Cormorants in the Crosshairs

[UPDATE: Ticket prices for Seabird double bill lowered $10 per person, $15 for two ]

In May of this year, United States Department of Agriculture-Wildlife Services (USDA-WS) agents began killing nesting Double-crested Cormorants  (Phalacrocorax auritus) and oiling their eggs at East Sand Island, near the mouth of the Columbia River. East Sand Island is home to the biggest colony of these large, black seabirds in North America, with approximately 14,000 breeding pairs. The killing is being done by Wildlife Services at the behest of  the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)  with the goal of reducing the cormorants’ population at that location by two-thirds.1

sand+island+orientation

What does the Army Corps of Engineers hope to gain by killing cormorants? It is said that the “cull” of these birds is to protect the salmon runs of the Columbia River. Cormorants eat fish. Including the smolt of threatened or endangered species such as the distinct population group of lower Columbia Steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss).

In the 20th century over 60 dams were built in the Columbia river watershed, many by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). There is an average of one dam for every 72 miles of river.

While these dams irrigate and electrify the west, they also are the major threat, along with forestry, to western salmonids – the family of fish that includes salmon and Steelhead.2 Dams, as one can easily imagine, are an impassable barrier to the thousands of small streams these fish require for spawning.

As an example, before European or American colonists arrived in the Pacific Northwest, it is estimated that 3 million Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) entered this watershed through the mouth of the Columbia river each year. In 2014, just over 600,000 Sockeye returned, which was the largest run since 1938, when the Bonneville Dam was built.3

450px-ColumbiarivermapThe fourth largest river in North America by volume, the relatively steep gradient and high flow of the Columbia river made it irrestible to harness. The cost to the environment, and especially this watershed’s fish, has been very steep.


The decision to kill Double-crested Cormorants because of their supposed threat to salmonid recovery is hotly contested by environment and wildlife advocates. The Audubon Society of Portland filed a suit right before the shooting began alleging that USACE “is scapegoating cormorants for salmon declines in order to divert attention from the primary cause of salmon decline, the Corps’ ongoing failure to modify the manner in which it operates the Columbia River Hydropower System.”4 (for more on historical scapegoating of Cormorants, please read this excellent article published in Natural History magazine, To Kill a Cormorant.)

DCCO release 15 SEP 14 - 05Double-crested Cormorant upon release back to the wild after receivng treatment at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center (photo: Laura Corsiglia/BAX)


In early August, Portland Audubon released United States Fish and Wildlife documents that show that at least some government biologists were well aware, long before the so-called cull was approved, that such a slaughter of birds would have no impact on salmonid population.5

In support of Portland Audubon, documentary filmmaker Judy Irving (The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, Pelican Dreams) has made a short film, Cormorants in the Crosshairs, on this topic, collaborating with Bird Ally X co-founder/co-director Marie Travers. The film will premiere this Wednesday, August 19, in Portland, double billed with Pelican Dreams.

Questions from the audience will follow for Irving, Bob Sallinger of Portland Audubon, and another BAX co-founder/director, Monte Merrick, whose work is featured in Pelican Dreams.

If you’re in Portland on the 19th, please come out- all proceeds will benefit The Audubon Society of Portland to support their effort to protect these beautiful and strong birds, who’ve evolved with Salmon and Steelhead over millions of years.

 

A Seabird Double Bill poster

Your generosity makes it possible for us to engage our community and policy makers on ways to protect the lives and livelihoods of our wild neighbors. With your help we can act on the universal knowledge that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! Thank you for being a part of this life saving work!

 

1)http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2015/05/government_hunters_start_thinn.html

2)http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/fish/salmon.htm

3)http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/salmon/sockeye/columbia_river.html

4)http://audubonportland.org/news/may27-2015

5)http://audubonportland.org/issues/fws-cormorant-analysis

 

 

 

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The Marsh Hawk

To a Marsh Hawk in Spring

There is health in thy gray wing,
Health of nature’s furnishing.
Say, thou modern-winged antique,
Was thy mistress ever sick?
In each heaving of thy wing
Thou dost health and leisure bring,
Thou dost waive disease and pain
And resume new life again.

