LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Thousands of dead blackbirds rained down on a town in central Arkansas last New Year's Eve after revelers set off fireworks that spooked them from their roost, and officials were reporting a similar occurrence Saturday as 2012 approached.
Police in Beebe said dozens of blackbirds had fallen dead, prompting officers to ban residents from shooting fireworks Saturday night. It wasn't immediately clear if fireworks were again to blame, but authorities weren't taking a chance.
Officer John Weeks said the first reports of "birds on the streets" came around 7 p.m. as residents celebrated the year's end with fireworks in their neighborhoods.
"We started shutting down fireworks," he said. "We're working on cleaning up the birds now."
He said police were working with animal control workers and others to remove the birds and determine a death count.
"We're not sure if they're going to continue to fall throughout the night. I can't tell you," Weeks said.
Scientists say the loud cracks and booms from celebratory fireworks likely sent the birds into such a tizzy that they crashed into homes, cars and each other before plummeting to their deaths last New Year's Eve. The birds landed on roofs, sidewalks, streets and fields. One struck a woman walking her dog. Another hit a police cruiser.
The blackbird die-off, coupled with tens of thousands of dead drum fish that washed up on the shores of the Arkansas River, flung the state into the national headlines and drew conspiracy theorists and filmmakers to the town about 30 miles northeast of Little Rock that shares Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe's last name.
Some people speculated that the birds had been poisoned; others said their deaths marked the beginning of the apocalypse.
"It's just got to be a pain in my career," Beebe Police Chief Wayne Ballew said.
Prior to this New Year's Eve, Ballew said he wouldn't be surprised if people sit out on their front porches in case the winged creatures fall from the sky again.
"I guess we could have an annual blackbird watch," he said with a laugh. "People can just bring their umbrellas, open them up and walk through the neighborhood and hope they don't get hit."
Charles Moore didn't plan to have an umbrella at the ready, but said he would have his camera out on New Year's Eve. Last year, he drifted off to sleep before the ball — and birds — dropped.
"When we got up on New Year's Day and walked out to get the paper, we saw all the carnage out there," he said. "So we thought we would be on the watch for it this time."
http://enews.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20111231/39122abf-b7f4-4f2c-a053-77d63d97828c
Showing posts with label bird fatalities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bird fatalities. Show all posts
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Peculiar geese deaths baffle wildlife officials
Ailment afflicting birds around Lake Erie
By TOM HENRY
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Several dozen Canada geese along western Lake Erie's shoreline have recently died or are presumed dead while others have become so sick they cannot hold up their heads, fly, or maintain control of their motor functions.
State wildlife investigators are stumped, awaiting word on tests that a national wildlife laboratory in Wisconsin has been doing on some of the dead birds.
"They will fall out of the sky and have trouble staying upright," said Dave Sherman, a biologist at the Crane Creek Wildlife Research Station the Ohio Department of Natural Resources operates in Ottawa County.
Symptoms began manifesting themselves first with mallards about two or three weeks ago.
"Now, it's mostly geese we're seeing," he said.
The bulk of the problem appears to be in the Oregon area, Mr. Sherman said, in the vicinity of open water near FirstEnergy Corp.'s coal-fired Bay Shore power plant, where birds typically congregate this time of year.
The plant's warm-water discharge often keeps that part of the lake from freezing.
But the problems are not limited to that area.
Mr. Sherman said some of the sick or dead geese have been found as far east as Vermilion, Ohio, which is halfway between Sandusky and Cleveland.
Four were recently found on a thawed part of the Maumee River near downtown Perrysburg.
Cody Klima, Ohio DNR wildlife officer, said he has picked up about two dozen goose carcasses over the past couple of weeks.
He also said he's taken that many sick birds or more to Nature's Nursery in Whitehouse and Back to the Wild in Castalia, Ohio, two facilities that attempt to rehabilitate injured wildlife.
Officials at those facilities have not had much success with this outbreak.
Many of the sick, injured, or dead geese are inaccessible because warming temperatures have made the ice too dangerous to traverse.
