In a message dated 6/18/2007 11:57:22 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
 writes:

> I agree with Jerry, I don't understand why cowbirds are 
> protected.  It's a problem we caused - shouldn't we fix it?  Removing 
> cowbirds would greatly enhance the songbird production of a lot of habitat, 
> perhaps compensating for other sorts of environmental insults.  Jerry is 
> right about the Kirtland's warbler.  I was there a couple weeks ago and 
> they explain how removing the cowbirds has been a necessary and productive 
> feature of the restoration program.  There are lots of other species that 
> could use this help, too...It's a problem we caused - shouldn't we fix it?  

Yup, we create the circumstance. The Cowbird,  being opportunistic (like us), 
takes advantage of the fragmented and thinned out woods.

However, the Kirtland's warbler is a special case. The area in which they 
breed is much smaller than other breeding warbler areas. In addition, not only 
are Cowbirds controlled but strict forest management and cooperation of folks 
who own properties are also in play.

I can't say I have an overwhelming need to kill Cowbirds nor am I 
"overwhelmed by revulsion"  but I'd prefer seeing any native bird feeding its own. 
It is a problem we've caused,  but our past history of fixing problems is not 
good and may exacerbated existing bad environmental conditions. 

Years ago the woods behind my house was logged. 
Destroyed was habitat for confirmed breeding: Louisiana Waterthrush, 
Worm-eating, 
Blk & Wht, and Kentucky Warblers, Scarlet Tanager. You & I know it would take 
one hoard of a lot of Cowbirds to destroy that much of a diverse population. 
The chopping wood folks did it easily over a two year period.

Two miles down the road from us, just before the property was sold, the 
owners thinned out their small woods. Along with the mature trees went the nesting 
Redheaded Woodpeckers, Peewees, Wood Thrushes and breeding Scarlet Tanagers. 
No Cowbirds here.

Back in the ‘50's & 60's, didn't Chan Robbins correlate the decline of 
breeding warblers on the Eastern shore with fragmentation of the forest?
How about the drop in grassland birds (no Cowbirds here either)? Isn't that 
mainly due to land management?

And then there's the recent recall of a moratorium on "harvesting" Horseshoe 
crabs. So much for the Red Knot and migrating shorebirds in general. But then, 
no one ever blamed the Cowbird for using those nests anyway.

There has been speculation that the Cowbird followed train tracks to the East 
due to the seed dropped along the way. Makes sense to me. People moved West, 
the Cowbird moved East.
I find them interesting to observe and their musicality unique. 
(Have you heard David Curzon's lecture concerning his study of Cowbirds?)

It's my observation that it's the people around Cowbirds that provide 
unpleasant distraction and destruction.

Until we get our act together, you may kill all the Cowbirds you can get your 
hands on but 
nothing will change if our land management practices remain the same. 

Gail Frantz 
Old Hanover Rd
Reisterstown, MD




**************************************
 See what's free at http://www.aol.com.