Water bird numbers reveal long-term decline of Menindee Lakes' health

By Peter Hannam

21 January 2019 — 11:50pm

Water bird numbers at the world famous Menindee Lakes, near the site of this year's massive fish kill, are in long-term decline, amid an ongoing failure to manage water levels to match weather fluctuations, leading ecologist Richard Kingsford says.

Bird numbers at the lakes in far-western NSW peaked at about 140,000 in 1985, according to surveys taken annually since 1983. For each good wet year since that record, the bird count has been falling.

Water populations "are a bit like a tennis ball...but the bounce is just getting lower and lower" during good years, said Professor Kingsford, who is director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of NSW.

The lakes "are one of the hotspots for water bird in eastern Australia, and they've been declining for some time".

Read on

Number of water birds ‘declining’

KASKI, JAN 15 - Migrantory water birds in the district have been endangered due to human activities such as deforestation and encroachment, ornithologists and conservationists counting the number of such birds in nine lakes in the district said.

A team of ornithologists and conservationists, with support from Bird Conservation Nepal (BCN), Tiger Mountain Resort and other organisations, has been studying the pattern of such birds for the past one week.

“In comparison to previous years, a steady decline has been witnessed in the number of migratory birds,” said ornithologist Jhalak Chaudhary, adding that the conditions were not favourable to such birds due to lack of food and safety.

Continued ...

Toronto’s water birds hit hard by brutal winter weather

Toronto’s ducks and geese are among the hardest-hit victims of this year’s brutal winter weather.

Calls about dead birds — found stuck in the ice or floating lifeless in the water — shot up 66 per cent between Jan. 1 and Mar. 12 compared to the same period last year, according to Toronto Animal Services.

Meanwhile, the city’s only wildlife rescue charity has been overwhelmed with dozens of fragile, injured and dying birds, making this the worst winter it has seen in 21 years of operation.

“They’re weak and they’re starving,” said Nathalie Karvonen, executive director of the Toronto Wildlife Centre. “Some of the birds are having traumatic injuries as well because they’re in a weakened state.”

The centre has rescued about 10 times as many water birds as it does during a normal winter, more than 130 since December. Admissions of wildlife are up 50 per cent overall, said Karvonen.

Continued

Starving refuge of water will result in bird deaths

Like last year, folks really enjoyed and supported birds during Winter Wings Festival. Great!

Like last year, reduced water deliveries (combined with previous years of water cutbacks) have many Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge marshes nearly dry, or completely dry. The highly likely 2013 result will be another major disease outbreak, killing tens of thousands of water birds.

Now is the time for people who enjoy birds to act: Contact the Bureau of Reclamation. Next, contact our federal senators and ask for more water for the refuge.

Over the last several years, BOR has cut refuge water deliveries — including in one year with higher than average water supplies. Wetland habitat has greatly decreased year after year and 2013 is shaping up to be another bad disease year thanks to BOR reducing water to the already minimal acreage of refuge marshes.

Last spring’s big die off (memory is it was more than 30,000 birds) is highly likely to be repeated due to overcrowding. Since these are breeders heading north to create the next crop of birds, killing them off for lack of water is such a waste, a travesty.

Enjoy hunting? Enjoy birding? Enjoy Winter Wings? It is time to step up. Tell BOR that continued starvation of the Lower Klamath Refuge is completely unacceptable. And since BOR listens more to U.S. senators than to us locals, call or email U.S. senators, too. It might help. At least when the dead birds pile up, we know we tried.

Dave Potter

Klamath Falls

http://www.heraldandnews.com/members/forum/letters/article_95087f14-944c-11e2-ba79-0019bb2963f4.html

Botulism seen in Upper Peninsula water bird deaths

GULLIVER, Mich. (AP) — Authorities say they've found the bodies of about 700 water birds along a stretch of northern Lake Michigan shoreline in the Upper Peninsula.

The Mining Journal of Marquette (http://bit.ly/PQ1Gun ) says authorities suspect that the birds died of Type-E botulism.

The 694 dead birds were found in Schoolcraft County near the unincorporated village of Gulliver. They include 247 common loons, 152 horned grebes, 98 red-necked grebes, 73 long-tailed ducks and 64 white-winged scoters.

Authorities say there also were smaller numbers of ring-billed gulls, double-crested cormorants, red-breasted mergansers and herring gulls.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources says Type-E botulism bacteria cause a toxin that paralyses birds and fish. Similar die-offs happened in the Upper Peninsula in 2007 and near Sleeping Bear Dunes National lakeshore in northern Lower Peninsula in 2006.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Botulism-seen-in-Upper-Peninsula-water-bird-deaths-4007586.php#ixzz2BMIZ9vQw