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Subject:

"Feathers with ZIP Codes"

From:

Sarel Cousins

Reply-To:

Sarel Cousins

Date:

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 01:30:19 +0000

Hi all,

There is an interesting article in the "Conservation in Practice" magazine 
(Oct-Dec 2006 issue) by Douglas Fox.

It talks about how ecologists, armed with mass spectrometers, are reading 
the isotope signatures of
feathers and that the information could help manage migratory populations.  
Apparently the ratios
of stabe isotopes vary from place to place.  With falling prices mass 
spectroscopy is now being used more.

One example given is the Black Throated Blue Warbler which ranges from 
Michigan and Newfoundland down to Georgia during breeding season.  For 30 
years, its southern population gradually dwindled and until recently no one 
knew why.  It turned out that birds which wintered on the island of 
Hispanola came from the southern end of the species breeding range in the 
U.S and Hispanola had undergone extensive deforestation providing an 
explanation for the southern breeders' decline that would have been hard to 
understand without knowing the birds' migratory connections.  Isotopes have 
also been harnessed to track movements of dragonflies, monarch butterflies, 
elephants, bats, etc.  I don't have much of a science background like many 
of the MD-Ospreyers I have met so this info on isotopes is new to me.

On another note, I came home today to find a dead Golden Crowned Kinglet on 
my steps.  I think it flew into the glass on the door.  I put it in my 
freezer in case anyone wants it.  Otherwise it is going
back to nature.  Very sad.

Sarel Cousins

New Windsor, MD

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