Ospreyers,

 

Here's a timely topic and important issue:

 

PESTICIDES AND BIRDS. Dr. Michael Fry, Director of the Pesticides and Birds
Campaign, American Bird Conservancy.

 

DATE:  Friday, February 2, 2007. TIME:  8:00 P.M. PLACE: Arlington Echo
Environmental Education Center, Millersville, MD.

 

Michael Fry will speak on American Bird Conservancy's work on pesticides and
birds and present a photo-essay on how dangerous pesticides are identified
and how efforts are advanced to regulate or ban their use so that birds are
protected. The presentation will discuss the campaign to resolve the
inadvertent killing of thousands of Swainson's Hawks in Argentina through
the use of the pesticide monocrotophos to control grasshoppers, and
successful efforts to ban fenthion, a deadly mosquito pesticide used only in
some Florida marshes, that was killing many shorebirds, including the
endangered Piping Plover. Commonly used pesticides available across the
counter that kill many birds will be described, including brodifacoum, used
in D-CON. ABC's efforts will be described in working to assist in reporting
poisoning incidents and in the development of a web-accessible database on
pesticides and birds to document problems with legal uses of agricultural
chemicals. The database has been extremely useful in providing data to EPA
on harmful pesticides and has been instrumental in forcing decisions to ban
the worst pesticides from the market. Learn the pesticides you should avoid
using. Dr. Fry is an avian toxicologist whose research interests over the
past 30 years have focused on the effects of pollutants and pesticides on
ecosystems, with a focus on wild birds. Mike Fry reviewed lead exposure
sources and lead toxicity issues of California Condors for the California
Department of Fish and Game, publishing a comprehensive report in 2003.
Before joining ABC, he was a research physiologist in the Department of
Avian/Animal Sciences at the University of California, Davis, for 25 years
and then operated a consulting firm working on public interest issues.

 

Posted by Sue Ricciardi

For Gerald Winegrad, Anne Arundel Bird Club Program Chair