Montana hailstorm slaughters 11,000 birds

Winds of 70 mph whipped baseball-sized hail at a Montana lake. Thousands of birds fell victim.

By Matthew CappucciAugust 21

Thousands of birds were killed on Aug. 11 when a destructive hailstorm lashed regions northwest of Billings, Mont. According to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the supercell thunderstorm “killed and maimed more than 11,000 waterfowl and wetland birds at the Big Lake Wildlife Management Area west of Molt.” Molt is about 20 miles west-northwest of Billings, Montana’s largest city.

According to the news release, biologist Justin Paugh estimates that about a quarter of the birds at the lake were injured or killed. About 5 percent of surviving ducks and a third of living pelicans/cormorants “show some sign of injury or impaired movement.”

The Storm Prediction Center had already been calling for potential large, damaging hail as early as 12 hours in advance, outlining Billings in a narrow corridor of “significant severe” potential. Their morning bulletin advised that volatile atmospheric parameters would “favor supercells initially with large hail and possibly a couple of tornadoes.” By late afternoon, storms had developed, quickly becoming severe. Some storms towered nearly 10 miles high.

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New measures approved to protect birds from contaminated pit

March 03, 2017 at 5:11 pm | By MATT VOLZ

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Federal officials said Friday they have approved new measures meant to prevent a repeat of last fall's mass bird deaths in a contaminated former open-pit mine in Montana, including noise-making cannons and radar and laser systems.

The measures also include the use of strobe lights and remote-controlled boats and aircraft to haze birds off the toxic water, plus strategically placed decoys to divert birds away from the Berkeley Pit in Butte, part of the nation's largest Superfund site.

Some of the technology can be deployed immediately, while others — including a laser net covering the pit — will need additional regulatory approval, said Nikia Greene, the project manager for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"We're going to try all that are available at this time," Greene said. "I know the cannons are available. Things like that, we're going to try right away."

Last November, between 3,000 and 4,000 migrating snow geese died when they sought refuge in the pit filled with 50 billion gallons of toxic, metal-laden water. The sheer number rendered ineffective the existing bird deterrent system, which includes noisemakers called Phoenix Wailers.

The spring migration season began on Wednesday, increasing the urgency to approve the new measures. If they are effective, the Berkeley Pit's waterfowl mitigation program will be permanently updated to include them for the fall migration and beyond, Greene said.

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Thousands of snow geese die in Montana after landing on contaminated water

Huge flock of migratory birds landed on acidic waters of an open pit mine where employees attempted to scare them off

Associated Press

Wednesday 7 December 2016 01.28 GMT 

Several thousand snow geese have died after a snowstorm forced large flocks to take refuge in the acidic, metal-laden waters of an old open pit mine in Montana.

Mark Thompson, environmental affairs manager for mine company Montana Resources, said witnesses described the pit as like “700 acres of white birds” on 28 November. 

Along with Atlantic Richfield, Montana Resources is responsible for Berkeley Pit in Butte.

Since 28 November, employees of MR and Arco had used spotlights, noise makers and other efforts to scare or “haze” the birds off the water and prevent others from landing.

The companies estimated that more than 90% of the birds had been chased off by 29 November, Thompson said.

Workers received some advance notice about the incoming flock from an off-duty Montana Resources employee about 25 miles away, who called to report there were about 25,000 geese in the air in Anaconda, Thompson said.

“I can’t underscore enough how many birds were in the Butte area that night,” Thompson said. “Numbers beyond anything we’ve ever experienced in our 21 years of monitoring by several orders of magnitude.”

The employees worked hard to save the birds, he said. 

Typically, Butte sees between 2,000 and 5,000 birds all year, including spring and water migration, Thompson said.

The estimated death toll is based on drone and aircraft flights over the pit, which holds about 45bn gallons (175bn litres) of water.

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Foresta The Missing Pet Pigeon Finds Fifth-Grade Owner At School

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Everyone has heard of homing pigeons, but Montana fifth-grader Tara Atkins apparently has a "schooling pigeon."

The pet bird named Foresta had disappeared Tuesday from Tara's home in the Elkhorn Mountains near Montana City, but it was back in her arms Wednesday after it showed up at her school about 5 air miles away in Helena.

"This pigeon has never been to town before," Atkins' mother, Krys Holmes, said. "We got her as a baby, and she just hangs out at home."

The bird caused a ruckus when it arrived at Central-Linc Elementary, first sitting on teacher Rob Freistadt's head, the Independent Record reported (http://bit.ly/1tp0Gwt).

Staff members and a police officer tried for an hour to corral the bird that Principal Vanessa Nasset said was just "sky-bombing everyone."

Nasset asked Tara for help catching the bird after a parent remembered she had a pet pigeon.

Tara recognized Foresta by her distinct coloration and the blue band around her leg.

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Wind farm tries to minimize bird deaths

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — An operations center in California can shut down wind turbines 1,200 miles away in Montana in fewer than 30 seconds when the flight patterns of golden eagles and other raptors indicate a potential collision in the making.

The quick response is possible because of tracking radar, "detect and deter" cameras and human spotters called "bio-monitors" deployed at Rim Rock Wind Facility in Montana's Glacier and Toole counties.

Greg Copeland of San Francisco-based NaturEner USA, the owner, says the combination of technology and trained avian biologists form a tiered alert system that's proving to be effective, so far, at preventing the turbine blades from striking birds.

"We think this three-layered system provides the best kind of protections that have been deployed anywhere in the United States," Copeland said.

The 189-megawatt wind farm with 126 turbines is Montana's largest.

It's located near the Kevin Rim, a series of sandstone cliffs 20 miles northwest of Shelby.

Golden eagles, ferruginous hawks and other species nest in the rocky outcroppings, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Montana Audubon previously have raised concerns about the location of the wind facility in prime raptor habitat.

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Frenchtown rancher agrees to conserve 1,000 acres of prime bird habitat

FRENCHTOWN, Mont. — A Frenchtown rancher has agreed to conserve 1,000 acres that are home to 80 bird species.

The addition to a 2009 conservation easement was announced this week by Five Valleys Land Trust.

Trust executive director Grant Kier says the Boyer family has farmed and ranched the property for more than a century. Kier says Joe Boyer wanted to make sure that legacy continued after watching other land in the area turn into subdivisions and gravel pits.

The Missoulian reports (http://bit.ly/SN2q3c ) the trust has been talking with Boyer since 1999.

The addition brings two more parcels into a 2009 conservation easement.

The project was supported by $412,000 in public and private funding sources.
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/28d04daaca6a4cbd8b54e7a454fcedc4/MT--Conservation-Easement