On Friday we visited the magnificent seabird colonies of Breton Island, home to some 100,000 terns, pelicans, and gulls. After witnessing some heavily oiled mangrove islands the day before (more on this in a later post), it was a relief to see such a vibrant spectacle with little sign of oil. Breton National Wildlife Refuge [...]
I spent Thursday looking for Wilson’s Plovers under the baking sun on a barrier island east of Grand Isle. I was with a survey team led by Richard DeMay, of the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program, and Steve Cardiff, of Louisiana State University. I’m grateful to them for the chance to see first-hand the unique threats [...]
While we were out at Iron Banks (after rescuing a frigatebird), we ran across a colony of a couple of hundred Caspian Terns on a skinny, boomerang-shaped island. Though we had seen no oil in this part of the Delta, just watching the birds coming and going brought home how susceptible they could be. These [...]
On our way out to Iron Banks, we passed a female Magnificent Frigatebird bobbing in open water, half-submerged. Something was wrong: these are usually the most aerial of birds. They eat many a fish without ever touching the water, by harassing terns or gulls until they give up their catch. At times, they skim close [...]
Yesterday morning we were up early to visit the Iron Banks area east of the Mississippi River. We crossed by ferry, Capt. Iverson‘s fishing boat on a trailer behind his Suburban. The ferry dashed across the Big Muddy like a pedestrian crossing a highway—the whole trip took about five minutes. Then it was up over [...]
Yesterday I flew to southern Louisiana to join our video team, Ben Clock and Larry Arbanas. They’ve been here for nearly three weeks already, documenting how birds are faring during the Gulf oil catastrophe. Ben and Larry let me in easy, with an oil-free day filming the enormous diversity of waterbirds around Venice, Louisiana, and [...]
Normally when I go birding I enjoy keeping a running tally of the species I’ve seen. But there’s one list that only gets more painful the longer it gets. As of today, our video team in Louisiana has seen 14 species of oiled birds: Brown Pelican, Royal, Sandwich, and Forster’s terns, Laughing and Herring gulls, [...]
NOTE: More news and resources are being compiled here UPDATE: We’ve once again increased the number of open-access accounts from 22 to 34 in response to requests from U.S. Fish and Wildlife workers in the Gulf. I’ve added the most recent 12 species to the bottom of the list below. Last week we opened access [...]
NOTE: More news and resources are being compiled here Last week we sent down a small team of biologist-videographers to the Louisiana coast. Our goal is to gather video that will help us provide biologically relevant insight to the BP oil spill’s effects on birds. Our team—Marc Dantzker, Ben Clock, and Larry Arbanas—are also there [...]
