Party balloons linked to marine bird deaths

Bird deaths linked to discarded plastic tape

May 2012. David and Anna Batty from the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles have contacted RSPB Scotland to alert the conservation charity to the harm being done to local wildlife by discarded plastic tape.

Mr Batty said: "We are alarmed about the impact party balloons are having on marine life. We regularly pick up the tape that is attached to the balloons on Garry beach in Tolsta. Last week we found a dead guillemot with the tape wound around its leg. Whilst it cannot be proved that the tape killed the bird it shows how easily the tape gets caught in feet and wings.

"We also pick up about ten to twenty long pieces of plastic tape each week used, presumably, to fasten bait boxes but then discarded overboard. It also must catch in gills or other parts of fish. We know that the stuff we pick up off the beach is literally a drop in the ocean of sea debris however, if people just picked up obvious dangerous litter off the beach and put it in the bin rather than let the tide take it back out, it would help a bit to counter the debris soup in the oceans." 

‘No doubt that rubbish in the seas is having a serious effect on the marine environment'
RSPB conservation manager Stuart Benn said: "There is no doubt that rubbish in the seas is having a serious effect on the marine environment. David and Anna are to be congratulated for doing their bit to help offset the impact that human activities are having. I hope many more people will follow their example.

Sign the petition
"We know that much of our marine life, above and below the waves, is disappearing under increasing pressure from human activities. For instance, sandeels, the staple food for many seabirds, are just not there anymore and chicks are starving to death. For that reason the RSPB is campaigning to have more protection given to the precious marine habitats around the coast. We urge readers to consider signing our petition at: www.rspb.org.uk/marinepetitionHopefully we can begin to turn the tide."

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/party-balloons.html

Drought in USA has killed 10,000 birds so far this year

Avian cholera spreading amongst crowded birds

April 2012. Officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) are estimating that more than 10,000 migrating birds have died so far this year because of reduced water flow to the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon and California. Officials say the final death toll may be close to 20,000 birds.

Only 50% of wetland is wet
So far this year, the refuge has only received enough water to cover half its 30,000 acres of wetland marshes. That has forced the 2 million birds that migrate through the area, which is a key part of the Pacific Flyway for migrating birds, to congregate in much smaller spaces, thereby creating a climate much more favourable to spreading, quickly fatal, avian cholera. In order to reduce the further spread of the disease, volunteers have been dispatched to pick up carcasses of the dead birds and incinerate them in FWS furnaces.

The problem is that it has been a dry year and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) hasn't allowed water into the refuge since December. BOR parcels out water for users, and their first priority for water that might go to the refuge is for endangered fish, followed by various tribal responsibilities, and then farming needs. Some experts say that the refuge could go dry in three months if water is not provided.

Wildlife is at the bottom of the pecking order
"The consequences to shutting off water to the Lower Klamath Refuge are enormous and unacceptable. We cannot continue to place wildlife at the bottom of the pecking order for so many things and not expect that at some point, we won't face dire repercussions. Federal, state, and local officials need to come up with a plan that divides the water shortage compromises up more equitably," said Dr. George Fenwick, President of American Bird Conservancy.

USA's first waterfowl refuge
Established in 1908 along the northern border of California and the southern border of Oregon, the Lower Klamath Refuge was the nation's first waterfowl refuge. This 53,600-acre refuge is a varied mix of shallow freshwater marshes, open water, grassy uplands, and croplands (that are managed to provide feeding, resting, nesting, and brood-rearing habitat for waterfowl and other water birds. Significant species of birds that use the reserve include the American White Pelican; White-faced Ibis; Snow, Ross', and White-fronted Geese; Peregrine Falcon; Pintail; Gadwall; Canvasback; Western and Eared Grebe; Black Tern; and Tri-coloured Blackbird. Snow Geese and Northern Pintails seem to be the hardest hit from the disease this year.

Less than 25% of original size
Historically, the Klamath Basin was dominated by approximately 185,000 acres of shallow lakes and freshwater marshes. In 1905, BOR initiated the Klamath Reclamation Project to convert the lakes and marshes of the Lower Klamath and Tule Lake areas to agricultural lands. As these wetlands receded, the reclaimed lands were opened to agricultural development and settlement. Today, less than 25% of the historic wetlands remain. To conserve much of the Basin's remaining wetland habitat, six National Wildlife Refuges have been established; Lower Klamath, Tule Lake, and Clear Lake Refuges in California, and Bear Valley, Upper Klamath, and Klamath Marsh Refuges in southern Oregon. Prior to the changes in the wetlands, the area attracted peak fall concentrations of waterfowl over three times the current levels.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/usa-drought.html

Thud! Toronto's fatal bird crashes land lawsuits

TORONTO, Canada — Lesley Sloan’s workdays at an office tower in north Toronto were marked by the chilling impact of birds against her sixth-floor window.

“I’ll never be able to remove the sound of the thuds from my head,” she told an Ontario court last week.

Sloan, an administrative assistant at Ricoh Canada, would see the macabre results at the start and end of her shift — scores of broken, feathered bodies at the foot of three office towers, which make up a complex called the Yonge Corporate Centre.

The complex is accused of being the most lethal for bird collisions in Toronto, killing or injuring more than 22,000 migratory birds from 2000 to 2010, according to FLAP, a non-profit group that has tracked bird collision deaths and injuries in the city since 1993.

That alleged lethal record has landed the giant property owner Cadillac Fairview Corp. in court, accused of breaking a federal law, the Species at Risk Act, and two provincial ones, the Environmental Protection Act and the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. The company has pleaded not guilty to charges brought against it by the Canadian environmental group, Ecojustice.

In what observers believe could become a precedent-setting lawsuit, Ecojustice lawyer Albert Koehl alleges the birds are lured to their bone-crushing deaths by reflective panes of glass that cover the buildings from top to bottom. They mirror the sky and nearby trees, tricking birds into thinking they can fly right through, Koehl argues.

The case highlights what some ornithologists describe as a largely ignored carnage in North America.

In the United States, collisions with buildings kill an estimated 100 million to 1 billion birds annually, says Daniel Klem, a leading ornithologist at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. By comparison, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska killed an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 birds.

“Yet the far greater toll by sheet glass largely goes unnoticed, ignored, or simply not understood by most professional and non-professional ornithologists and conservationists,” Klem writes.

Read on:  http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/canada/120410/angry-bird-like-crashes-land-lawsuit