Mississippi frat prank turns deadly for flamingoes

9th October 2014

By Emily Le Coz

JACKSON Miss. (Reuters) - A late-night fraternity prank at a zoo turned deadly for two pink flamingoes, authorities said, and left a Mississippi freshman in jail on Thursday, facing felony charges.

Devin Nottis, a 19-year-old at the University of Southern Mississippi, was charged with grand larceny, trespassing and two counts of animal cruelty after he and nine other students sneaked into the Hattiesburg Zoo early on Tuesday and stole a female flamingo, authorities said.

"My understanding is that they were on a scavenger hunt from the fraternity and were told to take a picture with a swan," said Rick Taylor, executive director of the Hattiesburg Convention Commission, which oversees the zoo's operations.

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Eurasian collared-dove now common resident

BY WALLY NORTHWAY, MISSISSIPPI BUSINESS JOURNAL : MAY 13, 2014 : Updated: May 13, 2014 3:38am

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The state's newest invasive species of birds has conquered the Magnolia State and is now a common resident of backyards, farms and all points in between from the Tennessee border to the Gulf Coast.

The good news is that the impact of the Eurasian collared-dove, at least for now, seems to be minimal on native species — particularly the mourning dove, a long-time favorite of hunters. In fact, the coming of the Eurasian collared-dove offers more opportunities for sportsmen and birders alike.

Scott Baker, a wildlife biologist who leads the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks' Dove Field Program, it is nearly impossible to taste the difference between the Eurasian collared-dove and the mourning dove.

Identifying the new dove seems to be the biggest challenge. The Eurasian collared-dove superficially resembles the mourning dove — the black "collar" around the nape of the neck is not visible from a distance, and they share many habits and habitat with their cousins. However, there are distinctive differences.

The Eurasian collared-dove is larger than a mourning dove with rounded, black-tipped wings and broad, squared tail that shows white feathers in flight. It is more like the native rock dove, or common pigeon, in its appearance, and its call is similar to the pigeon's "coo" as opposed to the mourning dove's "sad" lilting song for which it gets its name.

However, hunters and birders alike are getting more and more chances to positively identify the bird as its range continues to grow.

Introduced in the Bahamas in the 1970s — allegedly from birds that escaped during a robbery of a pet shop — Eurasian collared-doves reached Florida in the 1980s and quickly expanded their range across most of North America. According to The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, they rate a five out of 20 on the Continental Concern Score and were not on the 2012 Watch List.

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Device to scare birds causes Guard base lockdown

JACKSON, Miss. — After a report of gunfire, Air National Guard officials locked down a Mississippi base on Wednesday, but the noise thought to be shots turned out to be a device used to scare birds away from an airport runway, authorities said.

The lockdown of the base in Flowood, a Jackson suburb, also prompted Gov. Phil Bryant to return from an event on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and sent area law enforcement officers and first responders rushing to the scene.

A Madison police officer assigned to a federal task force was in a car accident on the way to the base, but was not seriously hurt, said Madison's assistant police chief, Robbie Sanders.

Adding to the confusion, the 172nd Airlift Wing had been preparing for a drill this week that would have simulated a gunman on the base.

The unit is near the Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport and uses the airport's runways.

Tim Powell, a Guard spokesman, said the airport uses a firing mechanism that makes noise to scare away birds.

Birds are hazardous to aircraft. Perhaps the most well-known bird strike in the United States happened in 2009 when a flock of geese brought down US Airways Flight 1549 and the captain safely landed the jet in the Hudson River.

Powell said someone thought the noise was a gun and reported it to the command center, which prompted the lockdown.

Airport CEO Dirk Vanderleest said the device is similar to a starter pistol and fires something like a bottle rocket. He said a buzzard was flying near the runway as a plane approached and an airport worker was trying to scare it away.

Vanderleest said the airport uses the device often and it hasn't caused a problem before. He said "heightened awareness" due to the upcoming drill likely contributed to the situation.

Powell said Guard commanders were pleased with the way the unit and civilian authorities responded to what they believed may have been a dangerous situation.

"Everybody responded correctly. Law enforcement responded very, very quickly," Powell said. "It's obvious the plan is working correctly. And that's the kind of plan that would save lives."

The governor returned to Jackson and went to the base after learning there were reports of gunfire, according to his spokesman, Mick Bullock.

"The governor received a call and took that call very seriously and responded appropriately," Bullock said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20130410/us-guard-base-bird-scare/?utm_hp_ref=media&ir=media

Rare sandhill cranes move to new Miss. home

GAUTIER, Miss. (AP) — Dressed in white canvas bags, their faces hidden behind a double layer of heavy black plastic mesh, the biologists turned avian foster parents spoke in hushed voices.

"We don't want to spook the cranes," whispered Megan Savoie, crane project director at the Audubon Species Survival Center.

Her concern was for a quartet of 6-month-old birds destined for theMississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge in Gautier — not for the dozens of adult Mississippi sandhill cranes calling to each other in creaky rattles on New Orleans' west bank.

While the four juveniles raised in Louisiana were heading toward the Mississippi Gulf Coast, so were two more raised in Florida.

But before they could be moved, they had to be caught.

The 4 ½-foot-tall cranes are gray with red foreheads. Only about 150 exist — about one-third as many as whooping cranes. They were among the first animals on the U.S. endangered species list, and their 19,300-acre refuge was the first created under the Endangered Species Act of 1973.

If not for Savoie and other biologists in New Orleans, Florida and Maryland, the refuge would be lacking. More than 95 percent of the 100 birds there either were raised in captivity or are descendants of such birds, said Scott Hereford, top wildlife biologist at the refuge.

Audubon hatched eight this year. Two died within days of unknown causes and one died of West Nile virus complications shortly before it was old enough to fly. Another was eaten by a rat snake. Those snakes have become a problem for Audubon's cranes. They'll eat either chicks or eggs — even decoy eggs used to get cranes to keep laying. Several had to have dummy eggs surgically removed, Savoie said.

Snakes are just the latest challenge at the center, which has raised 150 chicks to flying age since breeding birds were moved there in 1995 from Patuxent, Md. Audubon has 40 adult birds, and the White Oak Conservation Center north of Jacksonville, Fla., has 10.

Read more:  http://www.chron.com/news/science/article/Rare-sandhill-cranes-move-to-new-Miss-home-4083315.php