Nature's great bird migration under threat by you-know-who

by Froma Harrop

Apr 5, 2018

You could call it the Nebraska bird eclipse. At the first dart of morning light, so many sandhill cranes take off from the banks along the Platte River they darken the sky.

This primeval spectacle, part of a massive spring migration from South America to the northern reaches, draws viewers from around the world.

For a century — through depression, world war and countless other national crises — American presidents, Republican and Democrat alike, have honored laws ensuring the survival of these migrating species.

Until this one.

Since Inauguration Day, the Trump administration has engaged in a tireless assault on the nation’s environmental protections.

It should thus surprise no one that it is now going after the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

Three days before Christmas, it issued a legal opinion that the law doesn’t prohibit the incidental killing of these birds. Penalties for doing so vanished.

Gutting the law gives industry a free pass to stop taking steps to minimize the deaths of migrating birds. And what makes the move especially perverse is that the things companies can do to comply cost, in most cases, mere pocket change.

For example, birds flying overhead often confuse open waste pits for wetlands. They land in the toxic muck and die. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that up to 1 million birds are killed every year in oil pits and evaporation ponds.

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Rare whooping crane, one of perhaps 450 in the world, spotted near North Platte

By TAMMY BAIN tammy.bain@nptelegraph.com

 A whooping crane has found itself among sandhill cranes in the area recently. The rare bird is one of only hundreds in the world.

A group of residents who gathered near the Golden Spike Tower on Sunday spotted a bird so rare that only about 450 exist in the world.

Whooping cranes tend to migrate north later than sandhill cranes. But a lone bird may end up hanging out with sandhill cranes, as they eat and nest together, said Julie Geiser, public information officer for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

While Geiser said sandhill cranes usually travel in a “family group,” the groups usually see a lone whooping crane as “just another crane,” said Joel Jorgensen, nongame bird program manager for Nebraska Game and Parks.

Because of the bird’s federal and state endangered status, Geiser and Jorgensen emphasized the importance of not harassing the whooping crane.

“If people see this bird, they will hopefully stay in their vehicle,” Jorgensen said.

If you approach a bird with a camera and it starts walking away, “you should just go back to your vehicle,” Jorgensen said. “You’re not going to get a better picture anyway. It’s best to use your vehicle as a blind.”

Jorgensen described whooping cranes as “very weary birds.”

“They’ve always got to be aware of predators wherever they are,” he said.

While taking a bird census presents challenges, Jorgensen said that last winter scientists estimated about 450 whooping cranes exist in the world. In some areas, experts are “trying to get other populations up and going,” he said.

That includes introducing whooping cranes to one another to encourage mating, but those groups aren’t self-sustaining, so they aren’t included in final totals.

“There’s uncertainty whether those birds will be self-sustaining or whether they’ll become a population,” he said.

In the early 20th century, Jorgensen said, the whooping cranes were down to 15 or 16 individuals, “right on the cusp of going extinct.”

As with many other species, the reason for near-extinction was hunters.

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Still soaring: Game officials say more bald eagles than ever are nesting in Nebraska

STEVE FREDERICK Special Projects Editor sfrederick@starherald.com

Feb 19, 2018 Updated Feb 20, 2018

Philadelphia’s not the only place where eagles are soaring.

A record 209 active bald eagle nests were estimated in Nebraska in 2017 by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. The total exceeds 2016’s record of 162 and represents a 56 percent increase. That continues an upswing in the state’s nesting eagle population over the past few years.

If you think you’ve been seeing more bald eagles around, you’re right. The magnificent predator has gone from being virtually nonexistent as a breeding species in the state to becoming relatively common in less than a quarter century. In 1991, Nebraska recorded its first successful bald eagle nest in about 100 years. By 2007, the number of nests had grown to 54 active nests.

Bald eagles were on federal and state endangered species lists as late as 2007 and 2008, respectively. Eagles have now become relatively numerous, according to Joel Jorgensen, Nebraska Game and Parks’ non-game bird program manager. The large number of nests provided impetus for the Commission to adjust its survey methods last year in order to reduce its resource commitment and improve efficiency. The Commission devised an innovative approach, in which biologists surveyed only a proportion of known nests and then extracted information from its extensive database, as well as other sources, to generate a reliable estimate for 2017.

