Hi Y'all,

I just got home from St. Augustine. While at the rookery I had the opportuity to yell at an idiot couple. The idiot dude with a camera had his idiot girlfriend shake the branch supporting a nest of tri-color herons chicks while he took shots of what he considered their hilarious reactions to having their home shaken.

When I got home I read thise article in our local rag.

"Robert Grover's heart sank Wednesday as he drove past one of the sandhill cranes that he and dozens of others had been photographing and observing for weeks.

The adult crane lay dead near its nest on Interlachen Road in Suntree.
"It looks pretty obvious it was hit by a car, it was right by the roadside," Grover said.

He spotted the dead crane's mate near the nest. The pair's chick has been missing for two weeks. People along Interlachen and nearby roads had treated the crane couple and their hatchling like celebrities, ever since the birds built their nest in a high-traffic area over the shallow, mucky edge of the pond more than a month ago.

Some days, as many as 30 people gathered to admire and photograph the cranes as the female sat on the eggs and the male stood guard. Cranes generally lay two eggs, but usually only one chick survives. The cranes seemed to revel in all the attention. The birds waltzed by houses surrounding the pond, foraged for roots and insects and made dogs bark. Usually, the fuzzy, brown chick could be seen hobbling close behind.
Grover suspects a predator may have gotten the Suntree chick. "It was doing great and the parents were so doting," he said. "Everybody's been talking about what happened to the chick."

It's against the law to feed, molest, capture, sell, hurt, kill or steal their eggs or nests, because sandhill cranes are a threatened species protected by state law.
About 5,000 cranes live statewide"

The really distrubing thing is that this the 3rd time this has happened to a mating pair with offspring this season. Now sandhills are only out and about during the daylight hours. They are fairly large birds and they move very slowly. When they cross a road they are careful to wait until there's no nearby approaching traffic. But they do cross slowly and its not uncommon to see a line of cars standing and waiting for the sandhills to complete their crossing.

The point here is that they don't jump in front of your car. To hit a sandhill you have to do it intentionally or you are going way too fast, or you are so completely distracted that you're not watching the road.

The various incidents just seem to me to show a disregard and a lack of respect for wildlife. In my little area we have managed to kill 6 adults and 4 chicks out of the 5000 sandhills state-wide. The really sad thing is that when all the cranes, egrets, and herons are gone most folks won't even notice the difference.

Originally Posted by Harryb The really sad thing is that when all the cranes, egrets, and herons are gone most folks won't even notice the difference.

Yup. Maybe 30% of all species gone by 2050. Perhaps 50% of all species gone by 2100.

Folks say they care, but they really aren't willing to do much about it.

Very sad. Our ever expanding population always seems to push nature out of the way. That's been okay for a few thousand years, but now the great extinction looms.... The "cute" and "majestic" species may be saved while thousands of others die.

Originally Posted by Harryb Hi Y'all, I just got home from St. Augustine. While at the rookery I had the opportuity to yell at an idiot couple. The idiot dude with a camera had his idiot girlfriend shake the branch supporting a nest of tri-color herons chicks

Uh, where is the photo of you shoving the camera up where the sun doesn't shine?

You've been out of NY too long, mon ami.

You should have taking a picture of the couple shaking the nest, and send it to local animal pretection services. I'm sure that would whipe out green from their faces!

I'm afraid there's one species that's doing very well and seemingly multiplying ever more rapidly Harry, the increasingly spotted pig ignorant, air head, half wit, waste of space.

We've got 'em by the bucket load around here, we call them 'werrs,' pronounced like furs.

If only they could put something in the water...

Charlie

Originally Posted by Andy Uh, where is the photo of you shoving the camera up where the sun doesn't shine? You've been out of NY too long, mon ami.

I considered that option. The only thing that stopped me was the fact that he was younger, in much better shape than myself and would have kicked my butt.

(Maestro gets on soapbox)

First off, let me say that

About ten years ago I was jogging around a local pond in my then neighborhood when I saw three punks chucking huge rocks at some big geese that were swimming in the pond. These rocks could have easily killed any of them if the morons were a decent thrower. I stopped and asked them if it was fun harrassing defenseless animals and how they would like it if I threw a rock at them or better yet just threw them in the pond. They were dumbfounded. They stopped and I went on jogging. After I got about 50 ft away they began hurling obscenities at me. I laughed. My wife and I had actually captured a duck there earlier in the year that had a horribly infected leg after some fishing line had wrapped around the leg cutting it. We put it in a dog carrier and took it to a bird rescue center.

