my weekly post

[kenny]

hi all see what you think to this


Doubts over 'extinct' woodpecker

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41086000/jpg/_41086929_woodpecker250.jpg Some say the bird is probably a common pileated woodpecker

Scientists in the US are arguing over the identity of a bird filmed in 2004 which was heralded as the long-extinct ivory-billed woodpecker.
Researchers in Massachusetts said the interpretation of several of the bird's features was "mistaken".
However, experts at Cornell University, who identified the bird two years ago, have dismissed the new claims.
The discovery in Arkansas' Big Woods stunned ornithologists worldwide, with some comparing it to finding the dodo.
The find also ignited hope that other "extinct" birds may be clinging on to survival in isolated places.
'Kick in the stomach'
David Sibley, head of the research group in Massachusetts, said he had analysed the video, audio tapes and other sighting reports and concluded the evidence was not sufficient to prove the bird was an ivory-billed woodpecker.
Mr Sibley, a bird illustrator, said the bird's posture had been interpreted wrongly and that it was more probably a common pileated woodpecker.
He said his findings were like "a kick in the stomach".
However, John Fitzpatrick, of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, said data on the bird's wingspan and flight characteristics point to it being an ivory-billed woodpecker.
He said his critics were using inaccurate models of take-off and flight behaviour and were mistaking "video artefacts" as feather patterns.
Public interest
Ornithologists in California also questioned the identification of the bird last year, prompting the Cornell University researchers to provide audio tapes of the bird's call.
The recordings included the unusual double-rap sounds that ivory-bills produce as well as distinctive nasal sounds they have been known to make.
Whatever the outcome of the row, the search for the woodpecker has boosted tourism in Arkansas by 30% - a woodpecker celebration day was even held in February.
And despite their conflicting interpretations of the video, all the researchers involved in the debate agree on the need to continue conservation efforts that would benefit the ivory-billed woodpecker.
Among the world's largest woodpeckers, the ivory-bill is one of six North American bird species suspected or known to have gone extinct since 1880.
ken

[kenny]

hi all
this is another great event.

Sea eagles soar back as polluted wetlands recover
By Hannah Cleaver in Berlin
(Filed: 09/02/2006)
The majestic white-tailed sea eagle has returned to the northern wetlands, which have recovered after decades of pollution.
Thirty years ago the lakes and marshes of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein had only four pairs of the bird, which has a wingspan of more than 8ft.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2006/02/09/weagle09.jpgSea eagles have been seen in Britain occasionally
Today there are 68 pairs, illustrating the improvement in the environment as a result of lower pesticide use and the re-watering of previously drained areas.
North Germany's sea eagles now form the vanguard of a population slowly heading west towards the Netherlands.
Thomas Neumann, of the Worldwide Fund for Nature, says his Dutch colleagues cannot wait for their first sea eagle to nest there.
"They are really excited about it," he said.
"Lower Saxony and Schleswig Holstein are the pioneer areas of a wider recovery.
"Our Dutch colleagues have seen young sea eagles from us over there hunting during the winter and we are hoping that soon they will settle there and breed."
Sea eagles spend their four immature years on the move, scouting out new territories when the areas they were born in become crowded.
German sea eagles have already formed colonies in Denmark, with at least 15 pairs having settled there since 1990. Germany has around 500 sea eagle pairs.
There are no native populations of sea eagles in Britain, although some birds introduced from Norway have done well on Rum, a small island near Skye.
Some of the north German sea eagles have been occasionally seen in the UK and Mr Neumann said that a ringed bird from his area was once found in the UK, dead from poison.


ken

[kenny]

hi all
last one today or it will start to get boring!

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39224000/jpg/_39224309_vulture_203_rahmani.jpg Once very common, vultures are now rare in India (Image: Asad Rahmani)

A widely used livestock pain killer could endanger the survival of vultures around the world, researchers suggest.

The rapid decline of Indian vulture populations has been blamed on the use of the drug diclofenac to treat inflammation in cattle.
A new study for the British Royal Society for the Protection of Birds says diclofenac is highly toxic to other vulture species.
It warns they could be poisoned when feeding off contaminated carcasses.
Rapid decline
Oriental white-backed vultures (Gyps bengalensis) were once the most common large bird of prey anywhere in the world.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39793000/jpg/_39793487_vultures_rspb_203.jpg Oriental white-backed vultures are critically endangered (Photo: rspb-images.com)

Flocks of them could be seen across India; but over a matter of years, they have become almost extinct.
The long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus) and the slender-billed vulture (Gyps tenuirostris) have also seen dramatic declines.
In early 2004, the painkiller diclofenac was identified as the cause by a US-led team.
Extremely cheap to buy, it has been widely used in South Asia to treat cattle for conditions like lameness, or mastitis - inflammation of the udder.
The trouble was that vultures were feeding off carcasses of dead, treated animals, and the drug was destroying their kidneys.
Alternatives sought
The new study, led by Dr Deborah Pain and published in Biology Letters, shows the drug is just as deadly to other closely related vulture species which are not so widespread.
The research centred on the Eurasian griffon (Gyps fulvus) and the African white-backed vulture (Gyps africanus).
The Eurasian vulture may be particularly at risk, as juveniles migrate into northern India, where dead cattle are left unburied.
But the study will alert conservationists across the world to the peculiar risk posed by diclofenac.
The researchers fear that more distantly related birds may be equally endangered, and that substitutes for diclofenac might be similarly toxic. They are currently seeking safe alternatives. The loss of these scavenging birds - the world's natural rubbish collectors - could damage the quality of the environment.

[Waxbillman]

is this the same species of vulture the the RSPB have a captive breeding programme for?

dam idiots they are, its alright for them to breed birds in captivity but not for us??

Matthew

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Ken and Matthew,

Ken,

Many thanks to you for finding out recent updates on new rediscoveries.;)

Matthew,

The RSPB have only recently come out into the open in supporting the RSPCA with their aims and claims, the single reason I can think of is that the RSPB have waited only to keep their Charity Status.

Paul.

[kenny]

hi matt
dont mention rspb to me they are useless,thanks paul for your comments we aim to please mate

ken

[kenny]

hi all
do you think the a r started this one off to scare everyone
LUNG CANCER AND BIRDKEEPERS
Some members of the birdkeeping community have expressed concern over reports that scientific studies have shown birdkeeping to be a risk factor for respiratory cancers. Since I live with an unruly mob of conures and have easy access to the epidemiological literature, I decided to have a look at the studies. A very brief summary is shown below; more detail follows.

Odds ratio = odds of exposure in patients with a disease divided by odds of exposure in controls (those without the disease). For example, if the odds of exposure in the patients is .5 and in the controls is .25, the odds ratio is 2.0. An OR of 2.0 for a group of patients means that people in that group are two times as likely to have been exposed to birdkeeping as controls. If the OR is .50, they are half as like to have been exposed.

All three of these studies were case-control studies. In a case-control study, each case is compared with one or more non-cases. In general, a study with more cases is less likely to produce results solely due to chance. Errors due to study design can occur in a study of any size, and someone can always be found to disagree with a study design. It has been said that an epidemiologist is someone whose job is to disagree with other epidemiologists.

ken8)

[kenny]

hi all
i was talking about this in another post ...............this doesn`t make very good reading.its not just the foreign birds that are in decline.

top 10 garden birdwatch species totals

2006 1979 %change
house sparrow 4.41 10.00 -56
starling 3.64 15.00 -76
blackbird 3.01 4.00 -25
bluetit 2.74 2.44 12
chaffinch 2.24 3.00 -25
greenfinch 1.67 1.00 67
collared dove 1.55 0.28 453
wood pigeon 1.53 0.20 665
great tit 1.41 0.90 57
robin 1.36 2.00 -32


looks like they are all on the decline

ken

[Waxbillman]

thats sad news Ken

Matthew

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Ken,

Both posts are sad cases.

The first one is sad because I'm a Birdkeeper who is at risk of Lung Cancer,:shock: but I'm sure if was to unlucky and become diagnosed with the disease, then the reasons for this are far removed from the fact that I'm a Birdkeeper.
It might have a lot more to do with the fact that I'm a heavy smoker, I work with some harmful chemicals and fumes, I have worked with even more harmful chemicals in the past, such as various Acids, Cyanide solutions etc, and that is without the harmful chemicals and fumes we all encounter in every day life.


Regarding the second post Ken, they aren't all on the decline mate.
What is a huge cause for concern, is the fact we are looking at a 453% increase in the Collared Dove population and a 665% increase in the Wood Pigeon population, this is a huge worry to me, is it any wonder the smaller Birds have little to feed on?

Apart from the Blue Tit 12% increase, Great Tit 57% increase and the Greenfinch with a 67% increase the other Birds on the list are in serious trouble.

I know this idea may cause a stir, but I believe that in certain areas there should be an annual controlled cull of the Collared Dove, Wood Pigeon and Feral Pigeon population.

Yes I do love all Birds, but I think there is a time when the balance needs to be readjusted, with all of these Pigeons and Doves filling their crops all day and breeding almost constantly throughout the year, then we need to either shoot a few million each year for the table, (Restaurants and Supermarkets would glady sell the breasts at least).
Or step up the reintroduction of natural predator Bird Species to bring the numbers back down to a sensible level, Peregrine Falcons and Goshawks are two Species that spring to mind, the latter would also help in controlling the ever increasing population of Sparrowhawks that are also preying upon many Finch sized Birds on a daily basis throughout the year.

The Goshawk may also reduce the increasing number of Magpies and Jays that are well known for robbing nests of smaller Birds of their eggs and chicks?

Only last year I saw the result of an attack on a Blackbirds nest by Magpies, I intervened, but what I found was three well grown chicks dead as a result of having their heads pecked in, another chick whose injuries were so bad I had to put it out of it's misery,:cry: and a fifth chick that had escaped injury, I placed the remaining chick back in the nest, but I'm not sure if it survived?

The worst part of this story is that less than 10 minutes after chasing the Magpies away from the Blackbird nest in a front garden opposite my Bungalow, I heard the same alarm calls from another nearby pair of Blackbirds and the excited chatter of Magpies as they took to attacking another nest I couldn't access to rescue.:mad:

Paul.

[kenny]

hi paul
i am not trying to scare anyone on this site but i saw it as news and put it down as such.........i have had the same thing myself with crows attacking blackbird chicks in my garden it doesn`t matter how many times you go and scare them away they always come back againit always seems that the wrong type of birds survive the best.i have noticed myself though since living in the same house for nearly 30 years how the bird numbers have dropped ,but the council cut down all the hedges in the surrounding gardens we also lost a lot of hedgehogs aswell

ken

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Ken,

As far as I can see you are doing your job very well mate,;) if the facts are available to you then please share them with us, no matter how upsetting they are.

