Disappearing birds:

[kinzel]

So, who remembers Rachel Carson......


http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/06/14/bird.decline/index.html

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Well, this time it isn't DDT. Just too many humans. Easily solved...

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

The article is missing one key point: cats. There is a lot of documentation that the cat population has increased over the last 40 years, and that house cats are very prone to overhunting the local birds.

The loss of habitat certainly matters, but increasing habitat by itself won't remedy the increase in the number of predators.

[(Anonymous)]

In Chicago, we've also seen stories about some populations of birds being affected by diseases traveling humans spread, like the East Nile virus.
B. O'Brien

[magda-vogelsang.livejournal.com]

Certainly West Nile killed off a lot of crows and some other birds, but I don't know that it's the biggest factor.

People effect the balance of non-domestic predators too. In my mother's neighborhood people have been feeding the chipmunks for the past few years, and they've multiplied to the point where this year they're a major pest instead of a minor one. Not only are they undermining patios, digging up bulbs and plants faster than they can be planted and throwing dirt everywhere, they've stolen all the eggs from the nearby nests of at least 3 different pairs of robins and left them half eaten on mom's porch. She's watched the poor robins trying to chase them out of the trees for a while, but now they've abandoned the nests.

(Despite the fact that she thinks they're adorable, after nearly breaking her ankle several times on patio stones that collapsed under her, she recently resorted to live trapping and taking them to a large nearby park with both meadows and woods. In about a week she's relocated 21 chipmunks (at last count), all caught in the tiny yard of her townhouse, and she's still catching 1-4 per day. She's ordered some dried fox urine which is supposed to be the most effective repellent, and is going to try that now to hopefully keep those left out of her yard, now that the most established ones have been relocated.)

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

She was kind -- my father discovered that as long as the "nest" of ground squirrels existed, they knew the way into his attic. He finally had to drown 29 of them in one memorable night of setting the trap in the attic, going downstairs to bed, hearing the trap click, going back upstairs, taking the trap to the first story, etc. etc..

And some birds are unfortunately doing better -- like grackles.

Our bird friends

[(Anonymous)]

I saw this article in the LA Times this am. The only thing we city folk can do is make sure our backyards are bird havens and give to conservancy organizations that buy land (and sorry to get into politics - get rid of the Bushies.) We are trying here. The vast flocks wild parrots in Temple City get the bounty of our fruit trees, but we have various other feeders if the squirrels don't beat out the birds.

Kelly
TC, CA

[mardott.livejournal.com]

"The Audubon Society, incorporated in 1905, lists five priorities for Congress to consider to slow the decline of these bird species: reduce global warming, support wetlands, fund ecosystem restoration, ensure biofuels are eco-friendly, and improve conservation programs in the next farm bill."

These are all good, but everybody skips over the biggest culprit, which they mentioned in the article: corporate farms. Big Ag needs to be wiped off the face of the earth and replaced with humans living closer to the land. 'Course, our population needs to drop to a sustainable level, too. I suspect that'll happen as the rate of extinction rises. We think we're above it all and some people will be really surprised when humans start dying off, too.

Well this is a cheery good morning, isn't it?
Marlene

[verana1111.livejournal.com]

They mention as a contributing factor loss of conservation land to agribusinesses raising corn for ethanol. I've always been a bit uneasy about that whole concept*, and this is just one more apparent side effect.

Regarding cats: it seems to me since 1. cats stay fairly close to human habitation (while many birds do not), 2. quite a few cats are not allowed outside, and 3. only a certain proportion of well-fed human-owned cats like to hunt, that domestic cats might be somewhat of a contributing factor but are unlikely to be a main one. Feral cats in areas with larger predators are as likely to be prey as predator. For example, there are coyotes in all 48 contiguous states, and by report they are very happy to eat cats, not to mention also happy to eat birds. Again, I'm not saying cats might not be a contributing factor, but I don't see them being the main factor.

*OT on corn-for-fuel production: I wonder what starving people in Africa would feel like if they saw us raising food and f*rting it out the tailpipes of our cars? And how we're going to feel in the future when one-crop agriculture has turned our breadbasket into the New Sahara? I guess that comes under the heading 'payback is a ____'.

[magda-vogelsang.livejournal.com]

I've also seen one news story saying that with so much corn being diverted to ethanol production, the cost of animal feed--and thus the eventual cost of meat--is increasing substantially.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

I'm happy to say that our backyard is alive with the chirping of many birds of many species.

[mardott.livejournal.com]

Actually, so is ours, with a heavy emphasis on robins, morning doves and crows. Oh and hummingbirds and woodpeckers. We're slowly adding native plants to the yard that will attract birds, bees and other critters. Our soil is packed with worms and it's a hoot to watch the birds hop around grabbing them, along with all those weed seeds that are ALSO everywhere in the yard.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Our soil is hardly packed with worms, this being New Meexico, but there are plenty of gnats. And we keep our bird feeder well stocked, which is why we have quails show up, and roadrunners, morning doves, humming birds, canyon wrens, curved-bill thrashers and many others whose names I forget. We even get a hawk once in a while, but when he does, the premises's other volatiles don't stick around.