"I'm guessing some of them are drowning," Mr. Klima said. "They lose their coordination and flip upside down."
He said he has been getting about a dozen calls a day from area residents reporting new sightings or seeking answers about birds they've seen.
"They're throwing their heads back. They're losing all balance and literally almost all back-somersault and have a seizure," according to Laura Zitzelberger, operations director at Nature's Nursery. At least eight or nine of about a dozen geese that were brought to Nature's Nursery either died or had to be euthanized.
Two ducks and one of the geese that exhibited symptoms appear to have recovered. Another goose is struggling, she said.
At Back to the Wild, 18 of 23 geese dropped off for treatment have died, nearly all within the past three days, said Sarah Langdon, Back to the Wild supervisor.
Of the remaining five, three are "acting like normal geese again" and may be released soon, she said.
Seventeen of those 23 injured birds were brought in from the Bay Shore plant area, she said.
Chris Barry, a Perrysburg engineer, said he has seen three carcasses and a sick goose on the Perrysburg side of the Maumee River since Saturday. He said they were only 20 to 30 feet from the shore, but the ice was too dangerous to walk on.
"They're at the edge of the ice," Mr. Barry said, referring to an area near Water and Pine streets in Perrysburg.
The sick bird "was floating in a tiny patch of open water," Mr. Barry said.
"It didn't have much strength left," he said.
Anyone who sees geese acting strangely can contact the Crane Creek Wildlife Research Station at 419-898-0960 or the ODNR office in Findlay.
http://beta.toledoblade.com/local/2011/02/18/Peculiar-geese-deaths-baffle-wildlife-officials.html
By TOM HENRY
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Several dozen Canada geese along western Lake Erie's shoreline have recently died or are presumed dead while others have become so sick they cannot hold up their heads, fly, or maintain control of their motor functions.
State wildlife investigators are stumped, awaiting word on tests that a national wildlife laboratory in Wisconsin has been doing on some of the dead birds.
"They will fall out of the sky and have trouble staying upright," said Dave Sherman, a biologist at the Crane Creek Wildlife Research Station the Ohio Department of Natural Resources operates in Ottawa County.
Symptoms began manifesting themselves first with mallards about two or three weeks ago.
"Now, it's mostly geese we're seeing," he said.
The bulk of the problem appears to be in the Oregon area, Mr. Sherman said, in the vicinity of open water near FirstEnergy Corp.'s coal-fired Bay Shore power plant, where birds typically congregate this time of year.
The plant's warm-water discharge often keeps that part of the lake from freezing.
But the problems are not limited to that area.
Mr. Sherman said some of the sick or dead geese have been found as far east as Vermilion, Ohio, which is halfway between Sandusky and Cleveland.
Four were recently found on a thawed part of the Maumee River near downtown Perrysburg.
Cody Klima, Ohio DNR wildlife officer, said he has picked up about two dozen goose carcasses over the past couple of weeks.
He also said he's taken that many sick birds or more to Nature's Nursery in Whitehouse and Back to the Wild in Castalia, Ohio, two facilities that attempt to rehabilitate injured wildlife.
Officials at those facilities have not had much success with this outbreak.
Many of the sick, injured, or dead geese are inaccessible because warming temperatures have made the ice too dangerous to traverse.
"I'm guessing some of them are drowning," Mr. Klima said. "They lose their coordination and flip upside down."
He said he has been getting about a dozen calls a day from area residents reporting new sightings or seeking answers about birds they've seen.
"They're throwing their heads back. They're losing all balance and literally almost all back-somersault and have a seizure," according to Laura Zitzelberger, operations director at Nature's Nursery. At least eight or nine of about a dozen geese that were brought to Nature's Nursery either died or had to be euthanized.
Two ducks and one of the geese that exhibited symptoms appear to have recovered. Another goose is struggling, she said.
At Back to the Wild, 18 of 23 geese dropped off for treatment have died, nearly all within the past three days, said Sarah Langdon, Back to the Wild supervisor.
Of the remaining five, three are "acting like normal geese again" and may be released soon, she said.
