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Hundreds of baby birds killed by volleyball players on Alabama barrier island
https://www.al.com/ ^ | 8/5/18 | Ben Raines

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 ...


TOPICS: Outdoors; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: alabama; barrierisland; volleyballplayers
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To: Leaning Right

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.


21 posted on 08/05/2018 6:34:06 PM PDT by yarddog
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To: BBell

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.


22 posted on 08/05/2018 6:34:25 PM PDT by logitech
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To: lee martell
Sometimes I think there is truth to that increasingly popular belief that teenage brains are still not completely formed, and wont be until about 19.

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.

23 posted on 08/05/2018 6:53:09 PM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: TaMoDee
BIG correction ——”Just as long they DON’T ban Female volleyball tournaments!!!

Even indoor girl's volleyball is well worth watching, especially the U of Hawaii's "Rainbow Wahines!"

24 posted on 08/05/2018 7:01:34 PM PDT by Ace's Dad ("John James for US Senate. Dump Debbie!! Let's Fly, Michigan.")
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To: Ronin

Move the airports...


25 posted on 08/05/2018 7:08:06 PM PDT by Clutch Martin (The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.)
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To: BBell
I just can't imagine people doing this intentionally. How horrible.

My mom has hanging plants on the porch. She loves to take them down to water, tend, switch out for different varieties, etc. One year, she found a sparrow nest with eggs in it. She left the plant alone so the little baby birds would have a chance. :) My mom's not exactly an animal lover, she never wanted pets, but she has respect for life. It's not really a surprise that all her kids grew up to be animal lovers.
26 posted on 08/05/2018 7:23:26 PM PDT by grateful
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To: lee martell
Soldiers pretty much know this. It is the 18-20 year old who will run right at a machine gun or jump on a grenade. Many really don't think they will die even after being in combat for a while. Never heard of a senior NCO grenade jumper but I did know a Master Sergeant who as a SFC had a grenade be tossed by Charlie right in front of him on a paddy dyke. His response after about a second was to kick the grenade as hard as he could while grabbing the soldier in from and the one behind and pulling them backward with his momentum. The grenade detonated showering the three GI’s with frags. End of story the SFC got the Bronze Star with V and the Purple Heart and the other two soldiers the Purple Heart and the Arcom for Valor (I talked it up a bit for those kids, was the SFC’s comment).
27 posted on 08/05/2018 7:32:24 PM PDT by robowombat (Orthodox)
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To: BBell

“I’m surprised they’re not off limits during nesting.”

Oh, no, women volleyballers are always in season!


28 posted on 08/05/2018 7:39:10 PM PDT by _longranger81 (Gettin' our Mega-MAGA-Mojo on!)
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To: robowombat

Wow. What a story. Splint second thinking, with zero mulligans allowed. Thanks.


29 posted on 08/05/2018 7:56:12 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: gigster
What, wheres your outrage?

Your smelling salts?

Your safe place and coloring book?



30 posted on 08/05/2018 7:56:40 PM PDT by MrEdd (Caveat Emptor)
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To: BBell

They didn’t care in the least.


31 posted on 08/05/2018 7:59:26 PM PDT by Rebelbase (Heaven has a wall and strict immigration policy. Hell has open borders--seen on a tee shirt)
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To: blam

I’m sorry, Bill, I put in your name but it didn’t take.

See post 2.


32 posted on 08/05/2018 8:01:35 PM PDT by Alas Babylon! (MAGAMarchOnWashington.com)
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To: BBell

Sorry, meant to send this to FReeper Blam!


33 posted on 08/05/2018 8:02:04 PM PDT by Alas Babylon! (MAGAMarchOnWashington.com)
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To: BBell

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.


34 posted on 08/05/2018 8:03:42 PM PDT by Rebelbase (Heaven has a wall and strict immigration policy. Hell has open borders--seen on a tee shirt)
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To: BBell

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)


35 posted on 08/05/2018 8:04:01 PM PDT by xrmusn ((6/98)""If bacon kills you and smoking kills you, How come you smoke bacon to cure it?")
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To: BBell; Leaning Right

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.


36 posted on 08/05/2018 8:09:52 PM PDT by 2111USMC (Aim Small Miss Small)
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To: BBell

An egg is a baby bird?

Not to hear pro-aborts in the media tell it.


37 posted on 08/05/2018 9:07:15 PM PDT by a fool in paradise
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To: BBell

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.


38 posted on 08/05/2018 9:16:07 PM PDT by EinNYC
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To: MrEdd
My, aren't we the sensitive one. You obviously haven't read many of my comments on stories or you wouldn't be so snide. To illustrate the senseless thought processes that peple have about protected areas, I give you this story. There is a small village in extreme nortnwest lower Michigan named Cross Village. To get there, you take M-119 north from Harbor Springs through what is known as the Tunnel of Trees (youtube it) until you reach Cross Village. There is a beach at Cross Village. There is a sign on the beach. It proclaims the beach a protected area because it is a sensative nesting area for the Piping Plover. The money-shot of the story is the sign also states that there hasn't been a Piping Plover seen in the entire area since 1938. That's IT.
39 posted on 08/05/2018 9:48:23 PM PDT by gigster (Cogito, Ergo, Ronaldus Magnus Conservatus)
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To: gigster
It's a "horrific crime"? Really. It sounds like some drunk, dumb-ass kids were acting like drunk, dumbass kids to me.

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.

40 posted on 08/06/2018 6:47:43 AM PDT by Sans-Culotte (Time to get the US out of the UN and the UN out of the US!)
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