[Tweeters] Fireworks, Motion - and birds ... ?

[Steve Hampton via Tweeters]

There are documented cases where fireworks displays have wreaked havoc on
seabird colonies. A Brandt's Cormorant colony at Cape Viscaino, CA was once
decimated by gulls after fireworks flushed the adults off the eggs and
chicks. I've heard of similar concerns at other coastal locations. I assume
the fireworks must have been really loud professional ones pretty close to
the colony.



On Mon, Jul 8, 2024 at 6:32 PM Michael Price via Tweeters <
tweeters at u.washington.edu> wrote:


> Hey tweets

>

> Any animal with its eyes on the front of its head which looks at you

> directly and maintains direct eye contact can safely be classed as a

> potential predator. If such an animal walks or flies into your

> panic-radius, you'd be best outta there as quickly as possible, just to be

> prudent. So eye contact alone may trigger panic/precaution flight. I have

> often walked past a crow (and this applies anywhere in the city) on the

> ground at a distance of 4 ft/1.1 meter as long as my face is averted and

> I'm side-eying without the bird flushing—very wary, yes—but the instant I

> turn my head and look at it directly, that crow is *gone*.

>

>

> An animal's characteristic panic-radius determines the minimum distance

> one can approach it. Dennis's flicker is often a ground-feeder so needs an

> ample open area for visibility; anything within a certain distance will

> trigger escape flight. As an extreme example, Surf Scoters will flush at

> any approach on the water of about 75-100ft/23-30 m (🤬kayakers) and

> completely vacate an area, sometimes not stopping for several miles/km,

> while Barrow's Goldeneyes sharing the same littoral waters allow closer

> approach and, if evicted, unlike the Scoters will simply return to their

> feeding/resting area after the intruding agent have left. Same for land

> birds at a feeder: chickadees and bushtits allow much closer approach than

> juncos and finches, and some scavenging bird species of the Taiga and

> tundra tend to have very short to no panic-radii at all—food's too short,

> they can't afford one.

>

> best wishes, m

> _______________________________________________

> Tweeters mailing list

> Tweeters at u.washington.edu

> http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters

>



-- 
​Steve Hampton​
Port Townsend, WA  (qatáy)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20240708/f991d43e/attachment.html>