Seventeen of those 23 injured birds were brought in from the Bay Shore plant area, she said.
Chris Barry, a Perrysburg engineer, said he has seen three carcasses and a sick goose on the Perrysburg side of the Maumee River since Saturday. He said they were only 20 to 30 feet from the shore, but the ice was too dangerous to walk on.
"They're at the edge of the ice," Mr. Barry said, referring to an area near Water and Pine streets in Perrysburg.
The sick bird "was floating in a tiny patch of open water," Mr. Barry said.
"It didn't have much strength left," he said.
Anyone who sees geese acting strangely can contact the Crane Creek Wildlife Research Station at 419-898-0960 or the ODNR office in Findlay.
http://beta.toledoblade.com/local/2011/02/18/Peculiar-geese-deaths-baffle-wildlife-officials.html
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Thousands of New Zealand seabirds starving in La Nina conditions
Unusual weather conditions causing mass deaths among sea birds
December 2010. Penguins, petrels and other seabirds are dying in large numbers and washing up on New Zealand shores, says the NZ Department of Conservation (DOC).
Hundreds, if not thousands, of birds are likely to be found dead on New Zealand's beaches over the southern summer due to the La Nina climate pattern hitting the country this year.
Dead penguins
DOC vet Dr Kate McInnes said that dead penguins had started turning up on northern beaches a few weeks ago, but the sad event is not over yet, and may lead to deaths around the country. Autopsies on the birds to date have confirmed that the birds are dying of starvation.
"Its not just penguins," says Kate. "All seabirds are struggling to feed their chicks or get into breeding condition as a result of the La Nina climate pattern. It's sad but it's a natural event. It all points to a lack of small fish on which all these species depend to raise their chicks".
Grey-faced petrels, sooty shearwaters and gannets have all been affected.
Largest La Nina since 1975
The La Nina weather event is the biggest event of its type since 1975 and is characterised by stationary anticyclones east of New Zealand bringing calmer weather in the Spring.
"Calm seas stop the mixing of water columns making it harder for seabirds to find food," says Kate. "Any seabird that relies on fish will struggle. People are going to want to help the seabirds but in the end it's a natural event and there just isn't enough food out there for the chicks to survive."
Let nature take its course
Dr McInnes advises people finding seabirds to leave them alone this year.
"It's extremely difficult to care for penguins and seabirds when there is no natural food available. Although a tough call, its best to let nature take its course," she said.
"Although seabirds are going to have a bad time over the coming summer months throughout New Zealand, they had excellent breeding the previous summer season so population levels will cope in the longer term."
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/la-nina-seasbirds.html
December 2010. Penguins, petrels and other seabirds are dying in large numbers and washing up on New Zealand shores, says the NZ Department of Conservation (DOC).
Hundreds, if not thousands, of birds are likely to be found dead on New Zealand's beaches over the southern summer due to the La Nina climate pattern hitting the country this year.
Dead penguins
DOC vet Dr Kate McInnes said that dead penguins had started turning up on northern beaches a few weeks ago, but the sad event is not over yet, and may lead to deaths around the country. Autopsies on the birds to date have confirmed that the birds are dying of starvation.
"Its not just penguins," says Kate. "All seabirds are struggling to feed their chicks or get into breeding condition as a result of the La Nina climate pattern. It's sad but it's a natural event. It all points to a lack of small fish on which all these species depend to raise their chicks".
Grey-faced petrels, sooty shearwaters and gannets have all been affected.
Largest La Nina since 1975
The La Nina weather event is the biggest event of its type since 1975 and is characterised by stationary anticyclones east of New Zealand bringing calmer weather in the Spring.
"Calm seas stop the mixing of water columns making it harder for seabirds to find food," says Kate. "Any seabird that relies on fish will struggle. People are going to want to help the seabirds but in the end it's a natural event and there just isn't enough food out there for the chicks to survive."
Let nature take its course
Dr McInnes advises people finding seabirds to leave them alone this year.