I know what you are saying when it seems the wrong Bird Species are thriving, but sadly it seems that no one is willing to address the problem when there is still some valuable time in our favour, my fear is that action will be put into place when it is too late.:(

Paul.

[Rogerb]

I have to agree with all the comments put up they are all relevant to what is going on today on our own backyards and gardens :oops: backyards I mean the country side that surrounds us as some of you may know I shoot a lot and have the privilege of some 550 acres of land to shoot on , I would love to see more birds of pray over the land i shoot on the reason is this . like it or not :( bird of pray only account for 2 to 3 piggion a day I can take 20 to 30 also birds of pray have a territory that they protect so they have limited air space to patrol before encountering other birds of pray thus ensuing fights for rights of way so I do think a cull might be the way out of a potentially bad situation:( If I was to shoot for 8 hours a day in my aria I really don't think I would make a difference to the situation hear . that's if bird flu comes ? IT WILL BE A SAD DAY WHEN THE LIKES OF ME ARE ORDERD BY THE POWERS THAT ARE .TO GO OUT AND BLAST THE SH T OUT MOST THAT FLYS this ain't a good thing is it , the last thing I want to see in any country is the total annihilation of any bird no matter what , please forgive me if I have waffled on :oops:

[kenny]

Hi all,
I said that I was going to update you all on my progress for my new birdroom.well the progress is slow but it is gathering speed now.i have transferred all my tools into a storage box to enable me to transfer all my birds back into the shed which was my original birdroom.i spent Saturday cutting up strips of wood about 2”x1” to make a frame work to enable me to build a temporary indoor flight to keep my birds in.i have ordered the fence material to arrive shortly and when that arrives my son and his friends will be erecting the fence and putting up my new birdroom in the same weekend.if the weather holds out.that means I will have to build another temporary outdoor mini aviary to transfer my birds into while the last shed is taken apart,then hopefully I can move my birds in the mini aviary straight into the birdroom and start to build my cages.and after that my aviary will be erected I still haven’t determined the size of that yet as I don’t know how much room I will have,possibly about 15 ft x 8ft minimum of course I cannot have something simple and this will have to be planned like a military operation to cause the birds as least stress as possible.i have taken all there nestboxes away and I have been building them up with extra stuff in their feed and they look really fit.i will try and take some pics as I go also.i have everything I need for building my new cages drinkers, fronts, melamine,yes they are going to be melamine this time as I want to cut the cleaning down to a minimum all the drinkers will be new anti algae blue ones and all this is planned for the 29th of april so hopefully I will have made my mini flight by the weekend .i know this is a lot of seemingly uneccessary work and a waste of wood but I have no other choice as I have no other person I can trust to keep my birds in the manner that they are used to………….i will get ther though there will be further bulletins as long as no one minds me filling the forum up with my personal

[kenny]

hi laura
i am sorry but i cannot get my paster to reduce the writing any more.it is either to samall or to big i cant get any smaller font numbers to stick on my documents hope you dont mind

ken:-(

[kenny]

hi all
see how quick i am with my news ,i got the list in for the british birds on the decrease before c&a even thought about it.i am too good for my own litle boots


;) ken

[laurab]

Kenny


I knew you were the man for the job :-D

[kenny]

hi laura
we aim to please!

The advice given by Defra applies to all situations where members of the public find a dead bird.

If you find…

-- a dead swan
-- a dead goose
-- a dead duck
or
-- three or more dead wild or garden birds in the same place

Report this by phoning 08459 33 55 77 (6.00am-10.00pm.) and follow their instructions.

If you see just one small garden or wild bird you do not need to report it. Leave it alone. (As at 6 April, 2006)


ken8-)

[Waxbillman]

a new rule from DEFRA that may some come into force is to keep all cats indoors, what brilliant news is that, if that comes into force.

still they would have a hell of a job policing it, and i'm certain theres tonnes of those inconsiderate sods who would refuse.

Matthew

[vixen]

Hi all we are waiting for news of 3 sea gulls which were sent away yesterday only found out today they were found on a boating lake in Gloucester about 5 miles from me so its not good news at the mo will have to wait no doubt you will hear it on the news if they have got it.they have so many seagulls in Gloucester on the local rubbish mountain which is massive will let you know as soon as i hear.

[kenny]

hi matt
i said earlier on all the nutters would come out of the wood work.......hows this for a prime stupid comment...........my mother in law saw my border collie drinking from the bird bath in the garden.and she said to me wont the dog catch bird flu from that water...............you cant make this stuff up!but she is over 70

ken

[kenny]

hi laura
i not only beat c&a to the garden bird population story but i also beat them to the story about the crows by a week.i have e-mailed them to see if they can use me :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

ken

[kenny]

hello hello!
i have knocked up 3 double breeders today and i will be transferring my birds in the morning i didnt go with the mini aviary idea as it would have stressed the birds out to much this way i will be able to move them around without to much trouble.i have made an extra large one for the javas with the cage being far larger than the cage fronts so they wont be cramped and my bengies are going in a normal 3 foot one if they look as if they are cramped i can still do the aviary thing ! iwill photo them when i have finished as i want your honest opinion to tell me if you think they look cramped
hey ho !
ken;)

[Waxbillman]

yep, keep us posted Ken

and you know me, i have an opinion on everything, your cages can't be as cramped as some pet shops are (or used to be)

Matthew

[PAUL HEARN]

Hello Ken,

The news on your new Birdroom all sounds good mate, you have put a lot of thought into it and I'm sure we will all benefit from seeing how things are going.;-)

Also well done for being one step ahead of C&A, I hope you enjoy your new job goes well, but please don't forget about all of us when you hit the big time.:D

Lets be honest though Ken, you know, and I know that C&A couldn't possibly afford to pay you the salary you deserve, you are far better off staying here doing the job for free.:wink:

Paul.:D

[bigal47]

Hi Kenny
Great to see all is going well shame I don't live closer as I enjoy a good avairy move now and then. Answer for mother in law tell her you just filled the kettle for her tea from that same fountain last week and no one died as yet from the water.
I hope the pics will also show you being forperson or at least making the tea for the workers any way. If you are getting on with the building that means that the weather has turned better. On monday I though spring had come as we have croucases in the garden looked out on tuesday couldn't see them covered in snow again wednesday +12 and warm thursday -4 and cold friday today worked outside trying to finish off bird room cages. I guess summer is here as the weather is all over the place.
Keep on plodding at it Kenny it will be finished one day .
Allan

[kenny]

hi paul
you know i would not desert this site,i have too many freinds on here.allan thanks for the words of encouragment mate much appreciated.as you say i will get there eventually i am going to take as many pics as i can of me being the boss;-)

ken

[kenny]

hi matt/allan/paul
when i say they were knocked up thats what i mean i already had a double breeder that just needed reassembling as i was storing it flat packed.but the new one i have made is just a load of pallet wood made into a double breeder.there is a few gaps in it but the shed it is going in is my old bird room so it is draught proof and watertight.the fortunate thing is the weather is getting better (pics to follow when i have moved the birds but it will take me a while ........there are not many birds as i got rid of quite a few to parks aviarys but i am not as fast as i used to be :shock:

ken

[kenny]

hi all
as promised the pics .....dont forget i have only knocked this one up it will be dismantled when my birds are rehoused and the blue double breeder is one i have had for ages and i just reassembled it so my 3 young javas are with my bengies in the top and all my javas are in the bottom.i think i will knock up another single to put the cocks in.there is also a picture of my garden i have gotten rid of all the plants that were outside my aviary as they would have been in the way so when i build my new one which hopefully will be a lot bigger i will just put plants on the inside.the brown shed is my ols first birdroom where my birds are housed now my aviary is in the middle with the polycarbonate sheets on the front and the green one is what was my last birdroom .the blue tarp has my new shed underneath and the other storage shed ,the shed on the other side is my sons gym.as i have said i had to get rid of some fertile eggs but i did not lose any of the young javas or any adult birds.i did get stressed out though:roll:
kenhttp://www.feathered-friends.co.uk/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=346&stc=1&d=1144667295http://www.feathered-friends.co.uk/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=347&stc=1&d=1144667295http://www.feathered-friends.co.uk/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=348&stc=1&d=1144667295

[Waxbillman]

great, i'm sure they'll be alright in there for a while, when do you hope to finish the project>?

Matthew

[kenny]

hi matt
as i put down earlier my son is doing the fence on the 29th april thats when all his mate can be here all at once and i have half the fence up he just has to do about 40 foot to the bottom of the garden.and while they are putting the feather edge on to the rails he will be putting my shed up so hopefully by the monday everything should be finished .i am getting a skip for the old sheds and they are all about 25 years old so they will probably fall down on there own.i have everything worked out on paper on how my new cages will be and i have bought everything cage fronts melamine drinkers and all the stuff that i need to erect them so i should think it will take me another week to put my cage s up.thats why i was worried if my birds would have enough room.as i go on i will put more pics up

ken8)

[Waxbillman]

bet you can't wait to get everything done, theres nowt like the feeling of just finishing an aviary and putting some birds in

Matthew

[kenny]

hi matt
you bet.the best thing is it will be all new as i am not using any of my old stuff all the cage fronts and wire mesh is all going they have all seen better days i took my idoor flight apart on saturday and you dont realize the state of some of it when you have painted it year after year.the best thing about it is if my new one is as good as my old one i can honestly say hand on heart i never had one case of mite of any kind why i dont know:shock:

ken

[kenny]

hi all
i am fed up of bird flu already .how about some new life.



