Here Are Some Images Of Endangered species of Massachusetts
Archives For Birds
1, Coffee fungus in Latin America is raising prices for high-end blends in the United States
2, Green Fields: Agribusiness blamed for ‘superweed crisis’
3, Warmer world to push sea turtle numbers up
4. Louisiana lawsuits seek oil and gas industry money to restore coastline
5. Threats to the Southern Hills Aquifer System Grow in Louisiana
6. Children’s lead levels ‘significantly’ higher in Cherryvale, Kan.
7. Feature: Lebanese irritate over pollution inflicted by refugee camps
8. Toxic chemicals pollute Pakistan’s rivers
9. Greenland Glaciers More Susceptible to Melt Than Thought
10. FRACTURED NORTH CAROLINA Fracking: Lee County at epicenter of NC’s gas drilling
3,300 acres have been leased to gas companies. But other landowners are worried about pollution or waiting for better offers.
11. Scientists find alarming levels of antibiotics in China’s rivers and lakes
12. Effort fences off ag areas along creek for river’s sake
13. Birds of prey falling victim to ‘ecological drought’
Less food for hawks, owls, white-tailed kites, falcons and even golden eagles is theorized to be connected to years of too-dry weather. One apparent consequence: a ‘breeding crash’ beyond any in local experts’ memory.
Every day we hear about different animals that our now sharing our space because they are hungry or have lost their way. This of course, is mostly our fault because we continue to take away their open space by building more and more commercial buildings, residential complexes and single or multi family homes. Where are these poor animals supposed to go if we keep taking away their space. How are we supposed to breath if we don’t have enough open space or greenery to help keep the air cleaner?
When your food supply diminishes what would you do? Most animals will keep moving until they can find both food and shelter. These days that often means they will end up in a backyard that is lined with lots of grass and is bordered by trees, which means they may end up at your front or back door. Be careful, when you are ready to leave for the day, you may have an unexpected visitor looking to share your food. Just yesterday Lake Mary, Fla. Resident Terri Frana was brutally attacked by a bear when going into her garage. Read her story here: Wildlife agency kills several bears after Florida woman mauled outside home.
Birds are having trouble finding places to nest, so much so, they will settle for utility lines to the point they are causing some problems. NStar is Looking To Lure Ospreys From Cape Utility Poles.
It should be our goal to make sure that there is adequate space for all of us to live so that we are not compromising the homes of our animals and that they won’t be compromising our homes.
I’ve driven through Brookline, Allston, Brighton, and Boston, I see so many vacant buildings some of which have been empty for years and some for decades. Still yet, I also see dozens of new buildings erupting in spaces that were thought to be a part of the Emerald Necklace. Other locations are spots that never had a building, but hold no known significance, then there are locations where at least two buildings and sometimes more have been demolished so that a new structure could be built. We hope that the jobs that are created by building these commercial spaces and homes will feed and house families that are in need. But there is always a sacrifice for everything we gain. Now we have all sorts of animals everywhere looking for a new home and food to eat. Do you want to be there when they are mad that they don’t find food? I know I don’t!
This is not just a problem on land, it’s also a problem on our beaches and in our oceans. Many Whales continue to be found all over. On Wednesday 9 Killer Whales died as they were found washed up on the South Island, on the Coast of New Zealand. Read the Story here: Nine Killer Whales Die In Rare Mass Beaching in New Zealand. There is also a group of 100 right whales feeding off the coast on cape cod. There is a large concern for their safety of course with all the ships etc. that frequent the area. It’s getting harder and harder to preserve the lives of endangered species as well as all human life forms. This is the problem you face when there is more concern for the monetary value or outcome that all projects will bring in the end, without considering how much more will be lost once all is said and done. Once we lose it, there may not be a way to get it back, especially if we are talking about endangered species. Is the price we pay in the end truly worth the reward? Somehow, I don’t really think so. Just some food for thought about how we are now sharing our space with random animals.
© Copyright 2014 Felina Silver Robinson
Utilities hope to keep birds from nesting on poles
WMTW Image
Utility officials are on the lookout for returning ospreys that nest in the cross arms of utility poles on Cape Cod.
Ospreys, also called sea hawks, return each spring from their southern winter homes. NStar says it’s watching for potential problems.
The Cape Cod Times reports that local residents with a passion for the birds are watching the utility.
Kevin McCune, NStar’s supervisor for licensing and permitting, says birds can sometimes be killed by electricity or fire.
NStar works with the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife on its osprey program.
Possible solutions include removing a nest and hoping the birds choose a more natural roost and installing a device to prevent them from nesting.
Another solution is to put up a nearby platform to encourage the birds to move.
Bears spotted at bird feeders across New Hampshire
u local
The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department says it’s time to put the bird feeders away to avoid bears hunting for food.
Some homeowners have already reported seeing bears at bird feeders in different areas of the state.
The department recommends taking down bird feeders from April 1 to Dec. 1.
The department says it received 527 complaints about bears last year, below the long-term average of 695. But there were more than 1,000 complaints in 2012, and nearly 10 percent involved bird feeders. Another 40 percent of the complaints were the direct result of bears raiding unsecured garbage at homes and businesses.
“Bears went to den in good shape due to generally abundant foods,” such as beechnuts, apples, mountain ash berries, and choke cherries, said Andrew Timmins, bear biologist. “However, it has been a long denning season and bears have depleted considerable body fat.
“When bears emerge, they will be hungry and food will be limited until spring green-up occurs,” Timmons said. “We are hoping homeowners will be vigilant and remove/secure attractants so as not to entice bears and create nuisance behavior.”
