2008 June 4. 7
Condors Poisoned by Lead; One Dies. By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Excerpt: LOS ANGELES
(AP) - Seven endangered California condors,
about 20 percent of the population in Southern
California, have been
found to have lead poisoning.
The birds started turning up sick about a
month ago during random
trappings at Bitter Creek National Wildlife
Refuge in the San Joaquin
Valley.
One of the birds died during treatment at
the Los Angeles Zoo, and
six others are still being treated there.
Officials do not yet know the source of the
contamination, but a
United States Fish and Wildlife Service official
said the birds had
probably been poisoned by eating the carcasses
of animals shot by
hunters.
...The California condor nearly became extinct
in the 1980s, but a
trapping and breeding program has helped restore
the species. There
are about... 200 in the wild over all.
Experts believe that lead poisoning is a major
factor in preventing
the species' recovery.
Under a ban that takes effect July 1, it will
be illegal for California hunters to possess
or fire lead ammunition when they are
in the birds' habitat.
12 November 2007. Md.
Scientists Monitor Saw - Whet Owls.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. Excerpt: BOONSBORO,
Md. (AP) -- The high-pitched, staccato mating
call of a northern saw-whet owl pierces the
night and lures birds into a gossamer net
that researchers have strung along the Appalachian
Trail.
The owls -- fluffy, brown-and-white raptors
about the size of a human fist -- are weighed,
measured, banded and released to help scientists
learn more about their migration patterns.
By Thanksgiving, the Department of Natural
Resources hopes to have banded and released
more than 1,000 saw-whet owls captured while
flying from the northern United States and
Canada to southern destinations including
western Maryland and West Virginia.
...''Three a.m. to dawn, we can get slammed,''
said David F. Brinker a DNR ecologist and
founder of Project Owlnet....
''This is a species that for many years people
thought was rare, but it was rarely seen,''
Brinker said.
In the fall, many northern saw-whet owls migrate
hundreds of miles south while others stay
within their breeding ranges -- patterns that
are well documented in some areas but still
poorly understood, according to Project Owlnet.
Every four years, an ''irruption,'' or sudden
population increase, provides opportunities
for studying the owls at dozens of banding
stations. Brinker said the numbered leg bands
include instructions on how to report an owl
found dead or alive.
The saw-whet owl is named for its distinctive
alarm call, which sounds like the whetting
of a saw blade....
8 October 2007. Conservationists
Work to Save Sea Bird. By ANNIE HUANG,
The Associated Press
Excerpt: TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwanese and mainland
Chinese conservationists are joining hands
to save an endangered sea bird from extinction
by urging fishermen to stop collecting and
eating the birds' eggs, a Taiwanese birdwatcher
said Monday.
The Chinese crested tern -- white with a black-and-white
crest -- migrates to eastern Chinese coasts
between May and September, Taiwanese conservationists
say. It's thought the birds fly there to escape
the heat in South Asia, although they have
not been seen outside of China or Taiwan.
...Taiwanese have stopped eating sea birds'
eggs in recent years, but Chinese fishermen
often sneak onto Matsu to collect the eggs,
which are prized as a delicacy in parts of
China, said Chang Shou-hua, head of the Matsu
Birdwatching Society.
...A Chinese survey conducted over recent
successive breeding seasons found that the
number of crested terns had fallen to 50 birds,
about half the population found three years
ago, according to Birdlife International,
a conservation group based in Cambridge, England.
The group warns that the crested tern could
become extinct in five years if protection
efforts are not stepped up.
21 August 2007. Birds
Band Together to Raise Offspring in Dire
Times. By HENRY FOUNTAIN,
NY Times. Excerpt: While the verdict may be
out on the human race in this regard, African
starlings are a different matter. Some starling
species exhibit remarkable cooperative behavior,
and a new study shows one factor that has
influenced its evolution: climate uncertainty.
The behavior is cooperative breeding, in which
some individuals delay their own breeding
to help raise the offspring of others, who
may or may not be relatives. Among the 45
African starling species, some breed cooperatively
and some do not.
Dustin R. Rubenstein, now at the University
of California, Berkeley, and Irby J. Lovette
of Cornell's Laboratory of Ornithology undertook
a genetic analysis of all 45 species and used
it to build a family tree showing evolutionary
patterns. Then they used rainfall data, in
some cases going back more than 140 years,
from across Africa to determine how predictable
the weather is in various starling habitats.
...Cooperation would be expected to confer
an evolutionary advantage, because in very
dry years, when food and other resources are
scarce, it helps ensure that more offspring
survive.
28 June 2007. Bald
Eagles, Thriving, Settle into Suburban Life. The New York Times. By
Felicity Barringer. Excerpt:
OCALA, Fla.— Bald
eagles, whose numbers dwindled to historic
lows in the early 1960s, are again flourishing
and no longer need the protections of the
Endangered Species Act, Interior Secretary
Dirk Kempthorne announced Thursday.
Here in Florida,
bald eagles have thrived for a decade, multiplying to a statewide
population of 1,150 breeding pairs and giving this state, with
Minnesota, bragging rights as the top eagle haven in the country.
... They can be found nesting in cellphone towers and raising
chicks near landfills and airport runways, along highways and
high up in the pine trees of the state’s upscale developments.
... The
only thing required of residents — in return for feeling
that they are living in a National Geographic special — is
a willingness to tolerate the odd fish skeleton on the lawn,
or the occasional white pile on the drive. ...