Photo in the News: Rare Kiwi Bird Hatches at U.S. Zoo

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/images/060217_kiwi.jpg http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/images/global2004/email.gifEmail to a Friend (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/cgi-bin/email2friend.pl)More Photos in the News (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/photo_in_the_news.html)
var caption = 'Photograph by Jessie Cohen/Smithsonian National Zoo ';




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Extinct Giant Bird Doomed by Slow Growth, Study Says (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/0615_050615_moa.html)

February 17, 2006—This North Island brown kiwi hatched at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C., this week—only the second of these rare birds to hatch during the zoo's 116-year history.
Kiwi chicks hatch fully feathered with their eyes open and begin foraging for small worms and berries after their first week of life, since they receive no help from their parents.
The kiwi hatched on Monday, February 13, weighing in at 9.7 ounces (275 grams) after 64 days of incubation. Zoo staff monitored the egg each day, by weighing it and using a bright light to illuminate the egg's interior.
The National Zoo is one of just four zoos in the world to breed kiwis outside of New Zealand. In 1975 the National Zoo was the first institution outside of New Zealand to hatch a kiwi. That 30-year-old bird is still on exhibit at the zoo's Bird House.
The five recognized species of kiwis are all flightless, nocturnal, burrowing birds that are unique to New Zealand. North Island brown kiwis are listed as endangered by the International Union of Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.
—David Braun




if (caption) { document.write(caption); } Photograph by Jessie Cohen/Smithsonian National Zoo


ken

[Waxbillman]

i have read this a while, back, brilliant news it is

Matthew

[kenny]

hi matt
i know its about a month old .........but the only bird news i can find at the moment is all bad.i will have a good delve tommorrow for some old stuff that doesn`t have biord flu attached to it

ken

[kenny]

hi all try this one i will have to keep digging now someone has pointed out that a post has already been seen

ken
Where'd I put that? Maybe it takes a bird brain to find the car keys

Science News - February 14, 2004

Should humanity get a little too full of itself and its intellectual prowess, there's always Clark's nutcracker to think about. This pale-gray bird with black wings and a long beak flits through woodlands in the West, collecting seeds during times of plenty and tucking them away for a hungry winter's day. During a year, each bird buries 22,000 to 33,000 seeds in up to 2,500 locations, and scientists estimate that the bird recovers two-thirds of them up to 13 months later.
Just how seed cachers do this has fascinated biologists for decades. Scientific investigation of the topic has broadened and deepened in recent years. Cognitive scientists pose seed-storage puzzles to birds as a way of sorting out how their brains work and might resemble our own. Ecologists are looking for links between seed-caching powers and the perils of a species' environment.
ROBOTS NO MORE Thirty years ago, biologists took a very different view of seed caching, reminisces one of the pioneers of the field, Russell Balda of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. Bird-watchers knew that certain species store food. These include some members of the family encompassing jays and crows, as well as that of chickadees and tits. Russian and Scandinavian scientists in particular had documented the remarkable industry and seed-recovery accuracy of birds surviving in far-northern regions. Yet, says Balda, speculation about how the birds manage these retrieval heroics centered on the simplest of mental powers.


ken8)

[kenny]

hi all
this is a tragic story


Woman in Oregon stops to help bird; truck hits, kills her


The Associated Press



KLAMATH FALLS, Ore.– A woman who stopped her car to help an injured sea gull at the edge of a roadway was struck by a pickup and killed.
Klamath Falls police said the 25-year-old woman, who was not immediately identified, was leaving a Fred Meyer store Monday evening and stopped at the exit of the parking lot when she saw the hurt bird.
Officer Mike Anderson said the driver of the pickup truck was Tim P. Franson, 21, of Klamath Falls.
Police said they couldn't cite a cause of the accident but ruled out alcohol or speed.
"For whatever reason it happened," Anderson said. "It looks like a tragic accident at this point."


ken:sad:

[kenny]

hi all

A POLICEMAN who shot dead a magpie last year has been convicted and fined $2000 for destroying protected wildlife and firing his gun in a public place.
The constable, who cannot be named, will now face a police disciplinary hearing to determine his future.
Melbourne Magistrates' Court heard he shot the bird in his Diamond Creek yard after it swooped on his son.
Advertisement:

Magistrate Peter Mealy rejected an argument that the officer was entitled to kill the bird because it was a danger, but found him not guilty of using a firearm dangerously, saying there was insufficient evidence.



ken

[kenny]

Desperate bid to save oil-stricken migratory bird

By Adarsh Madhavan

MUSCAT — Efforts are on to rescue a huge, oil-stricken migratory bird – the identity of which is yet to be confirmed – which has not been able to take off from a manmade lagoon in Al Ansab, some 50km away from Muscat, because of oil on its wings.

This huge bird was part of around 60 to 70 migratory group of birds (same type), transiting through Oman, and enjoying the artificial pond/lagoon-type area in Al Ansab (near Al Ansab STP – sewage treatment plant site).

But for the last 20 days or so, the poor bird is stuck in the lagoon owing to oil on its wings, which has rendered it helpless and it is unable to fly. The lone bird has been struggling to take off from the site since the last 20 days without success, site workers said yesterday.

Although the site workers of Galfar group had seen the bird, they did not realise it was in trouble. But when it came to the attention of Udaya Shankar, the HSE manager of Galfar, he noticed that something was amiss. Udaya, recognising that this was a bird in distress, immediately sent an SOS to the Animal Rescue Centre, an ad-hoc voluntary animal rescue body, which immediately sent two of its key professionals to rescue the bird.

Louise and Victoria came armed with a boat, nets and all the necessary paraphernalia to rescue the bird, but to no avail. Yesterday afternoon, the determined duo had to call off their first attempt, stating that they need a bigger team to capture the bird. Louise paddled on the boat trying to direct it to an area where Victoria, who was on land, would capture it with her net. But, the stubborn bird swam around in circles, before settling on a small land projection in the pond, where it has been staying for the last two weeks.

Louise and Victoria told the Times of Oman yesterday that they would be back with a bigger team, from the Oman Whale and Dolphin Research Group (OWDRG), which operates under the ESO (Environment Society of Oman) and other volunteers to help rescue the stricken bird.

They were, however, unable to identify the bird. “The bird has some oil on it. He must have landed in an oil-laden pond and is now unable to take off from here. We will be coming with a bigger team and another boat and head it off, catch it, clean it and then help it back to the wild,” Louise, who desperately tried to drive bird to a corner in the pond/lagoon, said.

“I presume that the other birds along with it flew off, and now it is all alone.”

Victoria, who volunteers with Louise at the Animal Rescue Centre, and who had, along with others, helped rescue an oil-stricken bird before, said when she heard about the bird, quickly joined Louise in her efforts. “We wanted to see what she could do to help the bird.

“I studied zoology in my university and when I am going to get back to Scotland, I am going to learn veterinary nursing and I am quite interested in helping animals, which is why I teamed with Louise at the Animal Rescue Centre,” she said. She noted that the oil-stricken bird was “quite safe” as it was in the middle of the pond and animals would not get close to it. “It is mostly feeding on fish and there are enough of that there in the pond, so it will not be hungry.

“We will get back with a bigger team, from the OWDRG and get the bird back to the wild.”

Victoria pointed out that there were ponds covered with oil, which could prove to be dangerous for migratory birds like this. “It would be better if such oil-covered pools are cleared,” she said.

They thanked Udaya Shankar and the workers at the work site, who contacted them and said that they had done a “brilliant” job.

Udaya Shankar, meanwhile, noted that he felt happy that he was instrumental in trying to save a life. “This is a nice area for migratory birds and huge flocks come here, including seagulls. In this particular flock, there were about 60 to 70 birds of the same type and over 200 seagulls. It was so beautiful.

“I understand that flocks are coming here since the beginning of this year, or maybe even before that. But, this particular bird has been here only since 20 days back, and I noticed it only a few days ago. I thought it was a bush bird, but then I realised it was stuck and that is how I contacted this voluntary group,” said Udaya Shankar, who now plans to volunteer his services for the Animal Rescue Centre.

“I am egged on by the famous slogan by Einstein, ‘next to creating a human life, the finest thing a man can do is to save one’. So, whether it is a human or animal life, let us all do everything we can to help save them.”

The rescue team is expected to come today or tomorrow to make another attempt to rescue the bird.

ken

[kenny]

hi allOutcry over yobs' cruel bird death craze



Bristol:

Yobs are attempting to lure pigeons into the path of buses as part of a cruel new craze, bird welfare group has claimed.
It says youths in Bristol throw food into bus lanes in the hope of seeing pigeons and seagulls run over.


some you cant beleive even after reading them

ken

[kenny]

'Bird brains' in tune with grammar



April 27, 2006
BY SETH BORENSTEIN




The way humans use and recognize the rules of language has long been thought to be one of the things that separates us from beasts.
Now, researchers from the University of Chicago and the University of California at San Diego have found that a common songbird -- the European starling -- can be taught to recognize and distinguish simple grammar.
Experts have viewed grammar as a way "to define the boundaries between humans and other creatures," said Daniel Margoliash, a University of Chicago professor of anatomy and organismal biology who was co-author of the new study. "Now, we find that we have been joined on this side of that boundary by the starling. It should no longer be considered an insult to be called a 'bird brain.' "
Starlings -- expert mimics with virtuoso singing ability -- learned to differentiate between a regular birdsong ''sentence'' and one containing a clause or another sentence of warbling, the researchers report in today's edition of the journal Nature.
It took a month -- and about 15,000 training attempts, with food as a reward -- to get the birds to recognize the most basic of grammar in their own bird language.
What they learned might shake the field of linguistics.
Two years ago, a top research team tried to get tamarin monkeys to recognize such phrasing, but they failed. The results were seen as proof that ''recursive grammar'' is uniquely human and key to the facility to acquire language.
'It's clear that they can do it'


But after training, nine of the 11 songbirds in the new study picked out the birdsong with inserted warbling or rattling bird phrases about 90 percent of the time. Two flunked.
''We were dumfounded that they could do as well as they did,'' said Timothy Gentner, assistant professor of psychology at UCSD and lead author of the study. ''It's clear that they can do it.''
Gentner trained the birds using three buttons hanging from the wall. When the bird pecked the button, it would play different versions of bird songs Gentner generated -- some with inserted clauses, some without. If the song followed a certain pattern, birds were supposed to hit the button again with their beaks; if it followed a different pattern, they were supposed to do nothing. If the birds recognized the correct pattern, they were rewarded with food.
AP


ken

[kenny]

hi all

Record number of bird species heading towards extinction

04-05-2006
Cambridge, UK – BirdLife International's annual evaluation of how the world's bird species are faring shows that the total number considered threatened with extinction is now 1,210. When combined with the number of Near Threatened species this gives a record total of 2,005 species in trouble – more than a fifth of the planet’s 9,799 total species. [1, 2]
Not all species that are faring badly are found in the tropics. The Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa, a migratory wading bird whose breeding population is concentrated in Europe, has declined in number by around 25% over the last 15 years. As a result, the species is now classified as globally Near Threatened. Loss of nesting habitat owing to wetland drainage and agricultural intensification are its biggest threats.
Of the species most at risk 181 are now categorised as Critically Endangered, the highest level of threat. New additions include the Purple-backed Sunbeam Aglaeactis aliciae, a hummingbird found only in a tiny 1km2 area of alder woodland in western Peru.
"Recently much of the Purple-backed Sunbeam's crucial remaining habitat has been replaced with eucalyptus. This will have a devastating effect on a species already numbering fewer than a thousand individuals," commented Dr Stuart Butchart, BirdLife's Global Species Programme Coordinator.
Another species now regarded as Critically Endangered is the Uluguru Bush-shrike Malaconotus alius, from the Uluguru Mountains of Tanzania. Repeated surveys in the 1990s found that the species is restricted to the small Uluguru North Forest Reserve, which is suffering from ongoing habitat degradation. Loveridge's Sunbird Nectarinia loveridgei, also only found in the Ulugurus, has also been uplisted (to Endangered) to reflect its continuing decline.
However, it is not all bad news: the Seychelles Fody Foudia sechellarum, a small yellowish songbird has been downlisted to Near Threatened. Habitat management and conservation measures have encouraged the regeneration of natural woodland on its island homes and are thought to have been key factors in the recent substantial population increase. Nature Seychelles (BirdLife in the Seychelles) has also recently translocated birds to Denis and Aride Islands where self-sustaining populations are now established.
"This is a credit to the efforts of Nature Seychelles and others who can now add this species to a significant list of native Seychelles birds that have been brought back from the brink of extinction," commented Dr Butchart.
Several new species are also recognised in the 2006 update including the Serendib Scops-owl Otus thilohoffmanni (Endangered) from Sri Lanka. The Long-legged Thicketbird Trichocichla rufa is also evaluated for the first time as Endangered, following its rediscovery in 2002 on Fiji.
However, a warning as to the ultimate fate that could await some of these species is offered by a number of extinct species that appear on the list for the first time. These include three species of monarchs (small songbirds) from French Polynesia that had already disappeared before taxonomic studies recognised them as full species – in one case (Ua Pou Monarch) as recently as 1985.
"We face a huge challenge in improving the status of the 1,210 threatened and 795 Near Threatened species. But the success stories show that concerted conservation action can save these birds from extinction: we just need the political will and resources," added Butchart. [3]
ken

