A regular roundup of important news on birds and their habitats. Check back often for updates.
10/9/07
Thousands of Young Seabirds Killed in Traditional Scottish Hunt
For the past 500 years or so, about 10 fishermen from Ness on the isle of Lewis in Scotland make a 60-mile journey across the North Atlantic to the remote island of Sula Sgeir. The men climb a 300-foot cliff and bludgeon thousands of young seabirds to death. The young northern gannets are lassoed with 10-foot poles with a noose on the end. The birds are then killed and gutted and thrown into an empty beer keg filled with pickling brine. The fishermen return home where the birds become a staple of the town’s winter diet.
Animal rights activists have sought to stop the slaughter but the traditional hunt is sanctioned by Scottish law.
Should Dogs Be Banned From Protected Bird Habitats?
A study conducted by researchers at the University of South Wales in Sydney found that in parks where people were permitted to walk their dogs, the number of birds and the number of bird species decline significantly. The report is fueling debate in several countries about whether dogs should be banned from national parks and other wildlife refuges.
The researchers found that when people were permitted to walk their dogs on leashes in parks, the number of birds declined by 41 percent. When people alone were permitted in the area, the number of birds declined by only half as much.
Study Finds That Males Greatly Outnumber Females in Endangered Bird Species
A study by Paul Donald of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has found that males dominate many species. And more important, the more threatened a bird species becomes, the more male dominated it becomes.
Donald analyzed 173 different bird species and found that 112 had a significantly larger number of males than females. The endangered New Zealand black stilt is 75 percent male, and 66 percent of all keas are males. This is particularly important because population censuses of endangered birds frequently use males for counting species because they can be more easily recognized than females. Therefore, overall population estimates of these species are probably overstated because of the preponderance of males of the species.
Donald believes female nesting birds are more vulnerable to predators and lead more stressful lives than their male counterparts, which could explain their lower rates of survival.
As President, Fred Thompson Would Not Be a Friend to Birds
Fred Thompson, following in the shoes of Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger from Hollywood to GOP politics, voted in the U.S. Senate to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling by oil and gas interests. The refuge is home to millions of migratory birds, some of which are endangered or threatened.
Thompson has gone on record as being skeptical about the dangers of global warming. In 1999 he introduced the Regulatory Improvement Act which would have made it more difficult for government environmental agencies to block new development.
Clearly Fred Thompson wants to attract the right-wing base of the Republican Party. There is no room on the far right for a candidate who will oppose the interests of real estate developers, the oil and gas industry, timber companies, mining firms, and other interests that have little concern for protecting the habitats of birds.
Captive Breeding Program Boosts Southern California Population
of the Light-Footed Clapper Rail
The salt marsh habitat of the endangered light-footed clapper rail in Southern California has greatly diminished due to extensive development of coastal areas. A new captive breeding program has released 171 birds back into the wild since 2001. Bred at SeaWorld in San Diego, a puppet resembling an adult bird is used to feed the chicks so that they do not associate food with human contact. Later, the birds are released into an enclosed outdoor environment where they can be monitored to see if they become self-sufficient in finding insects to eat. Only after scientists are certain that the birds can fend for themselves are they released back into the wild along the San Diego River.
Environmental Group to File Suit to Help
Recovery
Efforts for the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher
In 2004 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) called for the designation of 376,000 acres as critical habitat for the endangered southwestern willow flycatcher. The acreage extended across five southwestern states. A year later the FWS revised its proposal and said that only 120,000 acres would be designated as critical habitat.
Now the Center for Biological Diversity has filed notice saying that it intends to file suit against the FWS claiming that Interior Department officials and White House operatives, who were their superiors, ignored the scientific evidence that the larger acreage was necessary to help recovery efforts for the bird.
Rapid Development in Florida Is Destroying Habitat for Some Birds
But Others Have Adapted and Their Populations Are Thriving
The continuing rapid growth and development in the state of Florida is taking a toll on the state’s bird population. The annual National Audubon Society’s bird count found that the number of northern bobwhites in Florida has declined 70 percent since 1980. The Florida grasshopper sparrow, which was once plentiful in the state, is now down to about 1,000 birds. Other birds that have had difficulty coping with the rapid development are the endangered Florida scrub jay and the mottled duck.
But some birds have been able to adapt to Florida’s development. Sandhill cranes, cattle egrets, and the Florida turkey have all seen increases in populations.
The Black Brant Is in Serious Decline
The black, or Pacific, brant is reported to be in serious decline. Once abundant during the spring migration in coastal waters of Washington State and British Columbia, its numbers have steadily declined since the 1960s. Canada still permits the hunting of brants during the spring migration when brants, birds that mate for life, are preparing to nest and breed.
Also, the warmer climate in the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, where most of the brants build their nests, has melted the permafrost basins that used to retain fresh water for the birds to drink. Under such conditions scientists have found that only 45 percent of young brants live for 12 months and the birds do not breed until age 3. About 30 percent of the adult population dies at the hand of hunters each year, making the recovery of the species extremely difficult.
Scores of Australian Bird Species at Risk Due to
Rising Sea Levels From Global Warming
Scientists in northern Australia say that rising sea levels due to global warming could flood thousands of square miles of wetlands near the coast. This encroachment of the sea could place 66 bird species at risk of extinction because of the loss of their freshwater habitats. The birds most at risk are those that have the smallest range. If their freshwater wetlands disappear, these birds will have nowhere else to go.
According to a study published in the September Journal of Ornithology, among the birds most at risk due to rising sea levels in northern Australia are magpies, herons, ibis, and egrets. The study warns that within 30 years, the population of these and 60 other bird species could see a population decline of 50 percent or more.
Chicago Preserves Important Habitat for the Black-Crowned Night Heron
In 1990 Chicago Mayor Richard Daley supported a plan to build a third major airport in Chicago on the city's Southeast Side that would have resulted in the loss of important wetlands.
Now Mayor Daley has changed his tune. Chicago’s O’Hare Airport is being expanded and the site on the city’s Southeast Side is being preserved as wetlands. The area contains a pond which is the state’s largest rookery for black-crowned night herons, a bird that is listed as endangered in Illinois. In all, 3,900 acres of land have been designated as open space.
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