This is going to sound very pessimistic and cynical but I really do not think most people give a rat's a$$ about wildlife or the environment in general. Sure, there are programs on Global Warming or Climate Change or whatever you want to call it, but the fact is, we, the humans, the supposedly higher thinking mammals, need to change our ways. Here is a fun article to read.

We need to switch over gradually to more Earth friendly ways of producing energy. A possible way to do this is outlined here.

So why is all this tree-hugginess, environmentalism crap spewing forth from my keyboard? Because the same idiots that would shake a nest and laugh at the little chicks or the jerk that would run over a sandhill crane and leave it there are probably the same ones that are just going to ignore how much we are polluting our only home. I don't see this changing any time soon to our detriment and worse, to my children's detriment. That fact really has me pissed!

Excuse my rant.

Originally Posted by thebigsky I'm afraid there's one species that's doing very well and seemingly multiplying ever more rapidly Harry, the increasingly spotted pig ignorant, air head, half wit, waste of space. We've got 'em by the bucket load around here, we call them 'werrs,' pronounced like furs. If only they could put something in the water... Charlie

You made me smile. I see them too. But at the same time I'm unhappy because I can't believe a civilization as advanced as ours can be so ignorant.

As far as civilization goes, we're still very primal in our behavior. I consider humans to be second to any animal world outthere. What animals do to survive is very different what people do. I'm sure there is handfull of individuals who are deeply care and are very considered of our small animal habitat, but those come in limited quantities.

Originally Posted by Maestro (Maestro gets on soapbox) First off, let me say that We need to switch over gradually to more Earth friendly ways of producing energy. A possible way to do this is outlined here. So why is all this tree-hugginess, environmentalism crap spewing forth from my keyboard? Because the same idiots that would shake a nest and laugh at the little chicks or the jerk that would run over a sandhill crane and leave it there are probably the same ones that are just going to ignore how much we are polluting our only home. I don't see this changing any time soon to our detriment and worse, to my children's detriment. That fact really has me pissed! Excuse my rant.

And a fine rant it was too. Somebody once told me that poor people were poor because they were to busy meeting immediate needs to plan for the future. Right now I think we are too unwilling to postpone the satisfaction of our immediate wants to deal with our future needs.

It would require sacrifice to break our addiction to fossil fuels so we will do oil exploration in the Arctic and drill wells off our coastline to get our oil fix instead of spending $ on the research and development of alternative & renewable fuel sources.

We want to build that housing development now!!! So what if it takes away land that supports our dwindling wildlife.

The best example of this was hurricane Katrina. I read this article in National Geographic that read like a news story on Katrina but it had been written 5 years earlier. It was known that a hurricane strike on New Orleans would be disastrous but no one was willing to spend $ that was needed to fulfill immediate wants to prevent a future catastrophe.

It would require sacrifice to break our addiction to fossil fuels

I was watching Bill Mahr's last show of the season last night. There was a fellow (I forget his name) that was in Kuwait just before the invasion of Iraq. He was doing a fly over and was astonished at the amount of military hardware and personnel that was assembled as far as he could see. He recalled thinking to himself "Shit! It sure costs a lot more to steal oil than to just buy it!"

That was PJ O'Rourke, and that was the best episode of the season.

Anywhoo, people really suck sometimes, especially in their blatant disregard and misuse of the environment. Not just anyone should be allowed to breed, I tell ya'.

Originally Posted by Harryb I considered that option. The only thing that stopped me was the fact that he was younger, in much better shape than myself and would have kicked my butt.

Well sometimes ya gotta take one for Gipper

Seriously though this statement

The various incidents just seem to me to show a disregard and a lack of respect for wildlife.

Is the picture I get here on this coast
So that means all across the country to some degree or another

Maybe because we shoot wildlife we see it clearer.
I know when the subject comes up among "normal" folk they don't seem
to feel my passion or concern.
Maybe I don't express myself well?

I just try to follow the, "Leave no trace philosphy" when I'm out
How long Harry have we been saying, Man, Just clean up your own Act!!
Seems so simple if all followed the above .......... but I don't know, really ??

Originally Posted by Harryb Hi Y'all, I just got home from St. Augustine. While at the rookery I had the opportuity to yell at an idiot couple. The idiot dude with a camera had his idiot girlfriend shake the branch supporting a nest of tri-color herons chicks while he took shots of what he considered their hilarious reactions to having their home shaken.

