Posted on 08/05/2018 5:53:42 PM PDT by BBell
Beachgoers playing volleyball on a small island at the mouth of Mobile Bay perpetrated a horrific crime in recent weeks, likely killing hundreds of tiny least terns.
The volleyballers even stacked dozens of eggs stolen from nests in a pile to bake in the sun.
Birmingham Audubon, which discovered the tragedy, hopes to use it as a teaching moment and further the group's effort to help Alabama's coastal birds rebound from the BP oil spill.
Least terns are the smallest of the terns, weighing 1.4 ounces as adults. They are about half the size of a cardinal, with snowy white feathers and a rakish black cap atop their heads. Their nesting style - laying eggs in shallow depressions on bare sand beaches - leaves them vulnerable to all manner of threats, from storm driven waves washing their nests away to predation by larger birds, or other animals, such as foxes.
Part of their evolutionary strategy to survive those threats is to nest in dense colonies of dozens or even hundreds of pairs of birds. The nests are close together, usually a foot or two apart. The speckled eggs laid in them are about the size of a grape.
That nesting behavior appears to have set the stage for the massacre, which was discovered by Andrew Haffenden, with Birmingham Audubon's Coastal Bird Survey. Haffenden, who was a wildlife researcher in his native Australia, was conducting a bird survey on a spit of land that juts off the south side of Dauphin Island.
Ironically, that spit of land was once Pelican Island, one of the best nesting sites in the northern Gulf for least terns and other beach nesters. But that was before the entire island migrated north and connected to Dauphin Island about 12 years ago. When the two islands merged into
(Excerpt) Read more at al.com ...
I don’t care a thing about girls volleyball but I did see a high school tournament on TV.
My first thought was “where did these local high schools get so many tall, hot players”? In my high school, Class of 65, there might have been one girl like that and she was very shy.
I grew up in Mobile and fished these waters for years.
Everybody (most) who care about the critters that inhabit the area are respectful and love them.
I’m not sure what “island” they are talking about, but it’s probably Sand island. A transient barrier sand spit.
It was big when I was young, but through the years and some storms it’s pretty small now.
Bunch of dumb a** drunk kids.
Actually, the human brain continues to develop until about age 25. After that, it starts to deteriorate.
The fact that these kids' brains are still maturing does not excuse their behavior.
Even indoor girl's volleyball is well worth watching, especially the U of Hawaii's "Rainbow Wahines!"
Move the airports...
“Im surprised theyre not off limits during nesting.”
Oh, no, women volleyballers are always in season!
Wow. What a story. Splint second thinking, with zero mulligans allowed. Thanks.
They didn’t care in the least.
I’m sorry, Bill, I put in your name but it didn’t take.
See post 2.
Sorry, meant to send this to FReeper Blam!
The left will use this event to try and have the island declared a bird sanctuary and close it during nesting season.
That’s what the National Park Service does to portions of the Outer Banks during Piping Plover nesting.
There are 50 miles of beach that are not connected to the mainland and reached via private ferry then 4WD access only.
The bird prefer the flats at the points. At the first sign of a plover’s next the park service ropes off vehicle access.
Few years back the Yankees had an outfielder-Dave Winfield that was in Toronto and hit a seagull with a baseball.
I think they charged him and he had to miss a trip or two to Canada because of it.
It was ‘rumored’ he claimed that if he could hit a flying bird with a baseball and kill it, he was wasting his time playing baseball (Or something like that)
I tried the towel in the wast band trick. Didn’t work.
As soon as I tried to towel off one of the sweaty girls I got thrown out.
An egg is a baby bird?
Not to hear pro-aborts in the media tell it.
This is really horrible. Not only the very significant dent the destruction of a new generation of baby terns represents, but the completely callous attitudes of these pitiful ignorant slobs. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve encountered idiots at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge letting their kids chase birds, picking flowers or seashells, tramping all over fragile beach vegetation in No Access areas, leaving trash behind—you name it, I’ve seen it. If I see it happening, I most definitely tell the perp off in no uncertain terms. If possible, I get one of the rangers to go after them as well. Especially around here, a wildlife refuge is such a special thing, a gift for the weary soul to refresh itself.
I do think it is a crime and that the drunk, dumbass kids should be held responsible. Sometimes drunken dumbassery rises to the level of criminality.
But you are right about media hyperbole. A "horrific crime" is Richard Speck killing all those nurses. I remember listening to some sports talk bozos here in Houston. They were discussing golfer Fuzzy Zoeller's remark that he hoped Tiger Woods wouldn't choose fried chicken as his Master's commemorative dinner. One of the local bozos was "appalled" by the remarks. Sure, Zoeller should have thought it through a little better, but "appalled"? "Appalled" is the reaction for the guys who liberated the death camps in Poland.
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