A Preview For Landfill Birding
I'm trying to corral my photos to use in a future post about birding in a Florida landfill (I tell ya' that Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival takes you to some highfalutin places). Here is a video that I took with my Fuji E900 attached to my Swarovski spotting scope just to give you an idea of the sheer number of birds and the sound they create. You'll hear a din of several species including fish crow, laughing gull, bald eagle, and boat-tailed grackle. Now, here is a question, how many species can you make out in both sound and the video? I'm not sure I know the exact number, but I think you will be surprised at what all you can find at a landfill!
Labels: Bird Festivals, Daytona, digivideo, Florida, gulls, Landfill Birding, Space Coast Bird Festival
posted by birdchick at 9:02 AM
6 Comments:
do Minnesota birds not dine at landfills?
I think it's a pretty sad sight to see these birds at a landfill eating food that is surely not good for them. Just another way we've impacted them negatively.
Maggie
The birds do come to landfills in MN, but we are not allowed access to watch them. Also, we don't have too many ibis up here.
And I don't know that I would be so quick to say that the landfill food is bad for them. First, there has been no scientific study to say whether or not food at a landfill is detrimental to bird health. Considering that many of the birds at the landfill eat roadkill anyway (that has been setting out for long periods in the hot sun), they already have a digestive system that can really take a beating. Also, many of the birds in the video have experienced an overall population increase according to Cornell's Birds of North America Online. The few species that have had local patches of decreases (at least in Florida), have had that decrease due to water management issues in nesting areas.
I'm not saying it's great that birds are eating landfills, I'm sure some get plastic and whatnot in their system, but considering that these birds have been doing it for decades and their populations are growing, it does not indicate that it is all gloom and doom.
It's a pretty remarkable clip! A lot more birds than many of the dumps I have visited in other areas of the country.
I have landfill envy.
ooh. oh. this might be one of those what exactly am I doing with my life moments... I get those too.
Is that a great egret at the end?
I guess it's still sad though. Seeing a bald eagle, great egret and white ibis in a landfill and then realizing how much swamp in FL was lost in the last 100 years. What that place must have been like in the 1800s!
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