[jimmy]

Hi Kenny,

Just read my copy of C & A and there you are again, well done mate:wink:

They'll be giving you your own column soon :razz:

[Waxbillman]

well done Ken,

whats your next letter going to be about?

Matthew

[kenny]

hi matt/jimmy
i had to write it to show that all bird keepers are not alike,his first time at stafford just starting in the hobby and 80 years old and he gets shafted by someone who doesn`t care where his money comes from,shows us all in a bad light it just brought to mind a conversation jimmy and i where having about people in the fancy being the best most giving people in any hobby .even to the point of giving birds away and then something like this happens i suppose if he reads it he will not feel guilty as he probably meant to deceive in the first place..........sorry for rambling

ken

[kenny]

hi all

May 14. 2006 12:00PM

The owner of a private trout hatchery in Sunderland and one of his employees have been charged with killing herons, osprey and at least one bald eagle that came to feed at the fish pools.
Michael Zak Jr., 58, of Sunderland, owner of the Mohawk Trout Hatchery, and Timothy Lloyd, 29, of Easthampton, were charged with violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, according to federal prosecutors.
A man who answered the phone yesterday at a listing for Zak hung up without commenting. A number for Lloyd could not be located and he could not be reached for comment.
Investigators found more than 250 great blue heron carcasses, as well as carcasses of ospreys and a bald eagle on hatchery property during a probe that began in September, said Salvatore Amato, an agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Hadley.
Forensic testing on carcasses indicated the birds, including the bald eagle, had been killed by gun shots, prosecutors said.
ken

[kenny]

AM on Sunday, May 14, 2006

The highlight of the hour-long session came on a 20-second home-video clip from the Big Woods in eastern Arkansas.
There, Luneau caught an ivory-billed, or what his critics call a pileated, woodpecker on camera in flight.
He played the video three times to the audience at Guana, but both he and the crowd could only come up with one conclusion: "There's a lot of white on that bird."
That was the problem. Both the pileated and ivory-billed have white wing feathers, but the ivory-billed's white is on the back edge of its wings, Luneau said.
The pileated's white feathers are on the front of its wings, leaving black feathers on the trailing edge.
After watching the video and listening to the evidence, Jacksonville Beach resident Jerry Harrison said the presentation was informative and compelling.
"I've been watching pileated woodpeckers all of my life," said Harrison, a science teacher at Fletcher High School. "I was convinced it was an ivory-billed."
Sightings by others in the last two years have been featured on "60 Minutes" and "CBS Sunday Morning."
But Luneau was the first to capture the allegedly extinct bird on video.
"So we had a picture of a woodpecker with a lot of white on it," Luneau said of the April 25, 2004, sighting. "I stayed on the fence for a long time on it."
After a year of zooming in on the blurry film, creating re-enactments and getting nudged by his fellow birders, Luneau hopped over that fence.
He published a report on the sighting, and critics started to refute him.
Led by birder David Sibley, most believed that Luneau spotted a normal pileated woodpecker.
"We've seen their evidence and seen their papers," Luneau said. "We don't see what they're seeing. I don't see how you can say that's a normal pileated."
But Luneau said he wanted more tangible evidence, which is why he plans on continuing to search in the Southeast.
"We sure would like to have a National Geographic cover photo," he joked. "I don't think you're ever going to convince everybody that it's there."

[kenny]

hi all
went to this guys house when my father in law was alive he has some fantastic weavers but he has chosen not to sell them but to give them to the same park as i do


http://www.feathered-friends.co.uk/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=396&stc=1&d=1147953704


ken

[kenny]

hi all

Rare Bird Of Prey Back From The Brink

Friday, 19th May 2006, 10:15

A rare bird of prey has been brought back from the brink after a crackdown on poisonous pesticides and illegal persecution.

The recreation of the wetlands on which they thrive has also helped the marsh harrier defy extinction and see numbers hit a 200 year high.

Just a single pair of the handsome slender hawk, renowned for its sky dancing displays in spring, remained in the UK in 1971, at the Royal Society for the protection of Birds' Minsmere reserve in Suffolk.

Courtship is spectacular with male birds looping the loop and spinning through 360 degrees as they tumble from hundreds of feet up. Males release food in mid flight with females turning upside down to catch it in their talons.

Now, 2005 survey results from the RSPB and English Nature show there are 360 breeding females in England and Scotland compared to 156 in the last count ten years ago – a 131 per cent increase.

More than 800 young fledged in 2005, up from 350 in 1995. The survey also shows that marsh harriers are spilling from nature reserves and nesting in farmland outside of protected sites.

The success of the marsh harrier, which has a 4ft wingspan, is mostly due to reduced use of farmland pesticides.

The RSPB's research biologist Dr Mark Eaton said: "Chemicals used to kill farmland pests almost certainly affected the marsh harriers' ability to hatch eggs and fledge young.

"Now, those chemicals are banned and the survey results show how parts of our countryside have become suitable for marsh harriers once more."

English Nature's senior ornithologist Allan Drewitt said: "What we need to do now is recreate new wetlands to further increase marsh harrier numbers and help other rare and threatened wetland species such as bitterns.

"The Great Fen Project in Cambridgeshire is a good example of this and will restore more than 3,000 hectares of farmland to fenland wildlife habitat."

Marsh harriers, known colloquially as bald buzzards in Essex and Northumberland and the dun pickle in Wiltshire, were once common in the UK's lowland reedbeds and marshes and were even found on upland moors.

But drainage of the Fens and other wetlands for farming from the 1700s onwards, caused the species to decline and researchers believe that by 1800 there were already fewer birds than we have today.

Persecution by gamekeepers hastened the marsh harrier's demise and as its rarity increased, egg collectors stepped up their efforts exacerbating the bird’s plight. From 1900 to 1920, the bird was extinct in the UK.

Legal protection helped marsh harriers recover during the 1950s, only for pesticides such as DDT to cause a second decline.

The chemicals left toxic residues in the marsh harriers' prey causing eggshells to thin and break, eventually leaving the solitary pair at Minsmere.

Dr Eaton said: "It was a tragedy, and the marsh harrier was not the only bird to suffer. The peregrine falcon declined for the same reason, as did buzzards and sparrowhawks, but we are very pleased that the illegal killing of birds of prey is now much reduced in the English lowlands."

The banning of these pesticides in 1982 together with measures to tackle persecution and habitat loss has given the marsh harrier a second lease of life.

The birds now breed in parts of Eastern England, the Cambridgeshire Fens, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Kent and Scotland where in spring and summer they quarter wetland sites scouring these areas for prey as hounds might seek scent.

They are sleeker and slightly smaller than buzzards and distinguished from other birds of prey by their long tails and the shallow V in which their wings are held as they glide.

Mr Drewitt added: "The marsh harrier is a stunning bird and the survey results are great news. Now that the birds have spread to farmland, we must continue working with farmers to protect birds nesting in crops by preventing disturbance and ensuring nests are not destroyed during harvest."

ken8)

[Waxbillman]

great news Ken

i have yet to see a marsh harrier

just read that article above, shame he's packing up but like you say at least they are going to a good place

Matthew

[kenny]

hi matt
its were all my zebras go to,but i only wish i knew he was jacking in earlier i would like to have made an offer on some of his weavers ,but as you say they are going to a good place ,the new aviary they are building has got a fenced off path so you can walk down the middle but it will keep the tea leaves away from the expensive stuff.its a while since i have seen a marsh harrier aswell i saw the article and thought it would be worthy of a mention as they are marvelous birds

ken

[kenny]

hi all
well you cant make stuff up like this,personally i am appalled by the people who can get stuff done just by waving there wallet,



Bird colonies threatened by golf course and wind farm

FRANK URQUHART
BIRD colonies of international importance are facing a twin threat from controversial plans by American billionaire Donald Trump for a £300 million golf resort and an offshore wind farm on the Aberdeenshire coast, it was claimed yesterday.
The Trump Organisation is expected to lodge plans with Aberdeenshire Council before the end of the month, outlining proposals to build a golf course on a stretch of environmentally sensitive links land on the Menie Estate, near Balmedie.

And today, the Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (AREG) will give details of its new proposals for £100 million offshore wind farm, stretching from the Bridge of Don to Blackdog. The amended plan, which comes on the opening day of the All Energy Exhibition and Conference in Aberdeen, will cut the number of proposed turbines from 33 to 23, each up to 490ft high.
But last night RSPB Scotland warned that the wildlife-rich coast of Aberdeenshire could be seriously damaged and internationally vital bird populations decimated as a result of the two large-scale developments.
Dr Martin Auld, the RSPB's director for the east of Scotland, appealed to both developers to consider the wildlife value of the area before progressing their plans.
And he said "There is a lot at stake. We have voiced our concerns about the potential impacts of a wind farm in Aberdeen Bay to the developers and are waiting to see what they are now proposing. The environmental impacts need to be looked at very carefully."
James Reynolds, a spokesman for the conservation organisation, said: "[These developments"] could seriously damage the wildlife treasures of the area."
He explained: "The cold, shallow seas off the Aberdeenshire coast play host to hundreds of thousands of seabirds, ducks and divers - most notably guillemots, kittiwakes, eiders and nationally important numbers of red-throated divers.
"The complete coastal strip is like a motorway of birds, streaming from nesting areas to offshore feeding grounds, and like a service station for international travellers. In the sea, pods of bottle-nosed and white-beaked dolphins follow the shoals.
Mr Reynolds added: "These Scottish natural treasures deserve to be safeguarded."
Fearing the proposals would spoil his own development plans, Mr Trump has also raised concerns about the prospect of a wind farm in the area.
A spokeswoman for the Trump Organisation said: "The Trump Organisation and its environmental consultants are already in talks with Scottish Natural Heritage and have been for some time. These discussions will continue throughout the course of the development."
Iain Todd, a spokesman for AREG, said that the changes to the layout of the wind farm had been driven by the environmental issues surrounding the Ythan Estuary and by operational issues faced by local helicopter operators.


ken...............ps lets see if c&a pick this up

[Waxbillman]

nasty, to say the least that loaded yank can sod off to his own country,

if that land is of any significance it will surely have protections on it, though thats no guarantee i suppose.