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Nebraska records rare sighting of black vulture

By Michael O’Connor / World-Herald staff writer

Oct 31, 2017 Updated 7 hrs ago

A creature that’s dark as night and rare in Nebraska has landed here just in time for Halloween.

A black vulture was found alive in a backyard in Lincoln earlier this month. It’s the first documented case of a black vulture in Nebraska since 1916, said Joel Jorgensen, a bird program manger for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. A century ago, a black vulture was found in south-central Nebraska.

The appearance of the vulture, a Southern species, has created a stir among local bird watchers, with word spreading about the rare find.

“Most birders would want to see a black vulture in Nebraska, just because it’s been so long,’’ said Mark Brogie of the Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union. “(They’d) like to cross it off their list.”

The vulture was taken to Fontenelle Forest Raptor Recovery center in Elmwood, Nebraska.

Betsy Finch, the center’s rehabilitation manager, said the vulture didn’t appear ill or injured but was not flying. The vulture is being fed mice and rats and is doing just fine, Finch said.

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Nebraska farmers take birds under their wing

Posted: Sunday, June 14, 2015 3:00 am

By David Hendee World-Herald News Service

KIMBALL — They’re nicknamed the prairie ghost.

They’re mountain plovers, but they aren’t birds of the mountains. They prefer the arid, shortgrass prairie.

They’re shorebirds, but they live nowhere near the shore.

A mystery bird few Nebraskans have heard of and fewer have seen, migratory mountain plovers are gaining a foothold in a corner of western Nebraska where dozens of farmers and ranchers have taken them under wing.

The bird has been a threatened species in Nebraska since 1976 and once was considered for a nationally threatened or endangered listing.

This is tillage time in the high Plains, when farmers churn up weeds and other vegetation in fields lying idle this season to preserve precious moisture in the ground for a future crop. This also is nesting season for mountain plovers in those same fallow fields. Across thousands of acres of cropland, farmers steer tons of tractor and implement steel around fragile plover nests scratched into the dirt.

How a ground-nesting bird that almost no local landowner could have named a decade ago can divert a tractor and gain recognition as one of the region’s natural treasures reflects the success of an initiative that is a model of whole-landscape conservation in the Great Plains, said Joel Jorgensen, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission’s nongame bird program manager in Lincoln.

The challenge for conservation on private land is to find ways to protect habitat without inhibiting farming operations, especially on farmland used in ways not always perfectly compatible with conserving a species, Jorgensen said.

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South-central Nebraska bird sanctuary expands

GIBBON, Neb. —Audubon Nebraska has bought nearly 600 acres that will be protected as a rest stop for migrating sandhill and whooping cranes and other waterfowl.

The land sits along the Platte River at the Rowe Bird Sanctuary near Gibbon in south-central Nebraska. In an announcement Wednesday, Audubon Nebraska said the property was purchased for $2.4 million from a local family. The money came from several sources, including the Nebraska Environmental Trust Fund.

Bill Taddicken is director of the Iaian Nicolson Audubon Center at the sanctuary, and he says the location of the property "near the middle of a critical habitat complex makes it a key component of Platte River conservation needs. Now, 4½ miles of contiguous habitat on both sides of the river will be protected."

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Escaped emu loose in Cass County

May 13, 2014 7:35 pm • By NICHOLAS BERGIN / Lincoln Journal Star

A large, flightless bird is believed to be roaming eastern Cass County.

Authorities last saw Lucy the emu on Friday, running toward Schilling Wildlife Management Area.

On Tuesday, they said they think she was still at large somewhere south of the confluence of the Platte and Missouri rivers.

Lucy escaped from her owner’s farm near Louisville on April 27. The owner said he has had her and a male emu named Ricky as pets for the past eight or nine years.

Emus are native to Australia and can weigh 90 to 150 pounds and stand 6 feet tall as adults. They live between 10 and 20 years in the wild.

