August 01, 2005
Fledglinks
- All 18 albatrosses die during the 2005 Big Bird Race. They were part of a 10,000-kilometer race from Tasmania, Australia to South Africa in an effort to build international awareness about the dangers of longline fishing. All twenty-one albatross species are endangered species.
- Asociacion Armonía (BirdLife in Bolivia) team makes first curassow sighting in thirty-six years. They discovered the Southern Helmeted Curassow (Crax unicornis koepckeae) in the Sira mountains of central Peru.
- Birds on Gough Island in the South Atlantic being threatened by "monster mice". The island is home to 99 percent of the world's Tristan Albatross (Diomedea dabbenena) and Atlantic Petrel (Pterodroma incerta) populations. The estimated 700,000 mice on the island are eating the chicks alive.
- Farmer in North Yorkshire, UK puts hay harvesting on hold to allow four breeding pairs of one of Britain's most endangered birds, theYellow Wagtail (Montacilla flava), to raise their young.
- European zoo authorities planning international database to help recover the growing number of stolen animals.
- Common Terns (Sterna hirundo) making a comeback on the Isles of Shoals off the coast of New Hampshire. Eight years after the Audubon Society of New Hampshire and the state Fish and Game Department started the program, more than 2,500 pairs have nested there this summer. See the restoration notes from 2003.
- Fallen juvenile American Kestrels (Falco sparverius) in New York City getting a helping hand from New York City Animal Care & Control. They've rescued 15 Kestrels so far this year.
- Pair of Osprey makes nest atop an athletic field light pole at Irondale High School in New Brighton, Minnesota.
- Washington orchards using falcons to ward off birds. Nuisance birds are the cause of 3-10 percent loss of one of the local cherry crops. Falcons are already used in California vineyards.