Matthew

[Strawblady2000]

That really burns me up.

I've so many foul and loathsome names for that swamp-dwelling, roadkill-on-his-head jerk that I'd sound like the spawn of two sailors if I got started.

[kenny]

hi nikki
i hope you realise that it wasn`t aimed at you because mr trump is an american,its just that the story happened to contain his name.

ken

[Strawblady2000]

Lol, Ken, not at all.

AS you can tell, I am not fond of the guy, lol...and it really angers me that with all of his wealth, he chooses to do away with natural habitat like this to open a stinkin golf course.

[kenny]

hi all
found this today,dont know whether its funny or stupid,you decide



Image of alien face found in wounded bird's stomach

Bay City News Service

http://www.mercurynews.com/images/mercurynews/mercurynews/14665/215075759795.jpg
Radiograph & photo by Marie Travers/IBRRC
Image of bird X-ray

An X-ray of the stomach of a wounded duck that died at the International Bird Rescue Research Center in Cordelia contains the uncanny image of an alien's face.
Honest!
And like the grilled cheese sandwich with an image of the Madonna, the X-ray image will be auctioned on eBay. Bidding starts Sunday at 3 p.m.
``Proceeds from the sale of this one-of-a-kind X-ray will go towards funding our continuing efforts to rescue and rehabilitate oiled, orphaned and injured waterfowl and aquatic birds,'' said Jay Holcomb, the center's director.
The adult male mallard was brought with what appeared to be a broken wing to the Cordelia center from another center in the Bay Area on Sunday.
Assistant Marie Travers radiographed the mallard and was shocked to see what appeared to be the face or head of an extraterrestrial alien in the bird's stomach.
The bird died quickly, quietly and peacefully after the X-rays were taken, center spokeswoman Karen Benzel said.
Staff at the center wondered with amusement whether the alien in the duck was trying to communicate with the people of Earth because the center is located near an area where crop circles were found a few years ago.
Benzel noted the symmetry of the alien's face is perfect and has an intense grimace as if it were in anguish after being eaten. Benzel wondered if the duck had consumed a juvenile alien.
``We immediately knew this was something we had never seen before in our 35-year history,'' Benzel said.
ken

[Rogerb]

:-D nice post kenn , i think who cares if it is a face or not the , if someone byes it the cash raised will then go to do some real good in the bird world and everything that lives along side us :-D

[kenny]

hi roger
same thoughts as me ,money will go to a good cause for a change

ken

[kenny]

hi all

Piping Plover: A Bird On The Edge


POSTED: May 30, 2006


WEST HARTFORD, Conn. -- When you go to the beach this summer, remember that you may have company.
The piping plover lives on the beach.
However, the little bird is nearing extinction, so the state of Connecticut is trying to do something about that problem.
As you enjoy the beaches this summer, like the beach at Hammonasset State Park, just know that there is something lurking off in the distance. It's something that wildlife experts want to keep lurking on Connecticut beaches -- undisturbed.

The piping plover set up nests on sandy stretches of beach, just like those areas many people look for on a beach outing.
The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection wants beachgoers to let the small bird be as it struggles to stay off the list of extinct species.


ken

[kenny]

hi all
another pleasant bird related story for you




SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- The owner of a Sunderland trout hatchery and one of his employees pleaded not guilty Thursday to killing scores of herons and osprey that federal prosecutors say were feeding at their fish pools.
Michael Zak and Timothy Lloyd are charged with violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Zak, who owns the Mohawk Trout Hatchery, is also charged with shooting at least one bald eagle.
Both men are free on personal recognizance after pleading not guilty in U.S. District Court. The case was continued to July 17.
Federal investigators say they found more than 250 great blue heron carcasses, as well as carcasses of ospreys and a bald eagle on hatchery property during a probe that began in September. Tests showed the birds were killed by gunshots.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents say they staked out the hatchery periodically and saw Zak shoot at a heron with a scoped rifle and Lloyd shoot and kill an osprey.
Zak, 58, could face up to three years in prison. Lloyd, 29, faces a year-and-a-half behind bars.
Last year, a 79-year-old World War II veteran from Pittsfield was fined $5,000 by a federal judge and ordered not to hunt for two years after admitting he shot down a bald eagle.



ken
http://wfsbtv.images.worldnow.com/images/static/gfx/pxl_trans.gifhttp://wfsbtv.images.worldnow.com/images/static/gfx/pxl_trans.gif

[kenny]

hi all
just a little bit of news for you!


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Several bird species that make annual migrations between Africa and Europe have experienced drastic population declines and scientists are not exactly sure why, conservationists said on Friday.
The findings were revealed in a study by the Britain-based Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and BirdLife International.
"Scientists fear that their dwindling numbers -- well over 50 per cent down in some cases -- may be a warning of widespread environmental damage, which could soon affect man as well," the RSPB said in a statement.
"Climate change, drought and desertification in Africa, and massive pesticide use on African farmland may all be to blame for the declines of once common UK birds such as the spotted flycatcher, wheatear, wood warbler and turtle dove," it said.


Researchers were looking at factors such as drought and heavy pesticide use in the Sahel region of Africa, which borders the Sahara desert and is a major stopover point for birds that have made the exhausting journey across the unforgiving sands.
The RSPB said the research, to be published in the journal "Biological Conservation," showed that 54 percent of the 121 long-distance migrants studied have declined or become extinct in many parts of Europe since 1970.
The RSPB said species such as the red-backed shrike no longer breed in Britain, while the spotted flycatcher's numbers were down 86 percent in the United Kingdom.
"These migrants are highly evolved and some range over a quarter of the planet's land surface. For species like this to be affected so severely suggests that something pretty serious is going wrong somewhere," said the RSPB's Dr Paul Donald, a co-author of the study.



ken

[Waxbillman]

thats bad news Ken

what birds species were they?

Matthew

[kenny]

hi matt
put your glasses on mate it does say at the bottom,

ken:lol:

[kenny]

hi all
it seems they are all at it

Birdwatching has never been as exciting for Bill Thompson.

“It’s not that I needed another reason — it’s always a fun thing to do — but now I’m being a bit more methodical,” Thompson, 44, explained.

Thompson, an editor of “The Bird Watcher’s Digest,” a local publication with a global audience of about 50,000, is participating in a five-year study to help catalog all of Ohio’s native birds.

He said many more volunteers are still needed to “adopt” local areas to help track bird activity.

“This information will be used to help determine what birds are endangered or doing well,” Thompson said. “It will also be used to help with game management plans for hunting.”

It has been more than 20 years since the completion of fieldwork on the first Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas, a grid-based survey used to document the status and distribution of all bird species that breed within a given country, state, or county.

For the study, the state has been divided into more than 4,500 blocks that need surveyed.

Thompson and his wife, Julie Zickefoose, 47, of Whipple, have already started gathering data from their zone, a 10-square-mile area that includes their family farm.

“We’re looking for breeding activity, not just birds,” Thompson said. “That could be nest building, finding eggs, or watching a bird scoop up worms and fly off with them rather than eat them. She would probably be headed off to a nest and we would try to follow her back to confirm that.”

The ultimate success of the current study will depend on the active participation and efforts of birders and outdoor enthusiasts.

Only about 20 of the 160 blocks available for adoption in Athens, Meigs and Washington counties have been assigned, said Steve Schaffer, regional coordinator for the project.

“There is still plenty of opportunity,” Schaffer said.

The project is much more complex than the last study and will require more help, Schaffer said. The current study will cover all of Ohio’s 88 counties. The first study, conducted in the mid-1980s, covered only one-sixth of the state — which was selected at random.

Over the next five years, bird watchers will be asked to monitor bird activity, especially during breeding season — generally from May to July. A minimum of 25 survey hours is expected. Additional reports on sightings of rare, threatened and endangered species will also be required. Volunteers are expected to document at least 90 percent of the species of birds “expected” to be found in their blocks.

Schaffer said it would be helpful for volunteers to have some experience with bird watching.

“We need someone who can go out and easily identify what they’re seeing,” Schaffer said. “It would be best if they could identify the birds by their songs and calls.”




ken8-)

[kenny]

hi all
this story is far to long to put in a post so i am putting the link on instead i know its not my usual way but i thought it was to good to miss see what you think?


http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-06-07T121418Z_01_N06392516_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENVIRONMENT-BIRDS.xml



ken

[kenny]

hi all

June 15, 2006 — Dozens of fossils of an ancient loon-like creature that some say is the missing link in bird evolution have been discovered in northwest China.
The remains of 40 of the nearly modern amphibious birds, so well-preserved that some even have their feathers, were found in Gansu province, researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
Previously only a single leg of the creature, known as Gansus yumenensis, had been found.
"Gansus is a missing link in bird evolution," said Matt Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.


ken

[kenny]

hi all
here is a really nice story
Officials: Nesting bird to keep off-road vehicles off major beach

June 17, 2006
ORLEANS, Mass. --Officials trying to protect a threatened bird plan to ban off-road vehicles from a major stretch of a Cape beach for a month.
The threatened piping plovers nest on Nauset Beach, and their eggs are expected to hatch in late June. Orleans officials said that unless predators or storms wipe out the nests, they will shut down the entire seven-mile off-road vehicle access to Nauset's Outer Beach until late July, when newly hatched plovers learn to fly.
Before then, the chicks scurry around the beach looking for food, and are vulnerable to being hit by off-road vehicles.
Michael Wade of Harwich said he sympathizes with the birds.
"The reason I like going out to Nauset is because you see wildlife, so I guess sacrificing a month of my access to preserve that is worth it," he said.
But, in an e-mail to the Cape Cod Time, Art McManus of Orleans wrote, "It's environmentalism run amok."
It's against state and federal regulations to harm a piping plover. A prison term and thousands of dollars in fines can result, if convicted, according to Scott Melvin, senior zoologist with the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.
Nauset beach, which runs between Orleans and Chatham, attracts more than 1 million people annually. The town of Orleans sells about 6,000 off-road permits annually.
Orleans Park and Beaches Superintendent Paul Fulcher said about 60 off-road vehicle permit holders called Friday, with most wanting to know how the decision was made.
"There's nothing we can do to change the laws," Fulcher told The Boston Globe. "The town has no choice in this."
William Hammatt of Chatham has a family camp on Nauset Beach. If he and others can't drive, they'll have to haul food, water, gas tanks and other supplies from their car to a boat, and then into their houses, Hammatt said.
"When you think of 300 trips a day (allowed by vehicle permits) for a month, with three to five people in each vehicle, that's a lot of people to be inconvenienced for one or two birds," he said.http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/File-Based_Image_Resource/dingbat_story_end_icon.gif
ken

