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Passenger Pigeons

4/30/2014

 
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I have had the pleasure of reading Joel Greenberg’s book, “A Feathered River Across the Sky”, and I’ll have the privilege of listening to him speak this Saturday at the Indiana Audubon Society’s Spring Festival. This book should be required reading, not just for birders but for everyone, especially young people whose actions and decisions will have an enormous impact on the planet for decades to come.

First, I must be honest. Reading the book was not entirely pleasurable. I spent a great deal of time either with my fists clenched in anger or wiping back tears, not because of the quality of the writing (which is outstanding), but because of the horrible behavior demonstrated by the people in the book. While people may not be decimating the populations of plants and animals in the same way as they did the Passenger Pigeon, we are doing so in new, more modern ways. 

The Passenger Pigeon once numbered in the billions and constituted up to 40% of the continent’s birds. They were hunted relentlessly. Gene Stratton-Porter’s father abhorred the practice of shooting the pigeons and prophetically warned that if the massive killing of the birds did not stop, they may disappear. However, since they were so plentiful, Gene articulated the sentiment of the public, “that such a thing could happen in our own day as that the last of these beautiful birds might be exterminated, no one seriously dreamed”. And yet that is exactly what happened. The last Passenger Pigeon died 100 years ago. In 1860, more than a billion birds remained. In just 54 years, they were all gone.

Mr. Greenberg’s book serves to tell the tale of the Passenger Pigeon and to warn us that our actions can have catastrophic effects, not just on one species, but on every species with which that species interacts. The demise of the Passenger Pigeon, sadly, is not an isolated incident. Such losses continue today. The numbers of species threatened with extinction in Mr. Greenberg’s book are startling!

There is much that can be done. I think we need to start by developing a love of nature in young people. Bird watching, I believe, is one of the gateways to becoming a nature lover. It’s easy, it can be done anywhere and inexpensively, and it can appeal to everyone from someone who likes cute, tiny things like hummingbirds to someone who prefers lethal hunters like the Northern Goshawk. Only if you develop an appreciation of the natural world will you want to take steps to preserve it. But how do you turn young people into birders when it’s more “cool” to get a high score on the XBox? I’m working with Limberlost State Historic Site to develop a series of outreach programs designed for students. We discuss the impressive adaptations (which are far more “cool” than the animated creatures on the XBox), we explore the many ways in which birds help us, and we talk about ways that we can return the favor and help the birds. If the young children who attend the programs realize how interesting birds are, perhaps that love of nature will grow throughout their lives and they will be willing to act on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves.

The loss of any species due to human action is inexcusable. I am grateful to Mr. Greenberg for writing this book and for doing so much to help raise awareness.



Great Lakes Webcast

4/29/2014

 
The Great Lakes region is important for the millions of birds that migrate through the area every year, using wetlands, forests, shoreline and more than 32,000 islands as stopover sites. But these habitats and others are under increasing pressure from climate change, habitat loss and other stressors.

Available online via live-stream, The Nature Conservancy and Detroit Public Television will present a panel of experts and video segments to explore these challenges and the solutions facing our feathered friends.

The program will live-stream on GreatLakesNow.org onTuesday, May 6th from 1 p.m. - 2 p.m. Preview videos are available on YouTube, here and here.

Author, blogger, columnist, educator and birding expert Sharon Sorenson will join the show as a special guest. Sorenson will illuminate how we all can be better hosts for birds in our backyards and around the world.

The program will be hosted by veteran journalist Christy McDonald and moderated by The Nature Conservancy’s Dr. Patrick Doran, director of conservation for Michigan.

Panelists include:

·      John Hartig, refuge manager of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge and board member of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy

·      Melinda Pruett-Jones, former director of Chicago Wilderness and first-ever director of American Ornithologists’ Union.

In advance of the program, The Nature Conservancy will host a Twitter chat on Friday, May 2 at 1 p.m. using #glbirds. More information about the Great Lakes’ migratory birds, visithttp://nature.org/glbirds.


Outreach Programs

4/11/2014

 
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I have had the pleasure of working with the wonderful people at Limberlost State Historic Site to develop programs designed to encourage students to increase their awareness of the natural world. We’re creating in-house and outreach programs that cover a variety of interests from nature-friendly landscaping to the unique and diverse ways in which birds are beneficial to people. The in-house program I gave at Limberlost in late March focused on the owls of Indiana, their incredible adaptations, raptor rehabilitation and the many ways people can help these fascinating birds. The article attached to this blog describes some of that program. There are a few typos (owls do not dine on their pellets, they can turn their heads 270 degrees, etc.), but it is a very nice article. I was pleased to see that there was so much interest; I had to give the presentation three times that day in order to accommodate the overflow crowd!

The outreach program is designed to be taught in schools. The first of these presentations was given to a school in early April. I discussed the various methods of bird identification (physical characteristics, sound, behavior, nests, etc.) and some of the commonly overlooked ways in which birds help us. For example, the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo will feast on up to 100 tent caterpillars per sitting and is one of the few birds that will eat fuzzy caterpillars. Imagine the number of fruit trees that would be damaged if it were not for these wonderful birds keeping the tent caterpillar population under control! At the time of this writing, we have been invited by additional school districts to give programs in early May, so I am very encouraged!

We’re planning to expand the programs to cover additional subjects so that we can reach a broader range of interests. We want the next generation to gain a deeper appreciation of the world around them. The world is in their hands!


























    Author

    Alex Forsythe

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