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Birds being poisoned in a Nebraska city

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Officials have poisoned hundreds of starlings in the south-central Nebraska city of Grand Island, hoping to reduce the health threats posed by the bird droppings.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the toxic chemical being used won't affect people, other animals or any other birds.

Residents are urged to use gloves or shovels when picking up and disposing of the bird carcasses.

The city began poisoning starlings back in 2005.

Health officials say starlings can spread salmonella, E. coli and West Nile and can perpetuate a fungus soil known as histoplasmosis.

Information from: The Grand Island Independent, http://www.theindependent.com

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Birds-being-poisoned-in-a-Nebraska-city-4092864.php#ixzz2EHXJRqTe

Rare snowy owl faces difficult recovery

Seeing a rare bird isn't always a feather in a birdwatcher's cap.

Denise Lewis of Bellevue has seen two snowy owls — an Arctic bird with radiant white plumage — in Nebraska this month. She hopes that they are the last.

Lewis, outreach coordinator for Raptor Recovery Nebraska, retrieved an ailing, female snowy owl from the grounds of the Hilton Omaha downtown at midday Monday. The raptor is believed to be the same bird that perched on the back side of the CenturyLink Center Omaha, thrilling dozens of attendees during a regional dog show Friday.

Lewis said the owl was severely emaciated and dehydrated.

“She's in such bad shape that I can't feed her,” Lewis said. “She's full of parasites, mites and flies.”

Lewis said she would try to nurse the bird back to strength with electrolytes and vitamins for a few days before attempting to offer it solid food. If it survives, Lewis planned to take the owl to Raptor Recovery's center near Lincoln later this week.

Read on:  http://www.omaha.com/article/20121119/NEWS/711199918/1707

4,000-year heritage of hunting with birds will visit central Nebraska

KEARNEY — Ralph Rogers’ childhood fascination with winged predators never left him.

“I’m just a 12-year-old that never grew up,” admitted the 65-year-old wildlife biologist from Winifred, Mont. “When I found out that you could actually get falcons into captivity and train them, I just never lost my interest in that.”

Rogers, along with more than 300 fellow falconers, will meet in Kearney from Sunday through Friday for the annual meeting of the International Association of Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey. He expects members from throughout the world to meet in Kearney to network and hunt with falcons.

Larry Dickerson, president of the North American organization, understands why central Nebraska is a perfect place to meet.

“Kearney is the favorite location of our membership,” Dickerson wrote in a press release. “Because of the friendliness of the ranch and farm owners, the amazing staff at the hotel and the Visitors Bureau, and the abundance of small game, our organization looks forward to returning here every six years. Many of our members have made lifelong friends here since our first visit in 1986.”


Falconry Ethics

- Falconry is taking wild quarry in its natural state with a trained raptor.

- Falconry does not include the keeping of birds of prey as pets or prestige items.

- The justification for falconers to possess raptorial birds is the sportsmanlike pursuit of wild quarry.

- Falconers should keep only as many birds as can be cared for properly and hunted effectively.

- A falconer convicted of a serious misdemeanor or a felony related to his falconry activities should resign from all organized falconry activities.

- Since lawful does not always mean ethical, falconers will err to the side of the highest standards of conduct toward their bird, their fellow falconers and the laws of the land. Just because an activity is legal does not mean it is always desirable, ethical or biologically sound.

- Originally, falconry was a means of providing meat for the falconer’s table. In its purest form, falconry is a raptor doing what it does naturally — hunt its prey — in cooperation with a human. The laws of nature decree that a wild raptor pursuing wild quarry is a fair chase. Neither side has an unfair advantage over the other. This is the purest form of falconry, its highest ideal and practice. NAFA holds that modern falconry should be conducted in this same manner. Unfair advantage, no matter its source, should be avoided in favor of quarry having a fair chance of escape. This practice of fair chase is a high calling. Where falconers adhere to it, the sport of falconry cannot be judged guilty of acts of cruelty or inhumane treatment of quarry.

Source: http://www.n-a-f-a.com/Ethics.htm

Continued: http://www.kearneyhub.com/news/local/year-heritage-of-hunting-with-birds-will-visit-central-nebraska/article_f7fa538e-3080-11e2-944f-001a4bcf887a.html