Tweets,

On the historic changes thread, certainly Sharp-tailed and Sage Grouse were
far more widespread and abundant in the sagebrush and bunchgrass areas of
eastern Washington prior to widespread ranching and irrigation. They may
have support larger Golden Eagle populations.

Gene Hunn.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick Howie" <rick.howie at shaw.ca>
To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Friday, October 25, 2002 11:31 PM
Subject: Birds vs Nature


> I found Dennis Paulson's comments about bird associations and
anthropogenic
> habitats to be very interesting. To use Dennis' example, the sage habitats
> here at Kamloops in winter are also quite devoid of birds.
> Short-eared Owls on occasion, patrolling Gyrfalcons, Golden Eagles,
magpies,
> ravens, Horned Larks, perhaps some Rosy-finches & Chukar, but generally it
> is pretty quiet out there away from civilization.
> The same is true for the native grasslands, but grasslands can be
deceptive
> at first glance. What appear to be native grasslands to the untrained eye,
> can be grasslands that have been altered by the cattle industry over the
> last 125 years or so. Native bunchgrasses have been ploughed up and
replaced
> by alien sod grasses for hay and grazing pastures. Crested wheatgrass has
> been widely interplanted and replaced Bluebunch wheatgrass in some areas.
> To be sure, some of these new habitats provide opportunities for voles,
> raptors and other birds, but the key point is that they are different and
> not native, as are the paddocks, feedlots and farmyards that attract
birds.
> A fellow biologist once commented disparagingly about how short the grass
> had been grazed over a particularly large area of ranches, and how could
our
> native birds survive. I pointed out to him that the grass in question was
> not native bunchgrass, and was in fact planted because it could withstand
> severe grazing, and fit in well with the ranching objectives of raising
> cows.
> Of course, this conversion of native grasses to alien species was not
> particularly helpful for some birds, but was useful for other species.
> Unfortunately, these shorter grasses are not used in the same way by some
of
> the birds that are more adapted to our native grasslands, and are probably
> contributing to a decline in some of these species, despite being "grass"
>
> For several years, we have been counting Long-billed Curlews in the spring
> as part of a strategy to understand the size of our populations here. I
have
> been counting an extensive area of rangeland on one of the largest cattle
> ranches in North America. Despite having seen birds in the general area in
> the past, and hearing reports from ranchers & cowboys, I was turning up
0-1
> birds per trip, despite travelling up to 100 km through grasslands.
> Finally, after a long day of looking at grasslands, an as yet unproven
> theory popped into my head. Vast amounts of what I had been looking at
were
> altered grasslands that had been extensively converted to sod grasses for
> haying purposes or denser growth of non-native buncgrasses. Much of it
was
> unirrigated . At the time of year when we were doing surveys, the moist
> patches left by retreating snow had dried up, and new growth had not
begun.
> The sod was firm and hard to penetrate. Insect life was sparce and hard to
> find. There was no soil to probe as one finds between bunches of native
> wheatgrass.
>
> Was it possible that curlew use of these habitats was limited, or
restricted
> to a brief period when migrant birds found the damper sites to be of some
> value? Typical curlew nesting sites of short, sparce bunchgrass with
patches
> of soil and an intermittent cryptogamic lichen crust were not present.
>
> In this case, these specific anthropogenic habitats seemed to be a
negative
> factor for curlews. Not far away, we know that alfalfa & timothy fields
> provide useful foraging sites,and with suitable nesting nearby, these
> anthropogenic habitats are supporting 100% of the curlews in a valley for
a
> distance of about 100 km. There was no curlew habitat before settlers
> cleared the forest and began to make "grasslands" out of pine & fir
forests.
> We see similar relationships between Columbian Groundsquirrels, badgers
and
> newly-created "grassland " habitats such as heavily-grazed horse paddocks
&
> logging cutblocks. Ironically, these mammals are moving into places that
are
> being created at the hand of man, but vanishing in some of the native
> grasslands due to the hand of man.
>
> So the relationships between birds & other wildlife in native vs altered
> habitats is a complex & fascinating one that is deserving of careful
> observation. How stable are these habitats that are provided at the whim
and
> economic needs of human beings? Should we rely upon them in order to
> conserve rare species, or at least, where do they fit into the scheme of
> rare species management.? Would some birds be there without these habitats
?
> Clearly malls allow errant grackles to titillate our twitching quests (we
> have a grackle at a mall in Kelowna too), but we would never think of them
> as habitats to conserve. Hmmm, or would we ?
> Perhaps littering bits of food is not such a bad thing to do afterall.....
> Those poor Ring-billed Gulls would be limited to worms on school grounds
if
> kids stopped throwing away mom's healthy sandwiches.
>
> There are many questions that are in need of being asked, and birders can
> certainly provide a lot of useful information about habitat use that can
> assist in bird conservation.
>
> Now, if I can just find my binocs before heading over to Starbucks.......
>
> Rick Howie
> Kamloops, BC
> rick.howie at shaw.ca
>
>
>