In Florida, home to about 12 percent of all eagles in the lower
48 states, the question is no longer whether these birds can
cope with development and commotion, but how much is too much? … Biologists,
after recovering from the initial shock of finding eagles in
the suburbs, have documented in a six-year study that suburban
birds breed as well as their rural counterparts. But the young
birds have slightly higher mortality, thanks to ill-timed meals
of roadkill or too-comfortable seats on power lines. ...
Property-rights advocates have argued in court that restrictions
on the use of eagle-occupied land should be loosened; conservationists
have countered that eagles still need buffers against the hubbub
of humanity. …
This month, the federal Fish
and Wildlife Service announced its intention to continue
to prohibit activities — like running a bulldozer — that
are likely to make eagles abandon their nests or interrupt their
normal activities. …
29 May 2007. Bald
Eagle Nest in Philadelphia Fails. By
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. Excerpt:
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A bald eagle nest at
the old Philadelphia Navy Yard has failed,
but birdwatchers are holding out hope that
the first pair of bald eagles spotted in
the city in more than 200 years will nest
again next year. After the nest was spotted
in February, state officials began keeping
a close eye on the eagles in hopes that
they would breed. But birdwatchers and state
officials say the eagles haven't been spotted
since April. ''We believe it is failed and
that the birds are gone,'' said Debbie Beer,
a birder who spotted the eagles in February
and has been helping the state to monitor
them. ''I'm hoping that they come back next
year and nest again.'' ...Dan Brauning,
wildlife diversity supervisor for the state
Game Commission, said the birds could still
be nearby. ''I would not expect them to
abandon that area,'' he said. State officials
estimate that 20 percent to 30 percent of
bald eagle nests fail each year in Pennsylvania.
Last year, state officials said they had
confirmed more than 100 bald eagle nests in
Pennsylvania for the first time in more than
a century....The birds are protected by the
federal Endangered Species Act, meaning nearby
development plans could be altered, delayed
or even halted. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service is expected to delist the eagle next
month because of how well it has rebounded.
Such a move could ease the restrictions on
development near bald eagle nests.
29 May 2007. U.S.
to Study Protection for Alaska Loon. By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. Excerpt:
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- A petition seeking
Endangered Species Act protection for a rare
loon that breeds in Alaska's National Petroleum
Reserve has been accepted for review by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Conservationists
hope an eventual listing of the yellow-billed
loon will curb petroleum development in the
23-million acre reserve that covers much of
Alaska's western North Slope. The petition
was filed three years ago by the Center for
Biological Diversity, the National Resource
Defense Council, Pacific Environment and other
U.S. and Russian scientific and conservation
organizations. ...The yellow-billed loon breeds
in tundra wetlands in Alaska, Canada and Russia,
and winters along the west coasts of Canada
and the United States. Petroleum development
through leasing ordered by President Bush
could reduce its numbers, said Brendan Cummings,
ocean program director at the Center for Biological
Diversity. ''The yellow-billed loon is one
of the rarest and most vulnerable birds in
the United States, yet the Bush administration's
plan to 'protect' it is to approve oil drilling
in its habitat,'' Cummings said. The Fish
and Wildlife Service estimates there are 16,500
yellow-billed loons in the world, including
3,700 to 4,900 that breed in Alaska. More
than 75 percent of the Alaska breeders nest
in the petroleum reserve. ...According to
the Fish and Wildlife Service, yellow-billed
loons nest exclusively in coastal and low-lying
Arctic tundra, always near permanent, fish-bearing
lakes. The large-bodied birds have low reproductive
success and depend on high annual adult survival
to maintain population levels. Individual
birds must live many years before they can
reliably replace themselves with offspring
that survive long enough to breed, according
to the agency. ...Yellow-billed loons do not
recover easily from population declines, are
susceptible to disturbance and may be vulnerable
to habitat loss, according to the Fish and
Wildlife Service.
12 March 2007. Groups:
Development Threatens Waterbird. By
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. Excerpt:
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- Worldwide
efforts to protect endangered waterbirds
are falling short as industrial and urban
development eat away at their habitats,
and hunting and pollution take their toll,
according to a book released Monday. ''Despite
global conservation efforts, waterbirds
are being sidelined by economic development,''
according to three groups that edited ''Waterbirds
Around the World,'' which includes data covering
162 countries and 614 species. In January,
a global survey called the Waterbird Population
Estimate found that 44 percent of the world's
900 waterbird species numbers have fallen
in the past five years, while 34 percent were
stable, and 17 percent were rising. In the
last such survey in 2002, 41 percent of waterbird
populations worldwide were found to be decreasing.
...a ''shocking example'' in South Korea where
a land claim project on the shores of the
Yellow Sea completed in April 2006 destroyed
155 square miles of intertidal mudflats that
were a key wetland habitat for migratory waterbirds
in Asia, including the endangered spoonbilled
sandpiper and Nordmanns greenshank....
3 February 2007. Alabama's
Bald Eagle Population Booming. By THE
ASSOCIATED PRESS. Excerpt:
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- After 15 years
of checking bald eagle nests from small
planes, there are now an estimated 100 nesting
pairs, up from 77 the previous year and
10 times the state's recovery goal under
the Endangered Species Act. With the nest-to-nest
status check by plane ending last year,
the state now will start watching over a
few dozen nests to monitor the eagles' health.
''It's getting to be a little costly for
airplane time,'' said Keith Hudson, the
state biologist chiefly responsible for
tracking the eagle's progress in Alabama.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans
to remove the bird from the Endangered Species
List in June, saying the eagle only needs
monitoring now that it has successfully
repopulated the lower 48 states. The population
increased from 417 nesting pairs in 1963
to more than 8,500.....
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