I read this story quite differently. The fact is that the recovery
of raptor populations over the past forty years has been remarkable.
Some may want to claim this is because of the demise in use of DDT,
but I am way more inclined to assign causation to the effective end
of utterly irresponsible hunting by teenage farm boys. Not only do
we have less said farm boys, but they all know better.
Growing up in Mid Western Ontario back in the sixties, all game was
scant. Yet I was out every day with a rifle in hand patrolling our
fifty hectares of country side with a dog on hand to flush game.
This was common and in the two decades that we covered, I saw a deer
once, grouse once and multiple foxes and no end of groundhogs and
rabbits. I was looking and catching little.
All that has now changed, not least because it is no longer fifty
hectares but assembled into 500 hectares and the farm boys have been
told off on hunting raptors and most game. Thus the deer are all
crowding back as well as everything else. In the end, it will need
management protocols to control their populations if not so already.
Record numbers of owls at a refuge in the Fraser Delta suggests
record populations up country. Snowy owls are Arctic adapted to
start with and more reasonably, they are expanding their range.
In any case, Vancouver has large populations of raptors because it is
the focus of migrants from Alaska and BC. It is not unusual to see
flocks of several dozen eagles here.
Record number of
owls and other raptors needing help in Lower Mainland
10 snowy owls among
the 485 birds treated at Delta rehabilitation centre
By Larry Pynn,
Vancouver Sun December 27, 2012
A record 485 raptors,
including emaciated snowy owls from the Arctic, have been brought to
the two-hectare OWL rehabilitation centre in south Delta so far this
year.
“We’ve never
broken 400 before,” OWL founder Bev Day said in an interview
Thursday. “It tells you how bad the birds are doing.”
Loss of habitat due to
development, including port expansion and the South Fraser Perimeter
Road, as well as conversion of traditional farmland to blueberry
production have resulted in less prey to go around, Day said.
A total of 10 snowy
owls — most of them starving, but also one that flew into a power
line — have been brought to the centre, not just from Delta, but
from as far afield as Prince George, Pemberton, and Hope. Only one
has survived.
Snowy owls are so
desperate for food they have been spotted as far south as California,
Day said.
The survival rate for
all 485 raptors brought in this year, including eagles, hawks, owls,
and falcons, is about 70 per cent.
People are phoning to
report snowy owls on their house roofs, but Day said people should
not be concerned unless the birds are seen on the ground and in
distress. Photographers looking for the perfect shot are urged not to
harass the birds by approaching too close.
Wet weather can also
make it more difficult to for the birds to access prey, Day said,
adding that raptors with weakened immune systems are also at risk of
contracting aspergillosis, a lung disease.
She noted that
development of the South Fraser Perimeter Road includes some good
mitigation measures, but they are no substitute for the 90 hectares
of farmland removed for the $1.2-billion development. “It doesn’t
replace everything, but they are working on it,” she said.
Among the mitigation
measures are wildlife tunnels and the creation of marsh habitat.
The conversion of
traditional farmland to blueberry production also eliminates habitat
in which the raptors might otherwise find prey, Day said.
Agricultural pesticides — a poisoning risk — are also an issue.
Formed 37 years ago,
OWL (owlcanada.ca) receives no direct government funding and is
struggling to make ends meet given the large volume of raptors. Cash
donations are appreciated, as well as contributions of wild game and
fish, but not commercially processed poultry or other meats.
Pat Wagar of the
Mountainaire Avian Rescue Society in Courtenay said the facility has
received six emaciated snowy owls, of which only one survived. Among
the other birds brought in for treatment are a long-eared owl,
short-eared owl, and a brown pelican.
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