[kenny]

hi all

Australia's migratory birds are arriving earlier and leaving later - most likely due to global warming, a new study has found.
Macquarie University PhD students Linda Beaumont and Ian McAllan, together with associate professor Lesley Hughes, have analysed the movements of migratory birds visiting south-eastern Australia since the 1960s.
Using published literature, bird observer reports, and observations of bird watchers, the team compared the arrival date for 24 species and the departure for 12 species over the past 40 years.
The study is believed to be the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere, and is published in the current edition of the international journal Global Change Biology.
The study found half of the species analysed - which included sandpipers, kingfishers, bee eaters and plovers - showed a significant trend toward earlier arrival since 1960.
It showed they were arriving on average 3.5 days earlier per decade across the whole study group.
At the same time, there was an average delay in departure of 5.1 days per decade.
Temperature change in Australia of around 0.5 degrees since the 1960s was "very likely" to be influencing the birds migratory patterns, Ms Beaumont said.
And she said the big concern is that the change in migratory patterns will alter the life cycles of birds, including when they reproduce.
"(A temperature change of) 0.5 degrees for us is nothing, but birds and insects respond very rapidly to changes in temperature," Ms Beaumont said.
"Birds time their breeding so that they lay their eggs, so that when the eggs hatch it coincides with the optimal timing for whatever is the source of their food.
"One of the big concerns is that this may lead to an asynchrony between the reproduction of birds and when their food will appear."
There was also a danger that short distance migratory birds, such as the channel-billed cuckoo, may stop migrating to and from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia and become permanent residents of south-eastern Australia, Ms Beaumont said.
"The effect of the short distance migrants is that they're arriving earlier in Australia and they're departing later," she said.
"They're staying in Australia in their southern hemisphere breeding grounds for longer, and this may result in them becoming residents."
But not all birds studied are affected by temperature changes.
Only 50 per cent of the birds had undergone a shift towards earlier arrival, the research found.


ken

[kenny]

hi all
this is one heck of a nice environmental story....one up to rolls royce



The Rolls-Royce of roofs

The new Rolls-Royce factory at Goodwood, England is reaping an environmental benefit from its 'living roof' in the form of nesting skylarks.
Believed to be the largest 'living roof' in the UK, it covers eight acres and is planted with a variety of sedum plants. Skylarks generally nest on the ground in fields and meadows, where the risk of attack from predators is high. These skylarks have the Rolls-Royce of nesting sites.
The RSPB said, "Skylark numbers have fallen during the last 20 years, largely due to changes in agriculture. With the expansion of ideal nesting sites, like the Rolls-Royce roof, future generations will be able to enjoy the song of this wonderful bird."


ken

[kenny]

hi all

Bird Allegedly Flying Under The Influence Crashes

(CBS) LAGUNA BEACH A pelican that crashed head-on into a car windshield may have been flying while intoxicated on sea algae, and officials warned people Friday to be on the lookout for more unusual animal behavior.

The California Brown Pelican flew into a car windshield Thursday on Pacific Coast Highway in Laguna Beach.

It was in guarded condition with internal injuries at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, where a four-inch gash in its pouch was stitched up and its right toe was stabilized with a pin, according to Lisa Birkle, assistant wildlife director.

Wildlife officials said the bird may have been high on an algae in the ocean that could be reaching Orange County.

If the bird's behavior was a result of eating the sea algae and subsequent Domoic Acid poisoning, which has affected seabirds and marine mammals the last two months, then more birds could be affected and people should be on the lookout for similar unusual behavior, Birkle said.

Symptoms range from general disorientation, acting "drunk" or just being in an unusual place, she said.

Any unusual behavior in pelicans should be reported to the wildlife center in Huntington Beach at (714) 374-5587, Birkle said.

Brown pelicans are an endangered species that are protected from hunters. But the government is seeking to "de-list" them from that status because they have made a comeback from their dwindled numbers caused by DDT poisoning years ago, Birkle said.


ken

[kenny]

hi all


BHOPAL, JUNE 25:A conservation ‘strategy’ aimed at protecting Kharmor, or the Lesser Florican, a highly endangered bird of grasslands, is getting its money’s worth in Madhya Pradesh.
The strategy involves rewarding farmers who give information about the bird and protect its eggs with cash incentives up to Rs 5,000. From nine in 2004, the number of the Lesser Floricans in the Sailana sanctuary has gone up to 26. ‘‘The cash incentive scheme has achieved within a year what the creation of sanctuaries could not,’’ additional PCCF (Wildlife) Dr H S Pabla told The Indian Express.
A total of Rs 89,000 was paid to 23 farmers in Ratlam district, where the scheme was launched last year on a pilot basis. Another Rs 60,000 was spent on creating awareness about the scheme.
Western Madhya Pradesh is one of the main breeding habitats for the Lesser Florican, which has a small, declining population. It’s protected under the Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972.
But the legal protection did not help and the bird continued to decline in number. On the recommendation of Dr Salim Ali, the Madhya Pradesh government notified two sanctuaries: Sailana in Ratlam district and Sardarpur in Dhar district in 1983. Farmers inside the sanctuary were angry because they could not sell their land and those outside the sanctuary started killing the birds (http://www.indianexpress.com/story/7301.html#) or destroying their eggs to avoid attracting the forest department’s attention.
‘‘The farmers never supported us because the sanctuary status brought them several restrictions,’’ said Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) Ashok Bhatia. The forest department has written to the government to lift the restriction on the sale of land. Information about the male Kharmor in August and September and the female bird in October-November gets the informer an incentive of Rs 5,000. Farmers are told not to touch the eggs.


ken

[kenny]

hi all
i need to know also if these things are getting boring please let me know if they are



MARINE CORPS AIR STATION NEW RIVER, N.C.(June 27, 2006) -- Near the Station concert site June 18, civilians and Marines gathered for a special flight.

While six different aircraft take off daily from the flightline, the crowd assembled to see a much different, much smaller bird of prey.

“Lucky,” a red-tailed hawk, was attempting her first flight in the wild after being rescued from an oil-water separator a week earlier.

“I heard something making a funny noise,” recalled Alton Hill, a motor vehicle operator and hazardous material handler.

Hill was making his normal end-of-shift rounds, checking the Station's oil water separators when he went to investigate the strange sound.

“I looked down in the separator and the bird was perched in the bottom,” he said.

Hill, seeing the oil drenched bird, decided to take action.

“All I saw was a head, beak and a few feathers,” he said.

He headed back to his vehicle, determined to bring the bird up from the ten foot deep separator well.

Using a rope and a pole, Hill tried repeatedly to raise the bird.

“I couldn't leave the bird like that,” he said.

Fifteen minutes and a number of attempts later, he was able to lift the bird from the oil.

He made a phone call to the Station biologist Bianca Klein shortly after the bird was safe. Klein then brought the hawk to Possumwood Acres Wildlife Sanctuary.

“She was in real bad shape,” remembered Toni O'Neil, director of Possumwood Acres Wildlife Sanctuary.

Originally the bird of prey was expected to take three to four weeks of antibiotics, feedings, and cleanings to prepare for her eventual release to the wild, said O'Neil.

Thanks to her large, healthy size and the need to return her to her nest, the bird was ready within a week, said O’Neil. Regardless of her ability to recover, or the efforts of the staff of Possumwood Acres Wildlife Sanctuary, everyone agreed the reason the bird was able to head back to the wild was due to Hill’s actions.

“If you hadn't been there, this wouldn't have been possible,” O'Neil said to Hill after the release.


ken8-)

[Strawblady2000]

Hi Kenny,

NO WAY!!! I dont think these are boring at ALLLLL!!!!! I love reading the storeies from all over the world. It amazes me how you find them, as many of the US stories arent heard of here. Of course, we are SO self absorbed in terrorism and the price of petrol...it's no wonder other news slips between the cracks.

Keep it up. I personally enjoy reading them.

:razz:

[kenny]

hi nikki
thanks mate ,i just thought that they may be getting a bit boring as some of them are a bit on the long side ,but i dont seem to be able to get any short reports on anything and i dont see any point in editing them myself as you would not get the full effect

ken

[kenny]

hi all

Official city bird chosen by area students
Published: June 27, 2006
http://192.216.111.195/photos/upload/20060627133406_medium.jpg (javascript:void(0);)
Click this picture to view a larger image.



By BILL CHOY
The News Guard

Lincoln City now has a city bird to call its own.
Recently, the Audubon Society of Lincoln City, which was formed last year, had more than 750 elementary school children vote for their favorite bird. The final choice was the Belted Kingfisher.
It can be found near the open waters of Devils Lake, Siletz Bay, the Salmon River and local marshes and estuaries. The Belted Kingfisher is approximately 12 inches in length and is a large, short-legged, big-headed, big-billed bird. It hovers over the water and dives headfirst in pursuit of fish. There are about 90 species of kingfisher found throughout the world.
"Just about everyone has a chance to see it at one time or another," said Kathleen Nickerson, president of the Audubon Society of Lincoln City. "We thought it would be a great way to get kids interested in the Audubon Society and be aware of important environmental issues. We thought it would be a great way to get them engaged in the process."
At the June 12 Lincoln City Council meeting, a proclamation declared the Belted Kingfisher as the official bird of Lincoln City.
"I think it will be nice to tie Lincoln City to the Audubon Society," said Mayor Lori Hollingsworth. "We're surrounded by nature here. It is one of the benefits a lot of cities don't have."
Other finalist for the city bird included the Red-tailed Hawk, the Osprey and the Dark-eyed Junco.
Alexandra Chitty, an artist-in-residence at the Sitka Center for Arts and Ecology, is working on a logo for the Audubon Society in Lincoln City incorporating the Belted Kingfisher.
Students who voted for the city bird came from Oceanlake and Taft elementary schools and Faith Baptist kindergarten.
The Audubon Society plans to promote the importance of the Belted Kingfisher and its habitat through chapter newsletters, field trips, habitat restoration projects and educational programs.
This past school year, Deb Gaffney's fifth-grade class at Oceanlake Elementary studied birds, went on field trips to their habitats and learned how to spot them.
Gaffney said she was pleased the students were able to vote for a city bird. Being able to learn more about birds helped her students make good judgments about choosing a bird and understanding the importance of birds to the natural habitat, she said.
Fifth-grader Amanda Evans, 12, said the experience has made her enjoy bird watching.
"I like to watch birds and how they react," she said, adding she is glad the Audubon Society had students pick a city bird. "I think it's a good idea that they are making people aware of birds and how fabulous they are."
Tyler Lopez, 11, said he voted for the Belted Kingfisher.
"It has a cool mohawk and it likes to fish and I like to fish," he said.
Lopez said he thinks it's important to teach students and the community about respecting birds and protecting their habitats. "If we learn about birds, we won't trash the environment," he said.

ken8)

[laurab]

Great job Kenny.

