Newsletter of theSanta Monica Bay
Audubon Society
Newsletter of the
.....
.....
Thanks go out to Jeannette Boller, Bob Gurfield, and two Anonymous Donors for recent contributions to SMBAS.
Dogs
on the Trail, Even on a Leash, Give Birds a Fright. Dog walking: good for
you, good for your pet. Not so good for birds, apparently.
Australian researchers have found that walking leashed dogs along
woodland paths leads to a significant reduction in the number and diversity of
birds in the area, at least over the short term.
Peter B. Banks and Jessica V. Bryant of the University of New South Wales
surveyed birds along woodland trails near Sydney shortly after dogs were walked
on them or after people walked alone. All kinds of dogs were involved, big and
small, purebred and mutt. As a control, they also surveyed birds on trails that
no one, human or canine, had recently walked on.
Dr. Banks said the study was an outgrowth of his interest in
predator-prey interactions. “Here you have a predator that is being walked
through the bush quite regularly,” he said.
The researchers chose trails in places where dogs were banned and in
other areas where dog walking was common, expecting different results in each.
“We thought that where there was regular dog walking birds would get used to
it,” Dr. Banks said. “Well, they didn’t.”
Regardless of the type of area, dog walking led to a 35 percent reduction
in the number of bird species and a 41 percent reduction in overall bird
numbers, compared with the control. (People walking alone caused some
disturbance, but less than half that caused by people with dogs.)
The study, published in Biology Letters, provides support for park
managers and others on the same side of what can be a heated debate over dogs in
natural areas.
“The problem is there are other uses for an area” besides dog
walking, said Dr. Banks, who described himself as “not a dog hater.” “If
dogs walk throughout an area, you’re just not going to get the same
bird-watching experience or ecotourism experience.”
-- Henry Fountain
Huge
victory for the California Condor. In a major victory for Audubon
California and other organizations that advocate on behalf of the endangered
California Condor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed landmark legislation
in early October to ban the use of lead ammunition from important habitat areas.
Your calls, letters and emails helped make this victory happen.
“This is a great day for the California Condor and the State of
California,” said Glenn Olson, executive director of Audubon California.
“This is really an indication of how much of an impact we can have when we all
work together for a common goal.”
In addition to working with hunting groups and others to raise awareness
about the dangers of lead ammunition, Audubon California has lobbied actively
for protections at both the policy and legislative levels of state government.
Members such as you have made a tremendous impact by making your voices heard
through hundreds of calls, letters and emails to Schwarzenegger and other policy
makers.
Olson commended Schwarzenegger for signing the Ridley-Tree Condor
Conservation Act (AB 821), but gave special thanks to Assemblyman Pedro Nava who
authored the bill.
The new law will require the use of non-lead centerfire ammunition within
the Department of Fish and Game’s deer hunting zones within current and
potential condor range in California.
Condors frequently feed on animal carcasses left behind by hunters, and
ingest dangerously high levels of lead from ammunition. This poisoning has
threatened to halt the progress we have made in bringing the Condor back from
extinction.
-- Audubon California
USFWS and the
Western Snowy Plover. The long-awaited recovery plan from the U.S. Fish
& Wildlife Service for the Pacific coast population of the Western Snowy
Plover is an important step in the right direction, according to Audubon
California, the leading advocate for bird conservation in the state. Of
particular concern, however, are the lack of a funding mechanism for recovery
programs and a proposed additional regulation that is not yet part of the plan,
but may ultimately weaken the Western Snowy Plover’s current protections.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has indicated that it will be
pursuing issuance of a “4(d) rule” that as originally proposed would
undermine the conservation protection that the Western Snowy Plover currently
enjoys. For its part, Audubon California is hoping that the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service will revise its earlier proposal and ensure that the final rule
has some teeth.
“This recovery plan is full of good intentions, but without funding for
ongoing recovery programs or regulatory protections, it is unlikely to provide
the help that this important threatened species deserves,” said Glenn Olson,
executive director of Audubon California. “We are long past the point with
this species where cooperation and volunteerism alone can make a difference. We
need a plan with some teeth.”
The Western Snowy Plover is a sparrow-sized shorebird that breeds and
winters on sandy beaches from Washington to Baja California, Mexico. The vast
majority of its population is in California, and the high summer use of the
state’s beaches and nearby coastal development has devastated the bird’s
breeding populations.
Audubon has been a leading advocate for the Western Snowy Plover since
the 1970s, and was instrumental in getting the Pacific coast population listed
as a “threatened” species in 1993. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in
2006 denied several requests to delist the Pacific coast Western Snowy Plover,
noting that while the species had made significant progress, its numbers were
still well below its historical breeding population.
“The Pacific coast population of the Western Snowy Plover could well
become a conservation success story, but only if the plan is backed up with
regulatory protections and a firm commitment from the local, state and federal
agencies overseeing the recovery effort,” added Olson. “We will continue to
look for a strong commitment from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on
this.”
-- Audubon California
4-inch
PVC Pipes Versus Cavity-nesting Birds. Our active birding community should
take note. There is a deadly connection between these pipes, and any similar,
hollow, vertical structures with openings at the top. They constitute a death
trap for some of our favorite species: Ash-throated Flycatchers, Cactus Wrens,
even a Verdin, to name a few. Where pipes have been perforated, raptors,
having landed on them as perches, sometimes get their talons stuck in the holes.