Henry David Thoreau


In early July, two nestling raptors were brought to our clinic, Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, in Bayside. The story of how they were found at first seemed improbable –  we were told their nest had been destroyed by a weed whacker near Fay Slough Wildlife Area, and also that another, a sibling, had been killed.

The two young birds of prey had been taken to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife office in Eureka. A Department employee brought them to us. You might wonder: how could you hit a hawk’s nest with a weed whacker? That’s the question we asked!

But these two birds were Marsh hawks, as Thoreau would have called them, or as we call them today, Northern Harriers (Circus  cyaneus). Northern Harriers nest on the ground, in clumps of vegetation, such as grass and vines.

Marsh hawks are easily identified by their distinctive white feathers on their lower back, the disc of feathers that surround their faces, which help them hear the small mammals they hunt,  and their low swooping flights over marsh, dune and field.

After four weeks in care, growing, learning to fly, and beginning to learn to hunt, these two birds were just released back at the Fay Slough Wildlife Area, where adult and juvenile Harriers were seen. These two joined them, perhaps even finding their parents, which would be terrific for them. It’s always nice to have some experienced adults around when you’re first making your way in the world.

NOHA release 2015 - 3One of our patients, still in the aviary, the “owl-like” facial disc of feathers is a very distinctive feature of the Northern Harrier.


 

NOHA release 2015 - 1In flight, the white band across the harrier’s loweer back is an easily seen mark that helps identify their species.


 

NOHA release 2015 - 5An older Harrier flies across the meadow, a couple hundred yards from the release site.


 

NOHA release 2015 - 6A patient no more,  this young Marsh hawk flies free!


 

NOHA release 2015 - 8The last glimpse. Wild and free, again.


Each one of these birds ate 2-4 rats a day! That was close to 300 dollars just for the food to raise these two hawks. Your support makes our work possible. You can help us feed our predator patients by purchasing a gift certificate at our supplier, Layne Labs, or you can make a donation directly to Bird Ally X and Humboldt Wildlife Care Center using the donate button on this page.

Thank you for being a part of this life saving work!

 

All photographs Laura Corsiglia/Bird Ally X

 

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Bobcat Trapping Banned in California

bobcat fortuna blogpost - 5

With a 3-2 vote, the California Fish and Game Commission opted for a complete ban on Bobcat (Lynx rufus) trapping in our state as the most sensible way to implement the Bobcat Protection Act of 2013.

(for more information on the Bobcat Protection Act)

With two new members of the Commission, the outcome of today’s meeting was anything but certain.  However, they both came to the meeting well-informed, and prepared with excellent questions. At the end of discussion, it was the new guys who made and seconded the motion to implement a state wide ban on the cruel practice.

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bobcat fortuna blogpost - 2

bobcat fortuna blogpost - 4Assemblymember Richard Bloom of Santa Monica addresses the rally. Bloom was the author of AB1213, the Bobcat Protection Act

bobcat fortuna blogpost - 6Tom O’Key, whose discovery of a Bobcat trap on his property near Joshua Tree National Park led to the ban on trapping, addresses the Commission

bobcat fortuna blogpost - 7Humboldt County Supervisor Mark Lovelace (3rd District) addresses the Commission on behalf of a complete ban.


Bird Ally X/Humboldt Wildlife Care Center staff and volunteers were part of the excellent turn out of wildlife advocates.

At BAX we feel proud and privileged to be among the many organizations that worked for this ban, sent letters, circulated petitions, and organized educational events. We are grateful for our colleagues who collaborated to make the vision of real protection of Bobcats a reality, among them Project Bobcat, Center for Biological Diversity, Project Coyote, and Environmental Protection Information Center.

The meeting was held at the Riverwalk Lodge in Fortuna. After last year’s decision to list the Gray wolf (Canis lupus) as endangered in California at the same venue, Humboldt County is gaining a reputation as a place where our responsibilities to our wild neighbors are taken seriously.

 

Your support makes our work possible, both treating injured and orphaned wild animals, and advocating for policies and practices that reduce injury. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure.

Want to help? Become a member today!

Thank you for your support and for your love of wildlife.

Bobcat-illustration

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