More than 1,000 dead birds fall from sky in Ark

[Raptor in Michigan]

BTW, I believe some of the people who say they saw them.

Yes, some folks could misidentify the Pileated for an Ivory billed. But I know how it feels to see a bird, know exactly what I saw, and have someone who thinks they know better than me (because they are a "bird expert") tell me I didn't see it.

I saw a Kirtland's Warbler at my local birding hotspot in Southern MI a few years back during migration. I got goods looks at it for several minutes,(noted all field marks, behavior and habitat type) and had a friend see it too and agree on the species. We knew what it was without a doubt. Some smartass told me they are too rare to be seen anywhere outside Northern MI or Cuba.

The Kirtland's is still in my journal for that day.

[Churmudgeon]

The ducks are attracted

Raptor in Michigan wrote:

<quoted text>
Without habitat conservation, you wouldn't have ducks to hunt. You wouldn't be able to watch those pretty labs brings ducks back with icycles on their fur. You wouldn't have duck soup. It is equally important to preserve forests for other species, even if they're not "game" birds.
Have you even read the recovery plan? It's 168 pages.
http://www.fws.gov/ivorybill/
Any resrictions on the land wouldn't last forever. The Bald Eagle has been removed from the endangered list. You have recently touted that as a success story. It would be just as wonderful to be able to remove the Ivory bill from the list. That will only happen when the population grows to sustainable levels. That can't happen with people who will not allow the habitat they need to be preserved- at least until other habitat becomes suitable.

The ducks are attracted because we cleared the land. Those flooded rice fields are winter habitat food & water. The water is pumped drained ot before the rice harvest. Then its pumped back just to attract ducks. The ducks raise mostly in the dakotas & canada. the predators have been givin the nesting grounds some problems. the greese raise their young anyplace. many times the canada goose is a unwanted pest. I contrubute money to ducks unliited. the ivory bill is extinct and thats not a disaster. We can get along fine without it.

[Bird Watcher]

Raptor in Michigan wrote:

BTW, I believe some of the people who say they saw them.
Yes, some folks could misidentify the Pileated for an Ivory billed. But I know how it feels to see a bird, know exactly what I saw, and have someone who thinks they know better than me (because they are a "bird expert") tell me I didn't see it.
I saw a Kirtland's Warbler at my local birding hotspot in Southern MI a few years back during migration. I got goods looks at it for several minutes,(noted all field marks, behavior and habitat type) and had a friend see it too and agree on the species. We knew what it was without a doubt. Some smartass told me they are too rare to be seen anywhere outside Northern MI or Cuba.
The Kirtland's is still in my journal for that day.

I have seen the pileated ,in woods behind my house. So beautiful, and very vocal ! I can only imagine the experiance of the sight of an ivory bill . The pictures I have seen look like a prehistoric bird. I will never forget the first time I saw a scarlet tanager ! I have also seen a blue grosbeak , and many rose-breasted grosbeaks. I think that those of us that enjoy natures beauty are outnumbered .

[Churmudgeon]

Bird Watcher wrote:

<quoted text> I have seen the pileated ,in woods behind my house. So beautiful, and very vocal ! I can only imagine the experiance of the sight of an ivory bill . The pictures I have seen look like a prehistoric bird. I will never forget the first time I saw a scarlet tanager ! I have also seen a blue grosbeak , and many rose-breasted grosbeaks. I think that those of us that enjoy natures beauty are outnumbered .

Can you make a living by seeing those birds. Will gawking at them pay the morgage? I enjoy seening wild things. Like a herd of deer. I even have a pet deer. but when wildlife destroy,s my crops or molest my animals its not enjoyable any longer. there is a time & place for everything. But there are Limits. When something goes beyond those Limits a person has to do what is necessairy to protect their livelyhood.

[WARRIOR]

I killed six of those flying rats yesterday. There were 8 of them stealing my dogs food from their bowl. I don't think those other two pigeons will return. They now know I am pretty handy with that shotgun!

[WARRIOR]

Churmudgeon wrote:

<quoted text> Can you make a living by seeing those birds. Will gawking at them pay the morgage? I enjoy seening wild things. Like a herd of deer. I even have a pet deer. but when wildlife destroy,s my crops or molest my animals its not enjoyable any longer. there is a time & place for everything. But there are Limits. When something goes beyond those Limits a person has to do what is necessairy to protect their livelyhood.

Nobody but zoos should have pet deer.

