Subject: Re: Brant
Date: Apr 21 23:41:13 1998
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca


Hi Tweets,

Steve Aronoff writes:

>Sunday there were several hundred at Birch Bay State Park, WA. These
>congregated around the low tide line as well. I have no idea what they were
>feeding on. Most appeared to have little interest in what laid below.

I'm not sure but what their diet isn't entirely eelgrass, zostera sp., on
their way north. There used to be large stands of it along the Roberts
Bank-Boundary Bay-Semiahmoo Bay-Birch Bay shores, and their migration was
apparently something to behold.

Unfortunately, until recently, overhunting, pollution and since then to the
present--and getting worse--dog-owners allowing their dogs to run offleash
have displaced the geese from many traditional feeding/migrational staging
sites. I've observed that these geese seem to be the most dog-intolerant of
all the edge-grazing waterfowl, taking flight at nearly the very first
instant of a dog's appearance. As the wants and needs of dog-owners seem
increasingly to be driving the wildlife-lands usage agenda at present,
almost to the point of monopoly in many parks and environments and there
seems no stomach for enforcement of protecting rules and political
agreements on 'protected' lands, I'm not sure what the future holds for
these and other birds, the poor things.

Michael Price A brave world, Sir,
Vancouver BC Canada full of religion, knavery, and change;
mprice at mindlink.net we shall shortly see better days.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)