For those of you that photograph at Bolsa Chica
raptorcaptor
Registered Users Posts: 3,968 Major grins
This is from an email my wife received, and may explain some of the missing raptors:
From what I gather from email coming in, on the edge of the Hearthside
development on the mesa near Bolsa Chica preserve, there is now a
long, window wall. In the last few days several birds, including at
least 3 raptors, have been found dead at the base of the wall. One
report indicated the wall is at least a mile long, and at times may be
up to 10 feet high. It is close to environmentally sensitive areas.
Bird collisions with glass is a major mortality factor in the United
States. This particular wall has contributed to the death of several
birds the last 2 days, including at least 3 raptors. During the last
24 hours, 7 dead birds were seen at the base of the wall.
Karen Gilbert has photographed the wall yesterday or today. I
couldn't open the Photos Folder on our website to place it there, so
instead, I put the .jpg in the files section.
See: http://tinyurl.com/ytcyj7
that's http : // tinyurl . com / ytcyj7 and ignore the spaces
Sea and Sage Audubon's Board has been alerted, as well as the local
newspapers to this environmental problem, as well as the Department of
Fish and Game.
We need to document the impact of this wall, so that people will take
the issue seriously, but there are laws regulating the collecting of
dead birds and the handling of hurt animals.
I would think that people monitoring the wall might want to GPS the
location of specific dead birds, and perhaps take digital photos with
time stamped images of them, so we can get a handle of bird mortality
and not double-count dead individuals.
Looking at the photo, it appears that there may be in place some sort
of watering system, so eventually plants might hide the wall...but
that's not what is there right now. If plants are anticipated to be
along this wall, then the plants should go in first and be high enough
and dense enough to act as a wall themselves, ....and the present
glass removed until that happens.
From what I gather from email coming in, on the edge of the Hearthside
development on the mesa near Bolsa Chica preserve, there is now a
long, window wall. In the last few days several birds, including at
least 3 raptors, have been found dead at the base of the wall. One
report indicated the wall is at least a mile long, and at times may be
up to 10 feet high. It is close to environmentally sensitive areas.
Bird collisions with glass is a major mortality factor in the United
States. This particular wall has contributed to the death of several
birds the last 2 days, including at least 3 raptors. During the last
24 hours, 7 dead birds were seen at the base of the wall.
Karen Gilbert has photographed the wall yesterday or today. I
couldn't open the Photos Folder on our website to place it there, so
instead, I put the .jpg in the files section.
See: http://tinyurl.com/ytcyj7
that's http : // tinyurl . com / ytcyj7 and ignore the spaces
Sea and Sage Audubon's Board has been alerted, as well as the local
newspapers to this environmental problem, as well as the Department of
Fish and Game.
We need to document the impact of this wall, so that people will take
the issue seriously, but there are laws regulating the collecting of
dead birds and the handling of hurt animals.
I would think that people monitoring the wall might want to GPS the
location of specific dead birds, and perhaps take digital photos with
time stamped images of them, so we can get a handle of bird mortality
and not double-count dead individuals.
Looking at the photo, it appears that there may be in place some sort
of watering system, so eventually plants might hide the wall...but
that's not what is there right now. If plants are anticipated to be
along this wall, then the plants should go in first and be high enough
and dense enough to act as a wall themselves, ....and the present
glass removed until that happens.
0
Comments
This is so unfortunate, you'd think that the developers would be smart and
considerate enough to do some kind of environmental impact assessment
before embarking on such a destructive project. But, as usual,
blinded by the greenback:(:
One of the birds that was found dead near the wall was a Northern Harrier.
My website | NANPA Member
The link is broken. I just copied it from an email and did not check the link.
Here is a link to a story in the OC Register about the wall.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/birds-wall-dead-1925737-boardman-three
My website | NANPA Member