[Churmudgeon]

WARRIOR wrote:

<quoted text>Nobody but zoos should have pet deer.

I saved her from maruading dogs in a hay field.when she was a baby. the dogs belonged to the owner of the hay field. She is now 7 years old and very frendly & tame. she resides in a 1/4 acre pen with 8 ft chain link fence and a small shed. She has a sheep for company. Its really not fair to her she will live her whole life in confinment. I collect her urine for buck lure when she is in season. We also have two more reciently aquired (MAY)buck fawns that the mother,s where killed in car collisions. they are just now losing their spots. I have already castrated them. pretty soon they can join the old doe in her enclosure. After june 30,2012 its no longer legal to take deer from the wild for pets in arkansas. In kentuckey the deer are classed as livestock. Overseen by the Kentucky dept of agriculture. there are many deer farms in kentuckey that make a good profit for the operators. A pet deer set free is a nusance and danger because it has lost its fear of humans. If you ever read the book the yearling by Majorie Rawlings it gives insite to the pitfalls of wildlife especially deer as pets. Having our deer is one of those things that I know better and can see the wrong in it but let a soft heart cloud my judgment.

[Bird Watcher]

Churmudgeon wrote:

<quoted text> Can you make a living by seeing those birds. Will gawking at them pay the morgage? I enjoy seening wild things. Like a herd of deer. I even have a pet deer. but when wildlife destroy,s my crops or molest my animals its not enjoyable any longer. there is a time & place for everything. But there are Limits. When something goes beyond those Limits a person has to do what is necessairy to protect their livelyhood.

Churm, That was rude ! Just because you do not care for bird watching you should not slam someone who does ! But thats what this forum is all about - different opinions . Are you the one who killed those 1,000 birds ?

[WARRIOR]

Bird Watcher wrote:

<quoted text> Churm, That was rude ! Just because you do not care for bird watching you should not slam someone who does ! But thats what this forum is all about - different opinions . Are you the one who killed those 1,000 birds ?

I could kill those birds for you if you supply the shells!

[Churmudgeon]

Bird Watcher wrote:

<quoted text> Churm, That was rude ! Just because you do not care for bird watching you should not slam someone who does ! But thats what this forum is all about - different opinions . Are you the one who killed those 1,000 birds ?

Its lots of fun shooting blackbirds,coyotes. feral cats, roaming packs of dogs & crows ect.. I didnt have a thing to do with the birds at Beebe. So what if I was Rude. Rudeness isnt illegal! I dont post to be nice or politically correct. I dont post to try to get folks to like me or make friends. I post to present & defend my viewpoint and state why I justify my opinions & actions.

[Old Army]

Churmudgeon wrote:

Birding big buisnes? shucks since we cleared all that land. it grows rice. and those flooded fields are money even with this years drought the rice crop provided billions of dollars in income and feed,s the world . that rice is one thing we export. And in the winter we do have folks that come to see migrating birds and they spend lots more money than looky loos who wanna see a pecker wood. We have the Duck & goose hunters. Look it up Stuttgart Ark is the rice & waterfall hunting capital of the world. It was a good thing clearing the bottoms and im proud to have done my part.

I had a small part in clearing the land in White and Prairie Counties (picking up chunks and root wads) in the 60's. The pay,$1.00/hour, was good at the time and better than chopping cotton but the dirty work sucked and was one of the reasons I joined the Army. Everything has its drawback, i.e. the damn mosquitoes in rice country. That's why I built my retirement home on a river in the hills.

[WARRIOR]

Churmudgeon wrote:

<quoted text> Its lots of fun shooting blackbirds,coyotes. feral cats, roaming packs of dogs & crows ect.. I didnt have a thing to do with the birds at Beebe. So what if I was Rude. Rudeness isnt illegal! I dont post to be nice or politically correct. I dont post to try to get folks to like me or make friends. I post to present & defend my viewpoint and state why I justify my opinions & actions.

As a boy growing up I used to kill just to kill. I remember starting off with the old Daisy lever action BB gun. I took thousands of sparrows with that gun. Then I graduated up to a Remington 22 and me and a great buddy,(he had a scope on his Ruger and I had open sights,) we took thousands of rabbits, I was dead on with my gun and he was dead on with his but neither one of us was dead on using the others gun! LOL! Eventually I was taught how to hunt big game and birds with a rifle and shotgun. I became very skilled at it and still am to this day. Today I don't kill just to kill, I hunt and if you seen my place today with all of the bird feeders, houses and waterers and knew about all of the dogs and cats I have saved and found homes for you wouldn't think I even hunted. I have no regrets for anything I have done in the past but now I am making up for some of the short comings I once may of had. I still kill, I kill for food and I kill when my family or property is under attack. Killing is not easy for some but comes natural for others. Interesting.

