just before Christmas found the population had dropped steeply.\u003cbr/\u003eThe number of water-dwelling birds was down significantly. \u003cbr/\u003eGeese, for example, were 61 percent below their 19-year average. \u003cbr/\u003eDabbling ducks dropped 43 percent, diving ducks 60 percent and spoonbills 74 percent.\u003cbr/\u003eA mid-winter population survey revealed that overall numbers were down about three percent compared with last year.\u003cbr/\u003eSurveys show inland species are on the move, too. \u003cbr/\u003eThe disruption in natural migration comes with risks, even for the birds who survive into the spring. \u003cbr/\u003eBirds that switch migratory paths may be fine for a couple years, but they could die later if they follow the same path only to find that their destination has become much warmer or colder than expected.\u003cbr/\u003eOne of the biggest concerns is for the whooping crane.\u003cbr/\u003eThere are only about 300 of these majestic, five-foot (1.5 metres) birds left in the wild. \u003cbr/\u003eThis endangered flock, which scientists and the federal government have been working to revitalise for decades, flies every year from its nesting grounds in Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast.\u003cbr/\u003eIn 2009, the year of the last major drought, an estimated 23 birds died, probably because they were unable to find enough of the high-protein blue crabs and wolf berries to eat in Texas.\u003cbr/\u003eScientists were concerned the same thing could happen again.\u003cbr/\u003eBut the first census found many of the birds weren't even on the coast. \u003cbr/\u003eOnly about two-thirds of the cranes were spotted. \u003cbr/\u003eOne family, or about a half-dozen cranes, reached the Gulf, then turned around to spend the winter at Granger Lake about 225 miles (360 kilometres) north.\u003cbr/\u003eA few others were seen in unusually mild Nebraska. The rest are missing.\u003cbr/\u003eScientists plan to monitor the bird population to study the long-term consequences of this season's migratory patterns. \u003cbr/\u003eExperts in Belize are sharing notes with counterparts in Texas, who are talking to other specialists in the northern United States and Canada.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='action-container flex justify-between'\u003e\n\u003cbutton aria-expanded='false' aria-label='Read more description' class='rp-full-description' type='button'\u003e\n\u003ci class='fai fa-solid fa-align-left'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cspan id='read_more'\u003eRead More\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/button\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-report'\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-labelledby='resource-details-heading' class='rp-info-section'\u003e\n\u003ch2 class='title' id='resource-details-heading'\u003eResource Details\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-resource-details clearfix'\u003e\n\u003cdiv 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