Highlands County Audubon Society -Articles

Highlands County Audubon

serving all of Highlands County, Florida

Miriam was a teacher, naturalist and journalist from whom Highlands County Audubon inherited her home located in Lake Placid. The home was sold several years ago, funds invested, and the Board of Directors established an annual award for teachers in her memory utilizing some of the proceeds. Please visit the Miriam Beck Award page for details about awardees.

Quito, Ecuador--Some Ecuadoreans were waving corn stalks and branches of ornamental plants instead of traditional palm fronds and the woven crosses made from them on Palm Sunday. The change of greenery was part of a campaign to save the endangered wax palm and two bird species: the golden-plumed parakeet and the yellow-eared parrot, which might actually be extinct. The birds depend on the palm for nesting and refuge.

"We asked the people not to buy palm branches or ornaments made from them" according to Msgr. Escobar the local minister. "It seemed like a rational position to take," he said. "Scripture passages about Jesus' entry into Jerusalem say that people first laid their cloaks in front of him and then tore branches from the trees. Palm branches became depicted regularly in books during the Middle Ages, said Msgr. Escobr."

Wax palm trees provide nesting and resting places for the golden plumed parakeet in southern Ecuador, but only about 400 birds are left according to Birds and Conservation, and Ecuadorean environmental group. In the northern highlands around Quito, the trees were once home to the yellow-eared parrot, but there have been no confirmed sightings of the bird in about 10 years.

Virtually all field biologists, including ornithologists, are convinced of the explanatory power of evolutionary theory. We have little choice in this matter. Scientists, unlike politicians, are compelled by their calling to go with the evidence. The evidence for evolution is overwhelming, and the few biologists who deny it are forced to resort to willful ignorance and deliberate self-deception. An understanding of evolutionary theory can change one’s view of nature. It is no longer possible to believe, for example that warblers were created specifically to remove caterpillars from our orchards and delight us with their color and form. On the other hand biologists hold a special respect for all birds and other animals, knowing they are inheritors of many thousands of years of adaptation and survival in the changing trials of time.

Biologists, who understand how life has evolved through the rigorous rules of natural selection do not, of course, live their lives in subservience to these rules. Scientists subscribe to ethical rules, just like everyone else. Biologists understand, for example that taking responsibility for one’s actions is a foundation stone of human ethics. This has impelled ornithologists to take positions in the vanguard of avian conservation, because they understand better than any body how human actions are affecting birds that share our world. None of this explains exactly why so many biologists love to watch birds. To me, birds are beautiful, but not like art works in a museum. They are beautiful in a functional way, like the Golden Gate Bridge rising out of the water, emerging from the mist, and conducting a stream of speeding traffic. On every bird,\every color, every arrangement of feathers means something. Beyond what we can sense there is more that we cannot sense: the short, buzzy trill of the grasshopper sparrow is really a high-speed melody to other sparrows. The more we know about birds and other organisms, the more we realize that there is an intricate order in the Universe. Ornithologists, just like everybody else, have an unceasing need for this realization .

In the United Kingdom (UK), a large proportion of the land is farmed in one way or another. Relatively little is contained within nature preserves where the habitat can be controlled for the benefit of wild species. Indeed some species of birds & mammals benefit little from such areas. With this in mind, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has developed a number of strategies for improving farmland for birds, including owning & running demonstration farms.

The UK has a number of government sponsored schemes for subsidizing farmers who operate in an environmentally friendly way. This is necessary because of the high intensification of some types of farming & the perceived loss of efficiency when conservation practices are applied. Needless to say, such subsidies have to meet stringent requirements in order to qualify.

Farmers find it easier to meet the criteria if they have been vetted & approved by an environmental organization such as the RSPB. The RSPB, on the other hand, needs to know that the land supports, or, with suitable practices, could support, target species of conservation concern. That can be tested with a formalized field survey.

The Volunteer & Farmer Alliance pulls these strings together. The RSPB locates farmers who are seeking qualification &, from among local birders, it finds volunteers who are willing (& capable) to make five visits in one breeding season to establish the location, numbers & breeding status of all bird species on the farms. Normally it is one volunteer to one farm per season.

British farms are generally quite small so each visit takes about 3 hours, mapping the location of every bird & recording its activity using standardized symbols. It is a very effective scheme & can be very satisfying for the volunteer who gets to visit private land otherwise inaccessible to birders.

In the spring/summer of 2005, I was allocated an organic sheep farm set on the north side of mountains in Wales at an altitude of 1000 Ft above sea level. The farm area was about 200 Acres with some oak woodland & many big hedges protected on both sides by sheep netting (otherwise they eat the hedges!). The farmer & his wife were enthusiastic & were able to tell me many of the species present.

Most important was the Red Kite, snatched back from the brink of extinction in the UK during the last century. They are scavengers. Kite-friendly farmers bend the rules to leave dead sheep out for them to eat. There were many finches, including the red-listed Linnet. Many warblers were singing, including Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Garden Warbler, Whitethroat & Blackcap. Robins, Blackbirds & Wrens could be heard everywhere. Not so numerous were Skylarks & Redstarts. In all there were about 40 species. It was good exercise & the scenery was wonderful.

I spent some time with the farmer & his wife. They were nice people & will probably remember for some time their encounters with “Brian the Birdman”.