I see your name in C&A again this week, are you after a weekly slot there too :-P

[kenny]

hi laura
i cant even remember what i sent in now .i will have to get one tommorrow as i forgot to get it today i am thinking of asking for a permanent slot then i can mention f f every week....did they mention it this week as i always put it in there but they always leave it out

ken

[Waxbillman]

well done Ken, nice to see you correct the 'all knowing' alderton

Matthew

[kenny]

hi matt
i remember now what it was,he was suggesting you invite people round to your bird room for informal chats..what a berk might aswwell invite all the bird theives also....did they mention this website in it as i know i put it in the letter....that will teach him anyway...he will probably write a book about it now.

ken:rolleyes:

[kenny]

THIS A REALLY NICE OSPREY STORY THAT I DUG OUT!


My daughter competed with the Casper Diamonds last weekend in a fast-pitch softball tournament put on by the fine folks in Riverton. We pulled in early, as always, and were welcomed by a well-groomed ball field ready for action. Unlike any other softball field I've been on, however, it was hard to miss the fact that high atop a light pole on the first base side of the Everett Honeycutt Memorial Field sat a huge bird nest.

We've all seen wildlife in weird places. Up until this weekend, my best "critter did this" story was the day several years ago when Game and Fish treed a black bear across the street from my house in the middle of Casper.

But an active nest as big as a clothes dryer on top of light pole was a first. And a very active nest it is. An osprey pair carried on their parental duties all weekend, paying little attention to the games below. They were observed more than once returning from a fishing trip with meal in talon.
This has been going on for more than a decade. According to Riverton Recreation Supervisor Mark Cress, Riverton softball players and visitors have enjoyed the show for the past 15 years.

"The bird made its home there three years after the light poles had been installed by the city," he said. "I have played ball out here about as long, and it is truly entertaining as the bird has had many offspring."

Cress said the osprey pair is so at home, it doesn't much pay attention to the annual fireworks show at the Riverton youth baseball finals, either.

The fish-eating hawks are obviously an adaptable bird. Kent Schmidlin, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's Lander regional wildlife supervisor, said the light pole on the Riverton field isn't the first to host osprey in Fremont County.

"There were nests on light stanchions in Lander and Hudson, but due to concerns that the nest material may catch fire the nests were moved to adjacent man-made platforms," Schmidlin said. "The osprey made the adjustment and continue to use the alternate sites."

Why do the osprey of Fremont County seem to prefer light stanchions? Schmidlin thinks it's because they're near good hunting waters, and offer just the right height above the ground for the birds to see what they need to see.

And maybe, like many of us, they like to watch a good ball game on a hot summer day.

"It surprises me how well the birds adapt to the disturbance," said Schmidlin, "and being as they were observed bringing food back to the nest during a ball game, it is apparently not a big concern for this pair."


ken

[laurab]

Hi Kenny, there was no mention of Feathered-friends :sad:

[jimmy]

Another hugely interesting and informative read Kenny, once i'd started i just couldn't put it down.

Well done mate :razz:

[kenny]

hi laura
the bit where it says i do my talking on the website,had the name of feathered friends substituted how come they print all the other website names and not ours...

jimmy
you are to kind mate i only did it to put alderton in his place...and i dont like the way he keeps his eyes open when i kiss him:-P

ken

[laurab]

Hi Kenny

Probably because they like to charge for advertising. Daft thing is I would advertise them for free if they wanted it.....they only have to ask....provided they mentioned us once in a while. Lets face it, we are no threat to them. :-?

[kenny]

hi laura
i dont get it though,i have seen ff3 and bbia mentioned in c&a more than once so how come they cant mention us,i think i wll send a letter in full of our website address then they will have to print it

ken:lol: :lol:

[Waxbillman]

you do that Ken, like you say its not fair

Matthew

[kenny]

hi all
keep your eyes and ears open for any news of this

CRIME: Plea after baby bird abduction from cage
THIEVES snatched a seven-week-old baby bird and nearly killed another after dragging its head through wire fencing.
Teenager Scott Stockhill, from Wootton Avenue, Fletton, Peterborough, was heartbroken after he came home from cheering on his mum in Race for Life on Tuesday, to discover that thieves had ripped apart the aviary where the birds were kept.

Feathers were also left strewn across the garden as both birds struggled to get free from their captors.

But the thieves made off with a young, fragile quail and tried to take another but struggled to get it out of the cage.

Instead they left it bleeding on the ground with deep cuts to the top of its head and shoulder.

Scott (16), who keeps the birds, and his father Alan (46) got back in the nick of time to save the injured quail by gently washing its wounds with water.

But the family are distraught and puzzled at the kidnapping of the young bird, as quails are not particularly valuable.

Heartbroken Scott, who tends to his collection of quails, finches and budgies every day, said: "It's very sad. We haven't had them very long, but you still develop an affection for animals at a young age.

"Looking after the birds is something I do day in, day out and I like to let them have a run round the garden and listen to them make funny squawky noises. It makes it even more upsetting. If we just knew what happened it would help.

"One of the birds is lucky to be alive. If the fence had picked at his skull just a little bit more, it probably would have killed him."

Scott has looked after birds for much of his childhood, hand feeding them every day and giving them water twice a day, as well as cleaning the aviary every two days. He has slowly built up his collection to 15 finches, five budgies and five quails.

The teenager did not even have enough time to name the now missing bird, as he prefers to wait six months to see what their chances of survival are.

However, all signs are that the stolen quail had been growing steadily and looked on course for a happy and healthy life.

Dad Alan Stockhill said: "It's very disappointing to see one of them go.

"My son would love to have her back in the aviary and care for her. If anyone has any information or has seen her, could they please get in touch."

The Stockhill family are desperately pleading with the quail's captors to return the bird, or at least let them know it is still alive.

> Call 01733 756796.

my god i hate people like this:evil: :evil:
ken

[kenny]

hi all
this one of those aaaah type stories,very similar to our own bosses rescue successes

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/std/clear.gif


http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/std/clear.gifhttp://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/std/clear.gifFriday, June 30
NORTH ADAMS — Friends of Lee Leonesio scolded her when they heard she had rescued a baby bird that was near death from the backyard patio of her Highland Avenue home.
Now, nearly two weeks later, that same little bird is covered with feathers and stretching its wings. It is not only alive but eating well and Leonesio is looking forward to Grace, who was named by Leonesio's granddaughter Rachael, being released back into the wild in a little over a week.
While Leonesio, an elementary school teacher, loves animals and has two dogs, she never considered herself a "bird" person. But upon returning home from the last day of school June 19, Leonesio found the baby bird on the patio near her pool.
She was picking up the apparently dead bird with a shovel to dispose of it when she was startled as the little bird wiggled. Even though she had heard that one shouldn't touch wild animals, she brought it inside to protect it from an oncoming storm, which brought heavy rain and hail.
Call for help
Leonesio did not know how to take care of a baby bird, so she called her daughter, Emilie Weber, a former employee of Greylock Animal Hospital. Her daughter instructed her to feed the bird with dry cat food soaked in water.
For the first couple of days, the very pink and bald bird just lay on its back in a box Leonesio fashioned with towels to keep it warm and comfortable.
"Everyone said, 'she'll die,' " Leonesio said.
But by the third day, the bird was showing signs of life. Leonesio was able to pry open its mouth and feed it with tweezers. With each passing day, little Grace showed improvement and even opened its eyes. Leonesio was feeding the bird every two hours, but was concerned for the bird's care because she was going out of town for a few days to visit family. Fortunately, she was able to convince father and stepmother to take care of the bird.
"I just couldn't leave her," she said.
While Leonesio nursed the bird back to health she did research the Internet and spent hours on the phone looking for a wildlife rehabilitation center that could giver her information on what to do with the bird once it was better.
On Thursday morning, Leonesio finally received a call from Holland De Figlio of Troy, N.Y., a privately licensed wildlife rehabilitator, who was not only able to tell her that the little bird was a starling (after seeing an e-mailed picture) but that she herself had six baby starlings already in her care. She told Leonesio that starlings make wonderful pets, if she wanted to keep it. And that if she wanted to release the bird into the wild, De Figlio would take the bird and release all seven of them together, after they had spent a week getting to know each other.
"My gut instinct was always to release the bird," Leonesio said.
Apparently starlings also need very large cages, almost the size of a large dog crate, which Leonesio felt she did not have room for. Even though Leonesio has enjoyed and spent a lot of time care for the bird, she prefers to release it into the wild. Leonesio plans to take Grace on Saturday to Troy, where she will leave the bird in De Figlio's hands. "I've learned so much about birds," she said. "I'm amazed at this bird — Amazing Grace."



right now every body say aaaah!

ken

[kenny]

Bird won't stop construction

Work to start at Health First site in Viera

BY WAYNE T. PRICE
FLORIDA TODAY ADVERTISEMENT
http://gcirm.flatoday.com/RealMedia/ads/Creatives/default/empty.gif (http://gcirm.flatoday.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/news.flatoday.com/business/index.html/1510721035/300x250_1/default/empty.gif/64356639626265303434613832393430)
VIERA - Ground-clearing for the first phase of Health First's Viera Health Park is set to begin this month, after the company resolved with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service the issue of a nearby nesting caracara bird.
The Viera Health Park is on a 50-acre site at Wickham Road and Lake Andrew Drive, west of Interstate 95. Plans call for it to include a 100-bed hospital, a fitness center and medical offices.
Fish and Wildlife Service officials strongly recommended that Health First erect some type of landscape barrier between the construction site and the bird's nesting area to diminish the possibility of disrupting the threatened caracara's hunting and living habits.
They also requested that Health First undertake, or participate in, a study of the bird's nesting area during construction to see how the bird reacts to construction activity.
"That's not a requirement. It's not even a recommendation," Charles Underwood, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's Jacksonville office, said of the study. "It's just a suggestion."
The crested caracara is considered threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The designation means its numbers are dwindling, and it could end up on the endangered species list.
Discovery of a caracara
nesting site, about 3,000 feet from the Health First project, threatened to cause a substantial delay.
The crested caracara is a member of the falcon family, and eats live prey, as well as carrion.
Laura Manning, a Health First spokeswoman, said the caracara nesting issue delayed construction by a month, at most.
Ground-clearing should begin in two weeks, she said.
The health complex originally was scheduled to open in December 2007.
"Now, we might be looking at January in 2008," Manning said.
Manning said Health First will take the suggestion of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and participate in a study of the caracara habitat during the construction of the health facility.
The park's centerpiece is a $104 million, 100-bed hospital -- a project that is being challenged

[Waxbillman]

dam lawless yanks

Matthew

[kenny]

hi matt
it isnt as if they didnt have enough land anywhere else in the u.s.

ken8-)

[Waxbillman]

waste of money, don't they understand that Florida will soon be out at sea?

