Ray & Tweets,

Thank you for providing this interesting example of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) actually being put into action. It has me wondering if the MBTA would apply to a situation in Blaine, Wa on Marine Dr.

There is a new (summer of 2010) water reclamation facility on Marine Dr adjacent to the huge mudflat that is heavily utilized by migratory species, including shorebirds, which is has several speakers on the roof blasting out artificial bird sounds to deter gulls, starlings, etc from roosting/nesting on the roof. The sounds are raptor cries and distress calls. At times, they are quite loud and very abnormally frequent. Basically, obnoxious to the human ear. This reclamation facility actually sits in a park on the water and there is a nice trail that runs alongside the mudflat. I have walked this trail when these speakers are going off and you can clearly hear these sounds at the mudflat and I have noted at least one shorebird (dowitcher I think) pausing its feeding activities in response to the sounds. The wintering population of gulls, Dunlin, etc seem to be habituated.

I am concerned about the affect these artificial sounds have on?migratory birds. Ray's post has be wondering if this might be considered harassment to migratory birds under the MBTA? I would be very interested in hearing opinions on this.

Also, I believe the MBTA does also in some cases protect critical habitat??

Cindy Ashy

--- On Wed, 2/8/12, ray holden <rayleeholden at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: ray holden <rayleeholden at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] snowys at Boundary Bay
To: "Monica Van der Vieren" <mvanderv4137 at earthlink.net>
Cc: "tweeters at u.washington.edu" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Wednesday, February 8, 2012, 1:03 AM

Well, it's actually illegal in the US anyway to harass migratory birds. ?Whether you could get anyone to take it seriously is another matter. ?If I saw someone intentionally flushing them I would try to get a picture and call the state fish and game office from my cell. ?If they have someone in the area they will most likely respond. ?They take their job of protecting the wildlife seriously. ?A couple of years ago they came out and helped us stop a?tenet? on Port of Olympia property from destroying active barn swallow nests under the eves of a building. The stater arrived; there was a big confab, and the port people who are used to getting their way got involved and basically said but their "just birds". ?The game warden however was very firm that he
would arrest the pressure washer guy if he continued and the store owner since he was the one ordering the "work" and that there would be a $1,000 fine per?occurrence?which I took to mean per nest. ?I followed up by explaining that I had pictures of the goings-on and of all the active nests and their locations and would go to the newspaper if any one of them was harmed. ?The port people didn't want to get dragged into this so they did a 180 and took our side. ?The nests stayed and some of them were used again last summer. ?So don't hesitate to pick up the phone and make a complaint. ??Ray Holden
Olympia, WA

Life is for the birds.