A birder's eye view;
how man has shaped the bird's environment over time
April 20, 2006
By Paul Tamburello
Wayne Petersen's view of "Changes in Massachusetts Bird Populations" begins when the Pilgrims began to nest in New England about 400 years ago. Since then, deforestation, fashion trends and pesticides have caused changes in the bird population of Massachusetts and the Northeast.
Speaking at the WRWA's annual meeting on March 26, Mr. Petersen said that at the first colonists' arrival 400 years ago, this area was mostly unbroken forested land. Over time, settlers set about chopping down everything in sight in order to open it up for subsistence farming and agriculture.
Photo: Petersen answers a question from Lucy Goodridge
While some birds like pileated woodpeckers and turkeys nearly disappeared, other birds that thrive in open landscapes like bobolinks and upland sandpipers began to colonize as they migrated from the Midwest.
Mr. Petersen said another forestation phase occurred as the country became urbanized and clear-cut forests began to fill in. Birds that thrive in shrub lands (Eastern towhee, brown thrasher, field sparrows) began to colonize in the shrubland that developed.
"From mid-1800s and forward there was continuous change of forests due a combination of logging and new forest growth," Mr. Petersen said. Another factor was what he described as the "Smoky the Bear" syndrome, the policy of suppressing forest fires.
In the late 1800s, a phenomenon known as "market gunning" had a severe impact on a narrow segment of the bird population. Market gunning was the "indiscriminate persecution of shorebirds like sandpipers and plovers and waterfowl like long-legged wading birds, egrets, terns and roseate spoonbills that had spectacular plumes. These birds were systematically slaughtered for the plume trade in women's fashion and millinery industries."
In the tremendous decline in bird population that ensued, an outcry was spearheaded by two Boston Brahmin women who "got the ear of William Brewster, the most important ornithologist of the day, who was to become the first president of the Massachusetts Audubon Society in 1896," Mr. Petersen said.
Legislation was passed over the next 20 years and the practice of market gunning was shot down.
The introduction of DDT in WWII and its widespread use thereafter was another event that affected bird population over time. Mr. Petersen said that by the time Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring" sounded the alarm on pesticides, "signature species like bald eagles and ospreys, as well as red shouldered hawks, peregrine falcons, and brown pelicans, were all impacted by pesticide overloading."
By 1972, DDT was taken off the shelves. One of the consequences of DDT use was that "high in the food chain predators like fish eating ospreys, peregrine falcons, and bald eagles couldn't metabolize calcium. That resulted in eggshell thinning so that even weigh of incubating bird would crack the eggs." Mr. Petersen described two intervention programs that helped falcon and eagle populations breed successfully in the Northeast.
Mr. Petersen also praised the intervention programs begun in the 1970s by Gil and Josephine Fernandez to rescue the faltering osprey population (only ten successful nesting pairs) in Westport. The Fernandez plan "brought healthy eggs from the Chesapeake and placed them under beleaguered birds here and then provided nesting platforms. The population increased and we now have a "robust and flourishing colony."
About Wayne Petersen
Wayne Petersen is a founder of "Bird Observer" magazine. His 1993 "Birds of Massachusetts," co-authored with Richard Veit, is considered the bible of Massachusetts birders today. He was the 2005 recipient of the American Birding Association's prestigious Ludlow Griscomb Award. Part of the citation is for individuals who have dramatically advanced the base of ornithological knowledge for a particular region.
Like the birds he loves, Mr. Petersen's career has had an interesting migration pattern. He spent the first 18 years of his career as a middle school life science teacher. He followed that with a 15-year tour with the Massachusetts Audubon Society and a shorter one with the Swarovski Birding Community. He is currently director of the Important Bird Areas Program for the Massachusetts Audubon Society.
WRWA awards
The following people were recognized at the WRWA's annual meeting on March 26.
Volunteer Awards
* Russ Craig ("for the best summer event ever in the history of the WRWA")
* June Roche ("for the best auction event ever in the history of the WRWA")
Education awards
* Emma Sears
* Gregg Swanzey
Outgoing board members
* Carolyn Duby
* Edward Dufresne
New board members (three-year terms)
* Sheila Hughes
* Peter Kastner
* Samantha Ladd
* Jonathan Stevens
By Paul Tamburello
shorelines@eastbaynewspapers.com
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