> "The most vulnerable are the 350 migratory species such as
> vireos, warblers, and thrushes," many already endangered, he
> said. "Pesticides, herbicides, even house cats kill many
> birds," he said, adding that thousands of songbirds would be
> spared if pet cats were kept indoors during migration season.

When I read this, it suddenly hit me that perhaps the conservation folks
might have better luck persuading cat owners to keep their cats inside
just during migration season, rather than all year round. This would
certainly be better than nothing. Has the National Audubon Society or
any other group tried an approach where, say, during migration there are
advertisements or billboards or the like asking cat owners to try to
keep their cats inside for the month of April? But as I write this, I
realize that there are much more important things to spend money on than
this. Nevertheless, such a limited approach would have a much better
chance of success than asking the cat owners to forever ban Tabby from
the yard.

Perhaps the newspapers could be persuaded to include a "migration
index", along with the pollution index and the allergy index, on the
weather page. This "index" could indicate whether there are important
populations migrating through right now. This could be tried locally in
Seattle, and then when the kinks are worked out, spread to the rest of
the country.

I prefer a positive campaign, but I suppose that one could come up with
diverse negative campaigns, too. There used to be a billboard that
drivers saw coming north on 99, just before ramping up on the viaduct.
This billboard counted in real time the size of the national debt.
Perhaps conservationists could sponsor such a prominently-placed
billboard which might count in real time the estimated number of birds
killed by buildings and power lines and cats. Or on the positive side,
list the species coming through right now, and ask that cats be kept
inside for a short time.

Seems to me the possibilities, if not the money, are endless. Any
comments?

Bob Mauritsen
Seattle
Bluetooth at compuserve.com