"It's extremely difficult to care for penguins and seabirds when there is no natural food available. Although a tough call, its best to let nature take its course," she said.
"Although seabirds are going to have a bad time over the coming summer months throughout New Zealand, they had excellent breeding the previous summer season so population levels will cope in the longer term."
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/la-nina-seasbirds.html
Thousands of New Zealand seabirds starving in La Nina conditions
Unusual weather conditions causing mass deaths among sea birds
December 2010. Penguins, petrels and other seabirds are dying in large numbers and washing up on New Zealand shores, says the NZ Department of Conservation (DOC).
Hundreds, if not thousands, of birds are likely to be found dead on New Zealand's beaches over the southern summer due to the La Nina climate pattern hitting the country this year.
Dead penguins
DOC vet Dr Kate McInnes said that dead penguins had started turning up on northern beaches a few weeks ago, but the sad event is not over yet, and may lead to deaths around the country. Autopsies on the birds to date have confirmed that the birds are dying of starvation.
"Its not just penguins," says Kate. "All seabirds are struggling to feed their chicks or get into breeding condition as a result of the La Nina climate pattern. It's sad but it's a natural event. It all points to a lack of small fish on which all these species depend to raise their chicks".
Grey-faced petrels, sooty shearwaters and gannets have all been affected.
Largest La Nina since 1975
The La Nina weather event is the biggest event of its type since 1975 and is characterised by stationary anticyclones east of New Zealand bringing calmer weather in the Spring.
"Calm seas stop the mixing of water columns making it harder for seabirds to find food," says Kate. "Any seabird that relies on fish will struggle. People are going to want to help the seabirds but in the end it's a natural event and there just isn't enough food out there for the chicks to survive."
Let nature take its course
Dr McInnes advises people finding seabirds to leave them alone this year.
"It's extremely difficult to care for penguins and seabirds when there is no natural food available. Although a tough call, its best to let nature take its course," she said.
"Although seabirds are going to have a bad time over the coming summer months throughout New Zealand, they had excellent breeding the previous summer season so population levels will cope in the longer term."
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/la-nina-seasbirds.html
December 2010. Penguins, petrels and other seabirds are dying in large numbers and washing up on New Zealand shores, says the NZ Department of Conservation (DOC).
Hundreds, if not thousands, of birds are likely to be found dead on New Zealand's beaches over the southern summer due to the La Nina climate pattern hitting the country this year.
Dead penguins
DOC vet Dr Kate McInnes said that dead penguins had started turning up on northern beaches a few weeks ago, but the sad event is not over yet, and may lead to deaths around the country. Autopsies on the birds to date have confirmed that the birds are dying of starvation.
"Its not just penguins," says Kate. "All seabirds are struggling to feed their chicks or get into breeding condition as a result of the La Nina climate pattern. It's sad but it's a natural event. It all points to a lack of small fish on which all these species depend to raise their chicks".
Grey-faced petrels, sooty shearwaters and gannets have all been affected.
Largest La Nina since 1975
The La Nina weather event is the biggest event of its type since 1975 and is characterised by stationary anticyclones east of New Zealand bringing calmer weather in the Spring.
"Calm seas stop the mixing of water columns making it harder for seabirds to find food," says Kate. "Any seabird that relies on fish will struggle. People are going to want to help the seabirds but in the end it's a natural event and there just isn't enough food out there for the chicks to survive."
Let nature take its course
Dr McInnes advises people finding seabirds to leave them alone this year.
"It's extremely difficult to care for penguins and seabirds when there is no natural food available. Although a tough call, its best to let nature take its course," she said.
"Although seabirds are going to have a bad time over the coming summer months throughout New Zealand, they had excellent breeding the previous summer season so population levels will cope in the longer term."
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/la-nina-seasbirds.html
Monday, November 29, 2010
Lake invaders may be killing birds
Scientists suggest invasive mussels in the Great Lakes may be responsible for the deaths of thousands of migratory birds.
The hunt is on in the upper reaches of Lake Michigan to count what's believed to be thousands of bird carcasses that have washed ashore this fall — a staggering toll blamed on the disruptive powers of invasive species that have taken root in the Great Lakes.
