Posted on 04/04/2023 7:57:16 AM PDT by Red Badger
A migratory killdeer bird built its nest in the middle of a utility company's parking lot in South Carolina, and officials are barred from relocating the nest by a federal law. Photo courtesy of the Berkeley Electric Cooperative/Facebook
March 31 (UPI) -- A utility company in South Carolina found a migratory bird nesting in a parking lot -- and the bird can't be moved due to federal law from 1918.
The Berkeley Electric Cooperative said an employee found a killdeer nest being tended by a mother bird in the company's parking lot, and officials soon found the nest could not be relocated due to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.
The act bans U.S. property owners from relocating "protected migratory bird species without prior authorization by the Department of Interior U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service."
The company decided to surround the killdeer nest with traffic cones to protect the mother and her eggs while waiting for the babies to hatch.
"It's just another way we're helping to keep the Lowcountry beautiful," the company said in a Facebook post.
Killdeers are protected? They are all over here in SW Pennsylvania!
Killdeer adults usually pretend to be injured when a predator approaches their nest, in order to distract the predator and lure it into following the adult killdeer to wherever the killdeer thinks is a safe distance away from its eggs or chicks. Then the adult bird takes flight and later returns to the nest from a different direction.
Robins are protected under the migratory songbird act.
Other than being a pretty blue and white bird, they have no redeeming value whatsoever. They're carnivores and killed the remaining chickadee chick of a family that were fledging from their nest box on the side of my house that I had been watching all spring.
This is what the bastards do and why I am exacting my revenge on any that enter my yard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV9Kx9Gz3E4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H24tfCGl3YM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYVvqGFJPp8&t=22s
I can't help but wonder if their nesting habits may be resulting in the drastic decline of gold finches which use to flock to my bird feeders and now there are only a couple throughout the summer.
Whatever, they're migrating thru now and I'm shooting them whenever I can along with the grackles.
I would bet on it. Cowbirds destroy the eggs of other birds, and replace them with their own. Have you ever seen a House Wren feed a juvenile Cowbird? I have. It was disturbing.
Very often the Cowbird nestling, who is so much larger than his nest mates, gets up front when feeding time comes. The mama and daddy birds unknowingly feed the cowbirds and raise them for a few months. Then the Cowbird grows up enough and has a different call, and then goes off to live and mate with his own kind. They are some of the nastiest invaders around. Can’t stand them.
I know, but yet they are on the protected migratory bird list...........go figure.
That's why I said that the Migratory Bird Act needs to be addressed and certain birds such as the cowbirds and grackles need to be removed from it.
I completely agree.
Thx. Typos R Us.
thanks- i was gonna look into it but got on too late-
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.