Matthew

[kenny]

hi matt
only last week i put a story up about a place in britain that stopped production because of nesting birds,those kind of money people have no compassion and the kind of people who made the dodo and the like extinct


ken

[kenny]

HOLLY HILL, Fla. -- A bird in Holly Hill is walking around with an arrow shot straight through its chest.
A metal arrow is lodged right through an ibis, WESH 2 News reported.
People who live in the area said they first noticed the injury on Thursday. He used to be with a flock, but because he can't fly very far, he's all alone.
Even with an arrow piercing both sides his chest, the baby ibis has managed to elude a team of bird rescuers for hours. They stood there with nets in hand on Monday, just baffled about how to capture him.

"This one's a pretty smart bird, though. He's eluding us pretty good," said Bob Hunt, of the Bird Rescue Center.
They've tried sneaking up on him and hiding behind trees ready to throw their nets, but the bird outsmarts them every time and flies into nearby trees.
"We've got to help him he's got an arrow through his chest. We'll get the bird, I think so," Hunt said.
They've also tried baiting him with fresh fish, but after hours of trying, the rescuers have had no luck.
Volunteers at the Bird Rescue Center want remove the arrow from his chest. They still can't figure out why somebody would shoot a bird with a bow and arrow.
"He's had a traumatic last three or four days, and he doesn't know what to do," said the rescue center's Marilyn Camp.
The bird has been staying at a retention pond at Nova Road and Sixth Street in Holly Hill. Neighbors said they can't believe someone would do this.
Rescuers said they won't give up, but they better do something quick because they're not the only one's set on catching the ibis. A hawk perched nearby has tried to attack several times, and if the arrow doesn't kill the bird, it just might be the hawk

[laurab]

Poor thing, what courage it has.

[kenny]

hi laura
i have been trying to find an update but had no success yet i will keep you posted though.the person who did it wants the same thing doing to them





http://www.feathered-friends.co.uk/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=450&stc=1&d=1152660299


i didnt really want to put this on here as i think it is terrible but see what you think anyway


ken

[Waxbillman]

the poor bugger, amazing it survived the impact of that gret thing going through its body

Matthew

[kenny]

hi all
here is an update of the ibis but they are having a right job...they are persistent though
fStruck By An Arrow, Bird Eludes Rescuers

July 12, 2006 6:00 a.m. EST


Ankit Gupta - All Headline News Staff Writer
Holly Hill, FL (AHN) - Despite a two foot arrow stuck through its body, an injured bird has confounded rescue workers for days by staying on the move.
The young white ibis was first seen shot with a dull arrow, which appears to have missed vital organs and muscles but remains lodged in the bird.
"I have captured hundreds of birds," Bob Hunt, a volunteer with the Bird Rescue Center in New Smyrna Beach, told the Asscociated Press. "You would think this would be one of the easier ones."
So far it hasn't been.


ken:shock:

[kenny]

hi all

Anger over bird poisoner's £850 fine

FRANK URQUHART
THE head gamekeeper on a sporting estate, who faced potential penalties of more than £500,000 for poisoning a rare raven and illegally possessing 118 common gull eggs, was fined £850 yesterday.
The punishment prompted anger from conservationists, who said it would do nothing to help threatened bird species.
Hector McNeil, 56, of Whitehillock, Glenbuchat, had previously admitted three charges under the Wildlife and Countryside Act at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
He could have faced a fine of £5,000 for each of the eggs he illegally possessed. But Sheriff Alexander Jessop fined him a total of £400 for the illegal possession of the eggs, £350 for poisoning the raven and a gull, and £100 for possessing the banned substance Cymag.
Sheriff Jessop told McNeil he appreciated that his job was to try to preserve the jobs on the North Glenbuchat estate while also preserving the rare species of birds on the land.
But Elsie Ashworth, of the RSPB, said: "We are very disappointed. To fine somebody only £350 for placing poisoned baits, casually and indiscriminately, on a hillside is unlikely to act as a deterrent."

ken

[kenny]

mmmmmmmmmmmmm only in america



Bird ban: How city will rid Long's Park of ducks, geese
Overpopulation, pollution cited. Move starts next month.

By Cindy Stauffer And Nate Drenner
Lancaster New Era
Published: Jul 12, 2006 1:38 PM EST

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Like unwanted guests chowing down at a dinner party, the 200 Canada geese and 40 farm ducks in Long’s Park are no longer welcome. Federal wildlife workers are going to start ridding the park of the birds next month.

They will remove the domestic ducks and take them to a farm, where their wings will be clipped so they can’t return.

Then they will harass the geese with dogs, remote-controlled boats and even lasers until the birds realize they are no longer welcome. In the spring, the workers will search out nests and treat goose eggs so they don’t hatch, as well as continue with the harassment plan.

The park also is adopting a strict no-feeding policy, so that well-meaning visitors don’t keep attracting the birds with junk-food meals of Wonder Bread.

The plan will work, said Chris Croson, district supervisor for the United States Department of Agriculture’s wildlife services.

Croson and his staff have followed similar plans at ponds and parks in Allentown, Bethlehem and Philadelphia.

People often do not believe that the workers will be able to drive away the intelligent and notoriously stubborn Canada goose.

“We get skeptics all the time,” he said. “The fact is, in a very short time frame, you’re going to see a huge difference.”

The hardest part of the plan may be persuading park visitors to follow the no-feeding policy, which got a lukewarm reception from visitors at the park today.

The plan is “bogus,” said Tammy Morrison, a local woman who walks mornings in the park.

David Hertzog said his 7-year-old daughter, Mercedes, loves to feed the birds.

“She doesn’t come for the playground,” he said. “She can play with those at any park. I live in Mount Joy, and it’s easily worth my drive.”

Croson recommends that the city adopt an ordinance allowing fines for people who don’t abide by the no-feeding policy.

Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray said today that the city first will try to get people to comply voluntarily.

“I don’t want to be heavy-handed,” he said. “I hope people who would feed animals would do it out of best intentions.

“We want to discourage them by letting them know: Rather than helping animals, in the long run they are hurting them and befouling the park.”

If the voluntary approach does not work, Gray said, then the city might consider fines.

The cost of the fall-and-spring eradication plan is almost $5,300. The Lancaster Sertoma Club, which supports the park, is paying for it. Gray said the city is very grateful for the assistance from the club.

Bird experts and watchers say the plan is a good one but will require persistence.

“It’s something you’re going to continue to have to do,” said David Zegers, a biology professor and ornithologist at Millersville University. “As soon as they stop this, there are going to be new birds that find that pond.”

Zegers said the eradication plan has several good aspects. One is the removal of the domestic ducks, which often attract Canada geese to where they congregate.

The other is the no-feeding policy, which keeps geese from eating unnatural foods.

“The stuff they’re giving them is the wrong kind of food,” says Jan Witmer, past president of the Lancaster County Bird Club. “It’s much better they fend for themselves.”

And all that bread is creating a huge problem when it follows the natural order of things.

A single Canada goose produces 1,000 pounds of poop a year. Multiply that by 200, and you understand why park workers have to powerwash the paths every other week and why the city has been struggling with pond pollution and other problems for years.

Bob Schutsky, the Peach Bottom owner of a bird-tour company called Bird Treks, said the geese likely will spread out to different ponds in the county, which should not pose a problem.

The eradication plan will return things to a more natural state, he said.

“It’s a totally unnatural situation that people have created,” he said of the park.

Croson said that wildlife workers will be focused on the geese, though mallard ducks and other birds also hang out at the park.

The goal is not to drive away every goose, he said, but he noted that the Long’s Park pond comfortably can support about five geese, not 200.

Croson said it might take two to three weeks to start to drive away the birds, but he anticipated that workers only will have to work a half-hour a day, three days a week.

Work will stop in November, as migratory birds start moving through the county. Those birds might come to the park for a few days but will move on, he said.

In the spring, workers will return to search for nests, coating freshly laid eggs with a spray of corn oil, which blocks the oxygen supply to the egg.

The workers will follow a Humane Society policy that calls for them to treat only eggs in which a bird has not yet developed (dropping them into a bucket of water to test when unsure; eggs that sink are still just yolk).

He agreed that the city likely will have to adopt a long-term plan.

“Managing geese is like managing weeds,” he said. “They always come back.”

That was the reaction of park visitors today, as well.

“They can fly back if they want,” said Melissa Smith, another local woman who walks mornings in the park. “My concern is that they won’t be harmed in any way.”

Todd and Anna Santiago of Landisville were feeding not the birds but the squirrels at the park this morning. They sometimes bring their children, ages 2 and 7, to the park for just that.

“It’s a good idea to cut down on (the number of fowl),” said Todd, but neither wants to see the ducks and geese completely gone.

“It’s a safe haven for them,” said Todd.

“It’s one of the main attractions,” added Anna.

Smith acknowledged that bread probably isn’t the best diet for birds.

However, neither she nor Morrison liked the plan to coat geese eggs so they will not hatch.

“That’s bogus too,” said Morrison, “just totally wrong.”

ken:roll:

[Waxbillman]

hello Ken

it can only be a good thing that that bird is incredibly hard to find, it must mean that is perfectly fit, and lucky i would say.

£850 for killing a raven, that definately isn't owt for them considering how much the toffs pay to shoot a bird.

what gets me is they think its a challenge to shot a lazy fat pheasant or grouse that are easy targets, and predictable flyiers, way not breed falcons and shoot them, i bet far few would die.

Matthew

[kenny]

hi all
another update on the ibis



Arrow-pierced Fla. bird may survive

2-foot-long spear appears to be working its way out of ibis

WKMG LOCAL 6 NEWS
http://cmsimg.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=A9&Date=20060714&am