The great debate in the Asian carp crisis, still playing out in federal court and the halls of Congress, is whether the feared fish has the capability of establishing a thriving population in the Great Lakes. If so, bighead and silver carp will almost certainly, and dramatically, alter commercial and recreational fishing in the nation's largest freshwater body.
But what if, as some scientists suggest, the Great Lakes' natural defenses — plankton shortages, lower water temperatures, greater water depth and swift-moving currents — keep Asian carp from sustaining themselves in large numbers? Will the threat have been avoided?
The answer is that all invasive species bring consequences that few can predict, leading scientists to ponder the thousands of gulls, loons, mergansers and other migratory birds whose remains wash ashore along the white-sand beaches in northern Wisconsin and Michigan's upper peninsula each fall.
There is a somewhat controversial theory for this annual die-off, which by some estimates has claimed more than 100,000 birds in the last 15 years, and it involves a type of naturally occurring but deadly botulism linked to the spread of invasive zebra and quagga mussels, which entered the Great Lakes decades ago aboard ocean vessels.
"There's still a lot about this we don't know," said Joe Kaplan, of the Michigan-based nonprofit Common Coast Research & Conservation. "The one thing we do know is that it's killing a lot of birds that are important to us.
"This is a very serious problem that deserves more attention."
Like Asian carp, zebra and quagga mussels reproduce rapidly and overwhelm their environment. Scientists feared densely packed clusters of mussels would take a toll on industry, colonizing in water pipes, intake valves, and air conditioning and cooling systems. And they have.
The U.S. Geological Survey, which has studied zebra and quagga mussels for more than 20 years, rank them among the most destructive "biological invasions into North America." But few could foresee the carnage that has followed.
Zebra mussels and quagga mussels filter naturally occurring botulism and other toxins from the water. Round gobies, another problematic invasive species, eat the mussels, and birds, in turn, eat the gobies.
"The evidence is there to suggest this is happening, but it's circumstantial evidence because we haven't found any proof of it," said Tom Cooley, a biologist at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. "All we can really do at this point is to continue to monitor what's happening and maybe something in the lakes will turn around."
Michigan's DNR and the Common Coast Research & Conservation are among the organizations, including the USGS and the National Wildlife Health Center, studying the deadly phenomena that this year is expected to kill as many or more birds than died in the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last summer.
Scientists don't know how long botulism or similar toxins have been killing birds in the Great Lakes, but the first sizable counting came in 1999, when researchers recorded 311 birds off the shores of Lake Erie. The following year, they found 8,000 around the Great Lakes and the death counts have remained in the thousands every year since.
For now, the deaths appear limited to the northern Great Lakes region, where the concentrations of mussels and birds are higher. But so little is known about the environmental factors that contribute to these deaths that scientists can't rule out large numbers of dead birds washing up along the shore closer to Chicago and western Michigan.
After two "low years" the death toll seems to have risen again this fall, Kaplan said, with perhaps as many as 50 dead birds recovered for every mile of beach. That may be because the unusually hot summer around the Great Lakes produced more algae, which feeds the mussels' population explosions. Or it may be attributed to other factors scientists haven't yet explored.
"We're still learning," Cooley said.
The die-off has devastated the populations of a number of important and protected bird species, but the discovery of many hundreds of common loons, a threatened species in Michigan, has given researchers a rallying point to draw attention and hopefully more funding to this issue, Kaplan said.
But with so much money already being spent to minimize the spread of invasive species within the Great Lakes, and recently to stop another from entering, Kaplan said he realizes this fight may be unwinnable.
"Unfortunately, we don't begin to really study an issue until we see entire systems collapse or get out of control," Kaplan said. "But that comes at a high cost."
By Joel Hood, TRIBUNE REPORTER
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-lake-michigan-bird-deaths-20101127,0,918715.story
The hunt is on in the upper reaches of Lake Michigan to count what's believed to be thousands of bird carcasses that have washed ashore this fall — a staggering toll blamed on the disruptive powers of invasive species that have taken root in the Great Lakes.
