It's early on a typical summer morning in a typical local park in typical suburban California: a lot of grass, a bandshell, a playground, a grove of trees arching over a small creek that is called year-round mostly by courtesy, and most of whose water at this time of year is derived from humans irrigating their lawns and gardens.
The interesting thing is that--even though we are a good mile and a half from the closest thing that could be called serious water--a great blue heron has just landed in the top branches of the tallest tree, and is looking down at us.
It's been a very good year for spotting large birds that catch and eat things. Bald eagles at the reservoir. A bald eagle over the next ridge. Ospreys at the reservoir. Larger flights of pelicans than I have ever seen before at Point Reyes. On the east coast, large flights of pelicans and a few ospreys at Virginia Beach: when I was a child at Virginia Beach, we never saw pelicans or ospreys. And then in Maine: puffins at Mt. Desert. Ospreys all along the coast--including a family of six in their nest on a deserted pier on the South Portland waterfront.
And, flying over the Bath Iron Works where it looks like they are building two Aegis destroyers, yet another bald eagle.
Was I just clueless and totally unobservant as a child? Or are there a lot more birds of prey around than there were thirty years ago?
Posted by DeLong at August 21, 2002 08:49 PM | TrackbackThe same is true in Minnesota with bald eagles and pelicans; we also now have egrets, non-natives which have migrated up from the south. Furhtermore, Western grebes have also reached Minnesota, hopping from reservoir to reservoir by my conjecture. These are the red-eyed birds whose babies sit on their backs as the parents float in the water.
I think that the predatory birds it may be the banning of DDT, which concentrates on its way up the food chain and seems especially hard on birds.
This is all good, but the songbirds are diminishing terribly, probably because of a different pesticide, and the frogs, which in Minnesota used to be omnipresent, are virtually extinct, probably also due to pesticides.
Don't know the moral to the story.
Posted by: zizka on August 21, 2002 09:12 PMI agree DDT is a big factor: the big predators were at the top of the food chain, and worst hit.
Also, the ranges of most birds seem to have shifted north, along with increased prevalence of insects.
Posted by: John on August 22, 2002 12:16 AMNot only DDT, the government banned 1080 on federal lands and the incidence of racoons, foxes, etc. has increased gradually along with the raptors. Poisoning coyotes was the goal with 1080, but it got into the entire food chain.
Welfare ranchers in the west are doing their best to get back to the good old days when they could do whatever they wanted, whenever, damn the consequences.
Posted by: on August 22, 2002 07:53 AMSplendid - we are always seeing wonderful hawks - now and then eagles and falcons - ravens and crows are everywhere - the rivers are cleaner - pesticides residues are less of a problem - pesticides used are increasingly benign - birds are quite wonderful....
Hooray
Posted by: on August 22, 2002 08:32 AMMajor reasons
1: DDT Ban, especially positive for Bald Eagles and Ospreys (fish eaters)
2: Habitat Loss. Specifically the reduction of contiguous tracts of woodlands and watersheds along the migratory path, a terrible negative for songbirds
3: Global Warming. Ranges expanding northwards as summers are warmer and winters milder is a net negative for the environment as delicate ecosystem balances are threatened. Also explains the increased incidence of insects in the north
4: Awareness levels are up with highly publicised cases of near extinction: Whooping Cranes, Bald Eagle, Spotted Owl, net positive
Posted by: Suresh Krishnamoorthy on August 22, 2002 09:27 AM