WindStar Wildlife Garden Weekly
Connecting People
To Nature Through
Education October 1,
2007
Official
Publication of WindStar Wildlife
Institute
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 Happy With the
Sad
This issue brings the good, the bad
and the ugly news about wildlife. Let's start with the
last one. We've been hearing about deformities in frogs
for several years. Now researchers are saying it may be caused
by runoff from farms and ranches. Read on to find out
more.
It doesn't seem right that a feature on
beautiful, migrating animals is bad news. But, David S.
Wilcove has outlined the problem in his new book No Way Home: The Decline of the World's Great
Animal Migrations. He points out how climate change,
pollution, sprawl and overexploitation of wildlife and natural
resources pose obstacles in their long journeys. Also, I
believe you will be interested in Beth Casper's article on how
Oregon deals with invasive plants and
animals.
Now for the good news. We have a profile on
the happy, go-lucky Tufted Titmouse. This is one of my
favorite feeder birds. They are quick, friendly and have
coal black eyes that seem to twinkle. Many a time, I've
had one land next to me as I am filling a feeder. With a
little patience, you can train them to eat from your hand.
Read on about their ability to remember. Let us know
(wildlife@windstar.org) which feeder
birds are your favorites and
why.
Tom
Patrick
Founder &
President
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Treacherous Time For
Migrants
Migrating Snow Geese by
Gary Lehman, USFWS
THE MOST far-reaching
investigation to date on the journeys of migrating
species shows drastic changes are underway in the U.S
and around the world.
Prominent
ecologist David S. Wilcove synthesizes the most current
research aimed at understanding and tracking migrations
around the world in his new book, No Way Home: The
Decline of the World's Great Animal Migrations
(Island Press/ $24.95).
Climate change, sprawling development,
pollution, and overexploitation of wildlife and natural
resources all pose major obstacles in the long-distance
journeys undertaken by tens of thousands of animal
species worldwide. Many species are experiencing
dramatic population declines due to environmental
changes in their breeding and wintering grounds and in
the resting areas along the way that have long provided
refuge.
No Way Home makes the
case for habitat preservation based on cutting-edge
scientific research, and offers the hope that we may yet
be able to ensure the well-being of... Read
On
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Nature
Quotes
"Creation of a thousand forests is in one
acorn."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Frog Deformities Blamed On
Runoff
By Will
Dunham
WASHINGTON. DC--Horrific
deformities in frogs are the result of a cascade of
events that starts when nitrogen and phosphorus from
farming and ranching bleed into lakes and ponds,
researchers said recently.(Deformed Bullfrog by Diane
Stevenson)
These
nutrients from fertilizers and animal waste create
dramatic changes in aquatic ecosystems that help a
certain type of parasitic flatworm that inflicts these
deformities on North American frogs, researchers
said.
"You can get
five or six extra limbs. You can get no hind limbs. You
can get all kinds of really bizarre, sick and twisted
stuff," Pieter Johnson, an ecologist and evolutionary
biologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder who
led the study, said in a telephone interview.
Many ecologists have expressed alarm over
the... Read
On |
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Wildlife Photo of
the Week
Female Blue Dasher Dragonfly by Leisa's
Images
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Experts Look For
Ways To Stop Invasive Plants & Animals
By Beth Casper
SALEM,
OR--It's the "Bat Phone" for keeping unwanted species
out of Oregon.
European Wood Wasp
When a call comes in to
866-INVADER, Oregon Department of Agriculture officials
answer--ready to protect the state's borders from
plants, animals and diseases that wreak havoc on natural
areas and cost Oregon's important industries millions of
dollars annually.
There are no fancy
Batman outfits or high-tech convertibles flying out of
caves. Officials work in a nondescript government
building and wear typical business-casual attire while
they field calls about potential problems. But with
thousands of species gaining footholds in areas where
they can cause the most damage, Oregon officials have
the chance to be heroes and save the Beaver
State.
They've heard it
all: an unlicensed owner allowed fallow deer to escape
near Portland; exotic wood wasps found alive in crating
imported from China; an Oriental weatherfish seen lying
on the bank of Multnomah Channel.
Some calls are false alarms. A recent...
Read On
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Tufted Titmouse--'Jolly Happy
Soul'
 EACH TIME I see a Tufted
Titmouse I think of that song. You know the one--"Frosty
the Snowman was a jolly happy soul, with a corncob pipe
and a button nose, and two eyes made out of coal."
(Tufted Titmouse by Richard
Strickland, Birders'
World)I know it's silly.
But those big, dark, fluid black eyes get to me every
time. They just seem to be the defining characteristic
of a titmouse, and they also seem to reinforce their
intense and energetic temperament.
Members of the titmouse
family are all quick and vigorous in their movements,
darting and dashing among the branches but seldom
indulging in long flights. In the winter they can be
particularly intense as they cache food items throughout
their territory.
Titmice hoard food
items by scattering them one by one under loose bark and
in small crevices. They apparently can remember the
exact... Read On
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Have An EXCELLENT Day
in your WILDLIFE HABITAT!
Tom
Patrick
President
(Monarch
Butterfly) |
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10072 Vista
Ct.
Myersville, MD
21773
301-293-3351
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