Bird species plummet as habitat dwindles

Bird species plummet as habitat dwindles
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Friday, July 11, 2008

(07-11) 04:00 PDT Washington - -- Hundreds of species of birds, including many once-common songbirds such as the meadowlark and bobwhite, are in severe decline in the United States, falling in population by as much as 90 percent since the 1960s, scientists, government officials and conservation groups told Congress on Thursday.

The chief cause is destruction of habitat, scientists told the House subcommittee on fisheries, wildlife and oceans. They said rising food prices and the push for alternative fuels are putting intense pressure on farmland set aside for conservation.

Other killers include invasive plant species that take over native seed and nesting sources, wind turbines located near critical flyways, lighted and glass-encased buildings, lighted cell-phone towers, domestic cats, disease, pesticides and climate change, which also is shrinking habitat ranges.

Farmers racing to plant corn for ethanol, which is subsidized by the federal government, and livestock feed are pulling millions of acres out of the nation's largest private land conservation program, the 32 million-acre Conservation Reserve Program, in which the government pays farmers under 10- and 15-year contracts to keep fragile lands out of production. Rising food and energy prices are leading to political pressure from Congress on the Bush administration to allow farmers to break their conservation contracts without penalty.



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/10/MNO511N21T.DTL

now i have not seen one in the wild, much less in my neighborhood, in many many years


on a more hopeful note we may have had a temporary uptick in loggerhead shrikes this year, i have found three families, in recent years i have had trouble finding just one nest (the tree where this nest would be placed each year was destroyed by katrina and has now been removed)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=160654&mesg_id=160654

:popcorn:

This is true and has been for a while. I do not want to live a world without natural beauty. Pretty soon you may not be able to see wonderful things like this.

Yellow billed cuckoo



Northern Mockingbird


Loggerhead Shrike (already in steep decline across the nation)


Painted Bunting (numbers declining or at least sightings are down)


Rufous Crowned Sparrow


Dickcissel (Oh how the spring would be different without the loud singing of these males)


Golden Cheeked Warbler (already severely threatened because of habitat loss)


And here is a success story that is still threatened and highly endangered but may face setbacks as a result of global warming
Whooping Crane


We also can not forget the mammals, amphibians, reptiles and other animals that are in peril because of our zest to claim every single inch of this Earth as our concrete jungle. The best thing to do is to support societies that promote sustainable development and protection of native habitats and ecosystems.

and the person writing it was suggesting that it may be part of our programming for

survival -- the instinct not to destroy nature.

Unfortunately, "Manifest Destiny" and "Man's Dominion Over Nature" were basically

licenses to war on nature -- to exploit nature, natural resources, animal life ---

and often even other human beings according to various myths of inferiority.

To not appreciate and not want to protect nature is suicidal.


I've also come to feel that there is a purposeful onslaught on the most beautiful of

places and people --- Hawaii and its people, the native American and this continent.

Bombing Bikini Island with atomic weapons --- !!!

One of the Bikini Island women returning home said . . .

"Americans are really smart about really stupid things."


We have to overturn these religious licenses to do harm ---

We have to overturn patriarchy and its suicidal impulses ---

most of all its violence.




PS: Thank you for wonderful photos --- and comments!