The great debate in the Asian carp crisis, still playing out in federal court and the halls of Congress, is whether the feared fish has the capability of establishing a thriving population in the Great Lakes. If so, bighead and silver carp will almost certainly, and dramatically, alter commercial and recreational fishing in the nation's largest freshwater body.
But what if, as some scientists suggest, the Great Lakes' natural defenses — plankton shortages, lower water temperatures, greater water depth and swift-moving currents — keep Asian carp from sustaining themselves in large numbers? Will the threat have been avoided?
The answer is that all invasive species bring consequences that few can predict, leading scientists to ponder the thousands of gulls, loons, mergansers and other migratory birds whose remains wash ashore along the white-sand beaches in northern Wisconsin and Michigan's upper peninsula each fall.
There is a somewhat controversial theory for this annual die-off, which by some estimates has claimed more than 100,000 birds in the last 15 years, and it involves a type of naturally occurring but deadly botulism linked to the spread of invasive zebra and quagga mussels, which entered the Great Lakes decades ago aboard ocean vessels.
"There's still a lot about this we don't know," said Joe Kaplan, of the Michigan-based nonprofit Common Coast Research & Conservation. "The one thing we do know is that it's killing a lot of birds that are important to us.
"This is a very serious problem that deserves more attention."
Like Asian carp, zebra and quagga mussels reproduce rapidly and overwhelm their environment. Scientists feared densely packed clusters of mussels would take a toll on industry, colonizing in water pipes, intake valves, and air conditioning and cooling systems. And they have.
The U.S. Geological Survey, which has studied zebra and quagga mussels for more than 20 years, rank them among the most destructive "biological invasions into North America." But few could foresee the carnage that has followed.
Zebra mussels and quagga mussels filter naturally occurring botulism and other toxins from the water. Round gobies, another problematic invasive species, eat the mussels, and birds, in turn, eat the gobies.
"The evidence is there to suggest this is happening, but it's circumstantial evidence because we haven't found any proof of it," said Tom Cooley, a biologist at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. "All we can really do at this point is to continue to monitor what's happening and maybe something in the lakes will turn around."
Michigan's DNR and the Common Coast Research & Conservation are among the organizations, including the USGS and the National Wildlife Health Center, studying the deadly phenomena that this year is expected to kill as many or more birds than died in the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last summer.
Scientists don't know how long botulism or similar toxins have been killing birds in the Great Lakes, but the first sizable counting came in 1999, when researchers recorded 311 birds off the shores of Lake Erie. The following year, they found 8,000 around the Great Lakes and the death counts have remained in the thousands every year since.
For now, the deaths appear limited to the northern Great Lakes region, where the concentrations of mussels and birds are higher. But so little is known about the environmental factors that contribute to these deaths that scientists can't rule out large numbers of dead birds washing up along the shore closer to Chicago and western Michigan.
After two "low years" the death toll seems to have risen again this fall, Kaplan said, with perhaps as many as 50 dead birds recovered for every mile of beach. That may be because the unusually hot summer around the Great Lakes produced more algae, which feeds the mussels' population explosions. Or it may be attributed to other factors scientists haven't yet explored.
"We're still learning," Cooley said.
The die-off has devastated the populations of a number of important and protected bird species, but the discovery of many hundreds of common loons, a threatened species in Michigan, has given researchers a rallying point to draw attention and hopefully more funding to this issue, Kaplan said.
But with so much money already being spent to minimize the spread of invasive species within the Great Lakes, and recently to stop another from entering, Kaplan said he realizes this fight may be unwinnable.
"Unfortunately, we don't begin to really study an issue until we see entire systems collapse or get out of control," Kaplan said. "But that comes at a high cost."
By Joel Hood, TRIBUNE REPORTER
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-lake-michigan-bird-deaths-20101127,0,918715.story
Lake invaders may be killing birds
Scientists suggest invasive mussels in the Great Lakes may be responsible for the deaths of thousands of migratory birds.