[Old Army]

^^^I don't believe I would brag about killing animals just for the hell of it, but maybe confession is good for the soul.

[Old Army]

Churmudgion, you posted that hormone injected beef caused pot bellys. All this time I thought it was my light beer. Eat mor chiken?

[WARRIOR]

Old Army wrote:

^^^I don't believe I would brag about killing animals just for the hell of it, but maybe confession is good for the soul.

I am what I am. I am good at killing and always have been. It's not bragging if you can back it up and I can. You ever killed anything army?

[Old Army]

WARRIOR wrote:

<quoted text>I am what I am. I am good at killing and always have been. It's not bragging if you can back it up and I can. You ever killed anything army?

I wont fight and you can't make me, lol.

[Churmudgeon]

Old Army wrote:

<quoted text>
I had a small part in clearing the land in White and Prairie Counties (picking up chunks and root wads) in the 60's. The pay,$1.00/hour, was good at the time and better than chopping cotton but the dirty work sucked and was one of the reasons I joined the Army. Everything has its drawback, i.e. the damn mosquitoes in rice country. That's why I built my retirement home on a river in the hills.

The first bulldozer I Ran I got the same pay $1 per hour. When the goverment put on the minium wage and I got a raise to $1.60 per hour then $1.80. When I saved up enough I made a down payment on the D8 and really worked long hard hours for small pay. Eventually it was very profitable. But that $6500 for that old 2U D8 caterpillar was very hard to pay off. I still have it junked out, wore out ,Metal fatuged and obselete. Im gonna haul it off for scrap but its a hard decision its like a old friend. I cleared some land in White county near Bradford mostly worked in Lawrence Clay , Craighead & Greene Counties. The mosquitos where not a bad back then but there where enough.

[Churmudgeon]

Old Army wrote:

Churmudgion, you posted that hormone injected beef caused pot bellys. All this time I thought it was my light beer. Eat mor chiken?

Go Back and read the post. I claimed the hormoned beef caused the children to mature early and have a pot gut, the 12 year old boys & girls with pot guts and breast dont drink near the amount of beer us old farts consume. When I ran that old D8 I kept a cooler of beer& Bologona on it Whenever the engine temp guage would get over in the edge of the red. I would pull over in the shade and drink a beer and eat maybe a sandwich. I drank at least a dozen beer in 12 hour day. I was 36 years old and had a small waist and rock hard abs. Thuck driving & old age gave me a pot gut. I never drank beer when driving a semi. The chicken is full of growht hormones too.

[Churmudgeon]

WARRIOR wrote:

<quoted text>As a boy growing up I used to kill just to kill. I remember starting off with the old Daisy lever action BB gun. I took thousands of sparrows with that gun. Then I graduated up to a Remington 22 and me and a great buddy,(he had a scope on his Ruger and I had open sights,) we took thousands of rabbits, I was dead on with my gun and he was dead on with his but neither one of us was dead on using the others gun! LOL! Eventually I was taught how to hunt big game and birds with a rifle and shotgun. I became very skilled at it and still am to this day. Today I don't kill just to kill, I hunt and if you seen my place today with all of the bird feeders, houses and waterers and knew about all of the dogs and cats I have saved and found homes for you wouldn't think I even hunted. I have no regrets for anything I have done in the past but now I am making up for some of the short comings I once may of had. I still kill, I kill for food and I kill when my family or property is under attack. Killing is not easy for some but comes natural for others. Interesting.

Some of Us are born killers and some humans are not. Different strokes for different folks.

[Churmudgeon]

In the last hour I went out and watered all my critters & tomatos ect. Its 100 degrees and a heat index of 117 degrees. There is a big banana spider that spun a web in the garden .I was careful to not disturb her. Also there is a rock lizard that lives there. she was pregnant. now I see she is skinny and I saw one tiny little baby lizard. And I keep those large wooden snap traps (over size mouse traps) set in the garden under cardboard boxes. I had caught a good sized rat it was already bloated & stinking. I had my 22 handgun with me but didnt see anything that needed killin.