I think a possible solution would have been to inform the management of their interference! Now, I have not been to the "Rookery" in a few years, but when I used to go. The Management was pretty protective of the Rookery. They very could have tossed the offenders out, right then. And if they had passes, they might have revoked them also. That might have made an impression on them.

Originally Posted by Harryb The really distrubing thing is that this the 3rd time this has happened to a mating pair with offspring this season. Now sandhills are only out and about during the daylight hours. They are fairly large birds and they move very slowly. When they cross a road they are careful to wait until there's no nearby approaching traffic. But they do cross slowly and its not uncommon to see a line of cars standing and waiting for the sandhills to complete their crossing. The point here is that they don't jump in front of your car. To hit a sandhill you have to do it intentionally or you are going way too fast, or you are so completely distracted that you're not watching the road.

I do not want to seem argumentative here, but I have seen Sandhill Cranes walk out into traffic over here near Tampa. They are not really traffic aware.

Years ago we had a pair that nested in a retention pond in an office complex. It was located right next to a six land highway, with a 45 mph speed limit. On a couple of days my wife and I went and took some photos of them. One of those days, it was obvious that the parents wanted to move across the six lane highway. All they had to do was walk on a small strip of grass, cross a sidewalk and then another strip of grass. We tried to positioned ourselves so as to maybe discourage them from crossing. But the were pretty intent on crossing with two chicks. So my wife, actually walked along the sidewalk, between the Cranes and the highway to prevent them from walking onto the road.

She was a little scared. And the male did poke her once or twice (not very hard at all) but she did not react to them. The the mother took the chicks back away from the roadway and we were happy that we prevented something bad from happening.

But I am sure that in a few hours or the next day, the cranes would eventually try and cross that road again.

I believe the best solution would have been to put up a fence between the pond and the roadway. Because the chicks were too small to fly and yet the parents were leading them around everywhere. A fence would have prevented them from taking the chicks across the road.

Originally Posted by Harryb The various incidents just seem to me to show a disregard and a lack of respect for wildlife. In my little area we have managed to kill 6 adults and 4 chicks out of the 5000 sandhills state-wide. The really sad thing is that when all the cranes, egrets, and herons are gone most folks won't even notice the difference.

My personal "rant" is against builders and communities that allow the destruction of the fewer and fewer nesting areas for shorebirds and the like. I used to know of a couple of small little places where Black Skimmers nested along with other shorebirds. Then one year, a new building popped up and destroyed those little nesting areas. Who knows where the shorebirds found another place to nest. Maybe they never did? Aaaarrrrggghhhh!!!

PaulThePhotographer

That is such an upsetting story! I photograph mostly in a state park that is frequented by large numbers of people fishing, biking, walking. My lens and I attract attention and questions, and even though it distrupts the photography sometimes, I've used this as an opportunity to combine my photography with answering whatever I can, hoping that I can make a few more people appreciate the incredible wildlife around them. If I do see any abuse of wildlife, I have to do something. I have the advantage of being able to pull off the scolding maternal act really well, so I usually speak right up. Once, I was too far away to stop a jerk from throwing stones at ducks, so I made sure he saw me pointing at him, pulled out my cell, and faked making a call. Worked like a charm. My biggest soapbox is sloppy fisherman who discard yards of fishing line that won't decay for, get this, 500 years, endangering aquatic birds and animals. We're so much more than wildlife photographers. We're their ambassadors.

Originally Posted by peargrin That is such an upsetting story! I photograph mostly in a state park that is frequented by large numbers of people fishing, biking, walking. My lens and I attract attention and questions, and even though it distrupts the photography sometimes, I've used this as an opportunity to combine my photography with answering whatever I can, hoping that I can make a few more people appreciate the incredible wildlife around them. If I do see any abuse of wildlife, I have to do something. I have the advantage of being able to pull off the scolding maternal act really well, so I usually speak right up. Once, I was too far away to stop a jerk from throwing stones at ducks, so I made sure he saw me pointing at him, pulled out my cell, and faked making a call. Worked like a charm. My biggest soapbox is sloppy fisherman who discard yards of fishing line that won't decay for, get this, 500 years, endangering aquatic birds and animals. We're so much more than wildlife photographers. We're their ambassadors.

Old thread but still relevant and there's lots of similarities between my local venue and this.

Add 'people walking dogs' ... but many don't know how (or want) to control them and think it's hilarious when they go in the water after the waterfowl.