The hunt is on in the upper reaches of Lake Michigan to count what's believed to be thousands of bird carcasses that have washed ashore this fall — a staggering toll blamed on the disruptive powers of invasive species that have taken root in the Great Lakes.
The great debate in the Asian carp crisis, still playing out in federal court and the halls of Congress, is whether the feared fish has the capability of establishing a thriving population in the Great Lakes. If so, bighead and silver carp will almost certainly, and dramatically, alter commercial and recreational fishing in the nation's largest freshwater body.
But what if, as some scientists suggest, the Great Lakes' natural defenses — plankton shortages, lower water temperatures, greater water depth and swift-moving currents — keep Asian carp from sustaining themselves in large numbers? Will the threat have been avoided?
The answer is that all invasive species bring consequences that few can predict, leading scientists to ponder the thousands of gulls, loons, mergansers and other migratory birds whose remains wash ashore along the white-sand beaches in northern Wisconsin and Michigan's upper peninsula each fall.
There is a somewhat controversial theory for this annual die-off, which by some estimates has claimed more than 100,000 birds in the last 15 years, and it involves a type of naturally occurring but deadly botulism linked to the spread of invasive zebra and quagga mussels, which entered the Great Lakes decades ago aboard ocean vessels.
"There's still a lot about this we don't know," said Joe Kaplan, of the Michigan-based nonprofit Common Coast Research & Conservation. "The one thing we do know is that it's killing a lot of birds that are important to us.
"This is a very serious problem that deserves more attention."
Like Asian carp, zebra and quagga mussels reproduce rapidly and overwhelm their environment. Scientists feared densely packed clusters of mussels would take a toll on industry, colonizing in water pipes, intake valves, and air conditioning and cooling systems. And they have.
The U.S. Geological Survey, which has studied zebra and quagga mussels for more than 20 years, rank them among the most destructive "biological invasions into North America." But few could foresee the carnage that has followed.
Zebra mussels and quagga mussels filter naturally occurring botulism and other toxins from the water. Round gobies, another problematic invasive species, eat the mussels, and birds, in turn, eat the gobies.
"The evidence is there to suggest this is happening, but it's circumstantial evidence because we haven't found any proof of it," said Tom Cooley, a biologist at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. "All we can really do at this point is to continue to monitor what's happening and maybe something in the lakes will turn around."
Michigan's DNR and the Common Coast Research & Conservation are among the organizations, including the USGS and the National Wildlife Health Center, studying the deadly phenomena that this year is expected to kill as many or more birds than died in the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last summer.
Scientists don't know how long botulism or similar toxins have been killing birds in the Great Lakes, but the first sizable counting came in 1999, when researchers recorded 311 birds off the shores of Lake Erie. The following year, they found 8,000 around the Great Lakes and the death counts have remained in the thousands every year since.
For now, the deaths appear limited to the northern Great Lakes region, where the concentrations of mussels and birds are higher. But so little is known about the environmental factors that contribute to these deaths that scientists can't rule out large numbers of dead birds washing up along the shore closer to Chicago and western Michigan.
After two "low years" the death toll seems to have risen again this fall, Kaplan said, with perhaps as many as 50 dead birds recovered for every mile of beach. That may be because the unusually hot summer around the Great Lakes produced more algae, which feeds the mussels' population explosions. Or it may be attributed to other factors scientists haven't yet explored.
"We're still learning," Cooley said.
The die-off has devastated the populations of a number of important and protected bird species, but the discovery of many hundreds of common loons, a threatened species in Michigan, has given researchers a rallying point to draw attention and hopefully more funding to this issue, Kaplan said.
But with so much money already being spent to minimize the spread of invasive species within the Great Lakes, and recently to stop another from entering, Kaplan said he realizes this fight may be unwinnable.
"Unfortunately, we don't begin to really study an issue until we see entire systems collapse or get out of control," Kaplan said. "But that comes at a high cost."