They have been found there dangling dead. Besides birds searching for cavity
nest sites, any curious small bird is at risk for falling in such hole and being
forever trapped.
There may be some experienced desert bird watchers, such as Keith
Axelson, who have known of this problem for a long time, but it was a shocking
surprise for me to learn of it recently, first hand. A new owner-builder in the
Kelso Creek watershed near Weldon this summer discovered such pipes on his newly
developed property. Keith had alerted him to the pipe’s significance. They
then pulled out and emptied those they could find, 5 pipes in all, 17
identifiable birds, on two occasions. The pipes had been installed many years
earlier, in order to make metal claim-markers, or other significant surveyed
sites close by, more visible. In the packed debris from the bottoms of the tubes
were the remains of many unfortunate cavity-nesting species. Some, obviously,
were difficult to identify, having expired there long ago.
Be alert for this type of hazard as regards any vertical, hollow,
4-inch, 3-inch, or 2-inch tube of any material in your own vicinity as well as
on desert lands. Following is a letter from the BLM on the subject which
explains what you should do whenever, wherever these posts may be found:
“Bureau of Land Management Policy prohibits the use of unfilled
perforated pipes or uncapped pipes for mining claim corner monuments. However,
sometimes the plastic caps deteriorate in the sun and blow off the pipe. Many of
the older claims that had uncapped PVC pipes were abandoned. These corner
markers are a death trap to cavity nesting birds such as the Ash-throated
Flycatcher that entered to check out the cavity for nesting purposes. Raptors
can get their talons caught in the holes of perforated PCV pipes, and will die
of starvation and exposure stuck to the pipe. If you notice any of these pipes,
lay them sideways, fill them in, or temporarily cap them with rocks or whatever
you can use. Then contact the BLM with the exact location so that they can be
removed if they are inactive mining claims or can be capped if they are active
mining claims. Contact numbers are: Ridgecrest Field Office -
760-384-5426; Bakersfield BLM - 661-391-6000.”
-- Mary Prismon, Conservation Co-Chair, SMBAS (photos supplied by Keith
Axelson)
No ice, No bears, No
eiders. A new U.S. Geological Service study predicts that two-thirds of the
world’s polar bears - including all of Alaska’s population - are likely to
disappear by 2050 due to global warming. As the planet heats up, the bear’s
sea-ice habitat melts, leaving the animals to starve and drown. The Center for
Biological Diversity has thrust the polar bear into the heart of the battle
against global warming by petitioning to list it under the Endangered Species
Act and suing the Bush administration for refusing to take steps to protect it.
See stories in National Geographic http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/070910-polar-bears.html
and the Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_6828579
.
Defenders of Wildlife report that the Spectacled Eider may lose winter
feeding grounds due to warming of the water and its consequent attraction to
fish species that compete with the eider for food. Also, their summer breeding
grounds on the Arctic coastal plain are drying up as the permafrost melts, which
will replace summer wetlands with shrublands and forests.
Sea ice is melting faster than most global warming models predict. On
September 16, Arctic sea ice reached a record low of 1.59 million square miles,
shattering the previous 2005 record of 2.05 million square miles. Compared to
2005, this year’s record minimum represents a loss of 460,000 square miles of
sea ice - an area roughly the size of California and Texas combined. See stories
on MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20904180/
and in the Rocky Mountain News http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5703538,00.html
.
SMBAS
Course in Bird ID. This spring, SMBAS will offer a five-session field course
in bird identification. The course is intended to help new or novice birders
improve their observational skills while learning how to identify some of the
species commonly found in the LA region. Classes will be held on Saturday
mornings, beginning in February. Since the course will focus on the birds of the
LA basin, the classes will held in local parks or natural areas.
Enrollment is limited to 8. A donation of $50 per SMBAS member or $75 per
non-member will be requested. For further information, please email Cindy
Schotté or phone her at 310-457-5448.
Personality
Plants: Wooly Blue Curls. “What’s that?” my friend exclaimed. Although
not really a “plant person,” his delight was obvious.
“Wooly blue curls. Super!” To see this shrub in bloom was the reward
for scrabbling up the trail to the north side of Castro Crest.
A Costa’s hummingbird zipped off, squeaking its pique at being
disturbed. Strongly aromatic, the wooly blue curls swarms with hummingbirds,
drawing spring migrants like Black-chins and Rufous, as well as Anna’s and
Allen’s.
That alone would recommend this charming mid-sized member of the mint
family, but in flower its beauty is breathing-taking.
He caressed the soft magenta fuzz coating stems and buds and fingered the
long, lavender stamens that give the flowers their ethereal sparkle.
“Do you grow it?”
“Oh, god! I wish. I’m sure it’s too sensitive to put up with the
days of overcast and fog that blanket the immediate coast for months on end
where I live.”
“It loves John Reinhold’s garden in Encino, though. Even volunteers
new babies. He says it must have a clear view of the sky and no water after if
goes dormant.”
But it would be worth it, I think, fantasizing that this shy, fairy-like
plant would consent to grace my garden.
Personality traits: delicate, sparkling, aromatic, hummingbird pleaser, choosy.
--- Margaret Huffman
smbas