Have got pics of a (F) mallard with a hook stuck in the base of its bill, + pics of fishing line so tightly wrapped around a swan's leg that the profile was indented - and am aware of others stuck on the ice when t'other end of the fishing line froze into the ice - and they had to be cut free.

Idiots blasting around on quad bikes / m.bikes when they're banned from the area - I take pics of same when possible... which they don't like apparently.

... and otherwise ok groups / famliies that just drop / 'let go' of the plastic bags containing food they've brought for the birds ... thereby adding to the clutter helping to tarnish the very environment they've made an effort to visit / enjoy with their kids.

'shakes head in bewilderment'

2 differences ... am in uk and wrong gender for 'maternal' :)

pp

Originally Posted by Harryb Hi Y'all, I just got home from St. Augustine. While at the rookery I had the opportuity to yell at an idiot couple. The idiot dude with a camera had his idiot girlfriend shake the branch supporting a nest of tri-color herons chicks while he took shots of what he considered their hilarious reactions to having their home shaken. ... The various incidents just seem to me to show a disregard and a lack of respect for wildlife. ...

Sigh...the forever struggle.

I think it's important that nature photographers organise themselves and educate children and adults about these things. About 3 or 4 times a year I do give a presentation to 1st ~ 6th graders about nature, the animals within and how they can help to preserve all this vanishing beauty. Does it help? I really don't know for sure, but i like to believe so.

What can we do about the following idiots?

...The idiot dude with a camera had his idiot girlfriend shake the branch supporting a nest of tri-color herons chicks while he took shots of what he considered their hilarious reactions to having their home shaken...

Snap the pic, try to stop the madness and call 911. Ny heart actually say "Shoot those MF"

Harry, that's so disappointing. This year I saw one father standing in front of a sign that said, "Do not feed the alligators," and he was leaning over the fence, holding his young child so that she could dangle a cheeto over the snout of an alligator. It was a really small alligator, but the child's hand wasn't too big either. When I see stuff like this, I always stop and intervene, but I guess if a person treats their child that way, I can't be surprised at how they treat wildlife.

Our biggest wildlife-related problem in Louisiana is that the Mississippi River Delta stopped growing after the 1927 flood, when political pressures resulted in the construction of levies that prevent the natural flooding that sustains the delta. Also, at the mouth of the river, jetties now take sediment and deposit it past the outer continental shelf, so that it is lost, rather than being used to continue building the delta. Our delta area is twice the size of the Everglades and about 25% of all U.S. wetlands and 40% of U.S. saltwater marshes. Something like 10 million waterfowl winter here, 95% of Gulf marine species spend part of their life here, and countless other species call this home. With the Mississippi delta no longer working, we lose about 25 to 30 square miles of marsh per year--it subsides under its own weight, and is no longer replaced by an active delta. There is a much better summary of this huge challenge and proposed solutions here: www.americaswetland.com.

But on the positive side,

1) To combat salt water intrusion that kills our marshes, we have learned to plant various salt resistant grasses, like smooth cordgrass, that can rebuild and extend the marsh where our wildlife live. The area shown below was a mud flat a couple of years ago. Now high school students help us plant this and other grasses every summer.



2. To help reforest the cypress swamps that are so important in our area, we have been planting about 20,000 seedlings each year.

3. Louisiana Black Bears, which are an endangered species, are making a comeback, so much that the LDWF has advised hunters to be on the lookout. They became endangered because their hardwood forest habitat along the Mississippi was turned into farmland. Now it is being converted back through federal incentive programs. And hunting them is now illegal.

4. Alligators were facing extinction by 1967, yet by 1987 they had fully recovered, thanks to good policy, including the requirement that 20% (I think) of any eggs harvested be returned into the wild when the alligators reach a certain age--more than would survive naturally.

5. River Otters were extinct in 21 states by 1900, but we had so many in Louisiana that we repopulated the rest of the country, and as we know from this forum, they are plentiful today.

6. Also around 1900 the Snowy Egret was almost extinct, and Roseate Spoonbills, Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Brown Pelicans and probably others were also threatened because they were slaughtered so their plumes could decorate women's hats. And good legislation and education solved that horrific problem.

7. Last week my husband's college roommate sent us a photo of the very large turtle he rescued from the highway. He was holding it on either side with his hands closer to its head as he carried it to safety. My husband called him and said, "Wally, that is an alligator snapping turtle. Great good deed, but you need to improve your handling technique so you can keep all your fingers."

So, although we have some large challenges and some awfully dumb and thoughtless citizens, we also have some good folks, and I'm not losing hope on the bigger picture.

Best, Pam