By Joel Hood, TRIBUNE REPORTER
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-lake-michigan-bird-deaths-20101127,0,918715.story
The hunt is on in the upper reaches of Lake Michigan to count what's believed to be thousands of bird carcasses that have washed ashore this fall — a staggering toll blamed on the disruptive powers of invasive species that have taken root in the Great Lakes.
The great debate in the Asian carp crisis, still playing out in federal court and the halls of Congress, is whether the feared fish has the capability of establishing a thriving population in the Great Lakes. If so, bighead and silver carp will almost certainly, and dramatically, alter commercial and recreational fishing in the nation's largest freshwater body.
But what if, as some scientists suggest, the Great Lakes' natural defenses — plankton shortages, lower water temperatures, greater water depth and swift-moving currents — keep Asian carp from sustaining themselves in large numbers? Will the threat have been avoided?
The answer is that all invasive species bring consequences that few can predict, leading scientists to ponder the thousands of gulls, loons, mergansers and other migratory birds whose remains wash ashore along the white-sand beaches in northern Wisconsin and Michigan's upper peninsula each fall.
There is a somewhat controversial theory for this annual die-off, which by some estimates has claimed more than 100,000 birds in the last 15 years, and it involves a type of naturally occurring but deadly botulism linked to the spread of invasive zebra and quagga mussels, which entered the Great Lakes decades ago aboard ocean vessels.
"There's still a lot about this we don't know," said Joe Kaplan, of the Michigan-based nonprofit Common Coast Research & Conservation. "The one thing we do know is that it's killing a lot of birds that are important to us.
"This is a very serious problem that deserves more attention."
Like Asian carp, zebra and quagga mussels reproduce rapidly and overwhelm their environment. Scientists feared densely packed clusters of mussels would take a toll on industry, colonizing in water pipes, intake valves, and air conditioning and cooling systems. And they have.
The U.S. Geological Survey, which has studied zebra and quagga mussels for more than 20 years, rank them among the most destructive "biological invasions into North America." But few could foresee the carnage that has followed.
Zebra mussels and quagga mussels filter naturally occurring botulism and other toxins from the water. Round gobies, another problematic invasive species, eat the mussels, and birds, in turn, eat the gobies.
"The evidence is there to suggest this is happening, but it's circumstantial evidence because we haven't found any proof of it," said Tom Cooley, a biologist at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. "All we can really do at this point is to continue to monitor what's happening and maybe something in the lakes will turn around."
Michigan's DNR and the Common Coast Research & Conservation are among the organizations, including the USGS and the National Wildlife Health Center, studying the deadly phenomena that this year is expected to kill as many or more birds than died in the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last summer.
Scientists don't know how long botulism or similar toxins have been killing birds in the Great Lakes, but the first sizable counting came in 1999, when researchers recorded 311 birds off the shores of Lake Erie. The following year, they found 8,000 around the Great Lakes and the death counts have remained in the thousands every year since.
For now, the deaths appear limited to the northern Great Lakes region, where the concentrations of mussels and birds are higher. But so little is known about the environmental factors that contribute to these deaths that scientists can't rule out large numbers of dead birds washing up along the shore closer to Chicago and western Michigan.
After two "low years" the death toll seems to have risen again this fall, Kaplan said, with perhaps as many as 50 dead birds recovered for every mile of beach. That may be because the unusually hot summer around the Great Lakes produced more algae, which feeds the mussels' population explosions. Or it may be attributed to other factors scientists haven't yet explored.
"We're still learning," Cooley said.
The die-off has devastated the populations of a number of important and protected bird species, but the discovery of many hundreds of common loons, a threatened species in Michigan, has given researchers a rallying point to draw attention and hopefully more funding to this issue, Kaplan said.
But with so much money already being spent to minimize the spread of invasive species within the Great Lakes, and recently to stop another from entering, Kaplan said he realizes this fight may be unwinnable.
"Unfortunately, we don't begin to really study an issue until we see entire systems collapse or get out of control," Kaplan said. "But that comes at a high cost."
By Joel Hood, TRIBUNE REPORTER
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-lake-michigan-bird-deaths-20101127,0,918715.story
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