Environmental toxins can move through the food chain with surprising speed, James Larison, an Oregon State University biologist, found after studying white-tailed ptarmigans in a 10,000-acre area in central Colorado. Forty-six percent of the birds had accumulated toxic levels of the trace metal cadmium in their kidneys. The sequence, Larison found, begins with willows, an […]
Birds
Posted inDecember 4, 2000: Road Block
Great Backyard Bird Count
Hundreds of thousands of people nationwide will take to the field Feb. 16-19, 2001, for the Great Backyard Bird Count. The National Audubon Society and Cornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology sponsor the event. Find out about it at www.birdsource.org or call 800/843-2473. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline […]
Posted inOctober 23, 2000: Stalking Slade
Birds break boundaries
The Colorado state office of The Nature Conservancy has worked for years to preserve chunks of the state’s shortgrass prairie, breeding grounds for birds such as mountain plovers, burrowing owls and long-billed curlews. But staffers always knew their efforts in Colorado could provide only part-time protection, since most of these species travel south during the […]
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
A whir of wings
Just before sunlight hits New Mexico’s Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in November, visitors can hear the squawking of ducks, geese and cranes. In a roar of wings, thousands of these birds take flight at dawn – an event most viewers consider a highlight of the annual Festival of the Cranes. “Then, during the […]
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
www.birdsource.com
The call of a golden-winged warblers and the habitat needs of finches are only a click away. A new Web site managed by the National Audubon Society and Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, www.birdsource.com, allows birders not only to gather information but also to record and share bird sightings with other enthusiasts. This article appeared in […]
Posted inApril 24, 2000: At your service: Unions help some Western workers serve themselves
Backpacks and quacks
Sporting highly sophisticated “backpacks’ that are really 20-gram satellite transmitters, 50 female pintail ducks are flying north from the Central Valley in California this spring. The ducks are the focus of Discovery for Recovery, a four-year study by Ducks Unlimited, the U.S. Geological Survey and the California Waterfowl Association. Its object is determining pintail migration […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Goose got your gander?
Pooping plagues people in urban settings
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
Tern terror
OREGON Near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon, Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, The Birds, has come to life. Over 10,000 pairs of Caspian terns nest on Rice Island, and while the birds aren’t attacking people, they are eating millions of young salmon (HCN, 10/26/98: Are birds to blame for vanishing salmon?). A biological assessment […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
New tools for bird buffs
Spring in Colorado has brought with it the clatter of bird calls and a few new tools for finding the feathered beasties. In January, the Colorado Bird Atlas Partnership released the Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas, a 636-page book packed with profiles and pictures of birds, and maps showing where in the state they can be […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Power poles make deadly perches
To most people, utility poles and power lines are just another part of the Western landscape. Not to Montana falconer Kirk Hohenberger; he sees power lines as death traps for hawks, eagles and falcons. “I’ve seen four of my own falcons electrocuted,” says Hohenberger. “I reported the poles to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. […]
Posted inOctober 26, 1998: The Oregon way
Are birds to blame for vanishing salmon?
ASTORIA, Ore. – In late May, when young salmon and steelhead ride the spring freshet down to the mouth of the Columbia River, Rice Island is a scene of wildlife bedlam. The island, a stretch of windswept sand 21 miles from the river mouth, hosts the world’s largest nesting colony of Caspian terns – as […]
Posted inAugust 17, 1998: Living out the trailer dream
Birds bridge borders
Development erects “No Vacancy” signs for migratory birds, forcing olive-sided flycatchers, yellow-billed cuckoos, and loggerhead shrikes to fly farther every year as they seek safe havens to rest and eat. Their familiar breeding spots are also disappearing, says Terry Rich of Partners in Flight, a group created to address declines in populations that breed in […]
Posted inMay 25, 1998: Tackling tamarisk
Snow geese have become too plentiful
Because snow geese have become too successful for their own good, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is asking for a wholesale hunt. The conversion of pastures to fields of grain has provided a bountiful harvest for the birds, causing the population to soar over the last three decades. Now, say agency biologists, snow geese […]
Posted inMarch 2, 1998: Wild horses: Do they belong in the West?
Backyard birds
A new report by the Colorado Division of Wildlife helps backyard birders care for what they’re watching. For instance, cleaning feeders with soap and rinsing with a dilute bleach solution followed by plain water can help prevent the spread of diseases like avian pox and salmonellosis. And if you take a few months off from […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 1998: Private rights vs. public lands
The spotted owl has a new enemy
Last May, a birdwatcher in California’s Redwood National Park found the partially eaten body of a spotted owl lying in the trail. Nearby he saw the killer – an agitated barred owl, the feathers of its victim still clinging to its talons. Barred owls and spotted owls are cousins, both woodland owls, with large, dark […]
Posted inNovember 10, 1997: Drain Lake Powell? Democracy and science finally come West
Serious trouble for snow geese
The skies over Midwestern states will be dotted white this fall by snow geese moving south for the winter. But many biologists have concluded that the birds are too prolific for their own good. The goose population has skyrocketed over the past 30 years, up from 750,000 in 1969 to almost 3 million today. As […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
It’s a big bird
Eleven California condors are cruising the skies over Grand Canyon all the way to Moab, Utah, after being released this year in northern Arizona. Biologists with the California Condor Recovery Project suggest bird-watchers travel Highway 89A north of the Grand Canyon between Lee’s Ferry and House Rock Valley Road to see the carrion-eaters. Pull-out parking […]
Posted inSeptember 15, 1997: Yellowstone at 125: The park as a sovereign state
Rid-a-Bird works too well
Rid-a-Bird, a two-man company in Wilton, Iowa, has been killing unwanted birds for over 40 years with the Environmental Protection Agency’s approval. But two dead raptors in Washington have called into question the company’s method of pest control. Rid-a-Bird’s product lures birds to a perch containing fenthion, a fatal nerve poison which paralyzes them. The […]
Posted inSeptember 15, 1997: Yellowstone at 125: The park as a sovereign state
Feds take on a sneaky species
Two years ago, Pat Mehlhop waded through a willow thicket on the shore of Elephant Butte Reservoir in southern New Mexico, carrying a 20-foot-long pole with a mirror attached to one end. The ecologist with the New Mexico Natural Heritage Program was in search of what has become a rarity along the state’s waterways: the […]
Posted inSeptember 15, 1997: Yellowstone at 125: The park as a sovereign state
Agencies dunk endangered songbird
ROOSEVELT LAKE, Ariz. – A tall stand of Asian salt-cedars next to a man-made reservoir is the last place anyone would expect to find colonies of one of America’s most endangered bird species. But that’s exactly where several southwestern willow flycatchers were flitting on a warm mid-June afternoon. Less than six inches tall and pale […]