Another Tick!
A few days ago, a Purple Gallinule was discovered near Burlington, Wisconsin. While this species would be a "life bird" for me, earning a view of it means driving 180 miles (approximately 3.5 hours roundtrip) and spending around $15.00 on gasoline. How critical or important is it to me that I see this bird? Well, not very.
With apologies to Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan, author of The Sixth Sense, I see dead birds all around me. According to David Allen Sibley's website, as many as 60 million birds die each year from being struck by automobiles. A casual bike ride along a country road can be a pretty sobering experience for the birder, especially during nesting season; the scale of this staggering number becomes evident in a personal way. Along roadsides I've seen slaughtered Barn Swallows, Eastern Bluebirds, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Northern Flickers, Gray Catbirds, Savannah Sparrows, Indigo Buntings, American Robins, Eastern Kingbirds, and more. It's impossible to identify their small corpses when driving 60 miles per hour down the highway, but they are there.
A casual bike ride along a mile stretch of country road can yield up to a dozen recently killed birds. According to the Rough Guides travel book series there are 5.7 million miles of paved highways in the US. Sibley states over 8 million lane mile roads, ¾ of which are in rural areas where most birds are presumably killed. Bear in mind during nesting season, for every dead adult bird observed along the roadside may also translate to additional clutch or nestling losses. A road that slices through field or forest is habitat fragmentation and a source of mortality for all kinds of wild critters.
There's little doubt I could drive to Burlington and see the Purple Gallinule, and I'm sure I would thoroughly enjoy the 10 or minutes watching and possibly photographing it. But at what cost to the environment? Is there a better way to spend my time and money? Yes, there is! I'm going to resist the temptation to chase – an activity that doesn't directly benefit birds - and, once again, tally this species to my "probably could have seen, but gas money went to conservation instead" list. I'll probably give the money (plus a bit extra) to a rehabber in Wisconsin, where as many as 90% of the birds being rehabbed received their injuries via human-related causes. Rehabbers are grateful for every dollar they get!
Barn Swallows © 2009 Mike McDowell
7 Comments:
Lovely Images,like your good self I also Digiscope. Your Images and Blog look fantastic.
John.
Well that is certainly good rationale for not driving to see the Gallinule..though..it certaily is a gorgeous bird!
Nice photo!
Great Rational...you'll see that PG someday. The world would be a much better place if there were 3 Billion of you, unfortunately there are 3 Billion Octomoms/Seadoer/4-wheelers.
Mike,
I like the way you think! Many of us start out as listers who are determined to see every bird and add it to our lists. Perhaps we should keep a list of roadkill that we see in one week/month/year of birding on foot, compile the list and publish that. A sobering thought indeed. Love the baby barn swallows!
Mike- I agree with your comments. It is time that we all learn to appreciate more what is in our own back yard instead of wasting time in a car bombing down the highway for a short trip and then wasting more time and resouces driving home. I spent most of my birding time this past migration season in Elver Park which is within walking distance of my house. I saw an amazing variety of birds just a few steps from my house. By the way I really appreciate your bird lists for Pheasant Branch, because they help me identify what is passing through our area.
Wow - that's quite an eye-opener. I think so many people don't even realize how much damage is being done both directly and indirectly. Definitely worth a closer look for all of us.
Thank you
Jacki W
Hi Jacki,
Yes. This is one of the parts about birding that I mentioned can be a bit depressing at times. Birds are among the most persecuted critters on the planet and many species, especially grassland birds, are declining precipitously. As David Allen Sibley mentions in his article on bird mortality (see the link in this post), the primary cause of these declines is the loss of habitat for birds. For this reason, it's not always easy to experience birding as a positive undiluted joy; their plight is often in my thoughts even as I watch and photograph them.
Mike M.
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