Birds drawn to frozen lake’s Vermont-New York ferry channels
CHARLOTTE, Vt. — Water birds that normally spread out across Lake Champlain are seeking refuge in the channels left by two ferry routes that carry passengers between Vermont and New York during this bitterly cold winter.
Photos: Most-common backyard bird sightings
Bird watchers have been drawn to the Essex, N.Y., landing of the ferry from Charlotte in hopes of catching a glimpse of some rare birds that are usually scattered across the length of the 120-mile lake. During a winter of below-zero temperatures, the birds have been forced to forage the open water of the channels for food.
Birders hope to spot species like the single tufted duck, which is ubiquitous in Europe and Asia but exceedingly rare in the eastern U.S. It’s spending the winter in the lake along with mallards, black ducks and common goldeneyes.
By George Barnes, Telegram & Gazette
T&G STAFF/CHRISTINE PETERSON
GRAFTON, Mass. — Dianne Benson Davis had already helped raise polar bears and hunted with a red-tailed hawk, but living at the Quabbin Reservoir with eight baby bald eagles brought her about as close to nature as anyone could hope for.
“Eagle One: Raising Bald Eagles — a Wildlife Memoir” tells of a life spent caring for wildlife and educating people about the birds and mammals that are part of the world they live in. Published by Chandler House Press, the book draws on journals kept and letters Davis sent home to her parents, to tell the story of her life-changing summer of 1985 working with the highly successful Massachusetts Eagle Restoration Project. It includes sections of the journals and many photographs of the project, as well as other projects Davis has been involved in during her career.
Living in a tent trailer at the Quabbin Reservoir for four months in an area off-limits to most humans, Davis cared for eight eagle chicks that had been transplanted from Nova Scotia, in the hope they would make Massachusetts their home.
The eagle project, which lasted from 1982 to 1988, would result in the first successful Massachusetts nesting of bald eagles since 1906. Because of the success of the project, the number of nesting pairs in Massachusetts has gone from the first two in 1989 to 35 in 2012.
Davis said the inspiration she found working there and with others who made the miracle happen carried on in her later work at Tufts Veterinary Hospital, the EcoTarium and as natural history guide for the Massachusetts Audubon Society.
“I always hope to inspire a passion for science and nature,” she said. “You never know where you are going to pick up something that is going to stick with you for the rest of your life.”
For Davis, the moment was a visit by a Massachusetts Audubon Society volunteer to her elementary school classroom. By the time she was in high school, she was a volunteer at the EcoTarium in Worcester. After high school she became a zoo keeper for the EcoTarium, working with two polar bear cubs born there. Her work with the polar bears and other wildlife at the EcoTarium led to her becoming a wildlife rehabilitator and falconer. For 20 years she worked with a red-tailed hawk, training and hunting with it.
In 1982 Jack Swedberg, who had been observing and photographing wintering bald eagles at the Quabbin Reservoir for a decade, was given approval to begin a program aimed at the restoration of nesting eagle populations in the state. Davis was involved with the early planning of the project but turned down a job in 1982 because she was pregnant. In 1984 she was offered another job working with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service efforts to hatch the first peregrine falcons in downtown Boston. She again turned the job down because she had a young daughter at home.
It was in a visit to the Eagle Project later in 1984 that she received a third offer to work with raptor restoration efforts. This time she took the job, replacing UMass graduate student Dave Nelson, who cared for eagles the previous three years. The birds lived in a 40-foot-tall tower on the shore of the reservoir with cages for eight eagles.
During the four months at the Quabbin Reservoir, Davis said she fished every day to feed the eagles, which received 20 pounds of fish twice a day, along with vitamins. She caught the fish with gill nets, cut the fish up into bite-size pieces and fed the birds through chutes into their cages to avoid human contact. The plan was to raise healthy birds while giving them the chance to imprint on their surroundings. The hope, which proved successful, was that the birds would return to the reservoir to nest.
“It was exciting to write just about the daily ins and outs of working with the eagles and going out on the lake catching all their food,” she said.
Davis also got a chance to observe the first nesting loons in the state, including their daily activities in her journals, as well as living in an area that at the time had 60 deer per square mile.
The reservoir area has dramatically changed in the past 28 years. The deer herd has been dramatically reduced through hunting, resulting in greater diversity of plant species. Also, bear and moose — rarely if ever seen at the reservoir in 1985 — now regularly roam the woods, and eagles are regularly seen not only at the reservoir but throughout the state.
The book chronicles a life dedicated to nature, but pulls no punches. While working with the eagles, Davis went through a divorce. She later married Bill Davis, the central district supervisor for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, who worked with her on the eagle project and took over as the head of the project when Jack Swedberg retired.
Today the couple lives quietly in their home in Grafton with mementoes of their time with the eagles, including a large aerial photograph of the Quabbin Reservoir over their mantle, and a collection of eagle artifacts, including feathers, a stick from an eagle nest and a claw from an eagle that died at the Tufts Veterinary Medicine Clinic after being injured in an accident.
“Eagle One” can be purchased online at http://www.amazon.com, http://www.barnesandnoble.com, chandlerhousebooks.com, at the EcoTarium in Worcester and through the Massachusetts Audubon Society.
Davis will hold a talk and book signing from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Feb. 21 at Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary in Princeton, and at the Millers River Environmental Center in Athol on March 12.
Bird-mounted cameras have unlocked secrets of how falcons hunt their prey. Video captured from state-of-the-art cameras on the birds’ backs and heads is helping scientists study the physics of falcons’ flight while hunting. The footage shows Peregrine, Gyrfalcon and Saker falcons flying at high speeds towards crows as they try to grab them out of the air.
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