Hi all, This discussion threatens to escalate quickly and I hesitate to weigh in.... but here are a few comments for everyone to consider:
1. One of John Confer's main points is that making the direct connection between hunting pressure on Cayuga Lake and overall waterfowl populations is extremely difficult or impossible. This is true, so we need to be very careful not to then turn around and claim that local hunting is detrimental to duck populations. The truth is that waterfowl populations are managed and monitored at continental scales and factors such as rainfall on the breeding grounds and invasions of zebra mussels have a far greater effect on overall numbers and distributions than local hunting pressure. Most duck species (including Redhead) have long-term stable or increasing populations, primarily due to successful hunting-based waterfowl and wetland management in North America over the past 30 years. I have not looked at our local (or statewide) waterfowl survey data (coming from the counts we do in late January after hunting has stopped), but I believe that many duck species, and especially Redhead, have continued to increase as wintering birds on Cayuga Lake. The massive flocks of diving ducks have become and continue to be a spectacle to enjoy on many parts of the lake in mid- and late winter – i.e. the birds are not driven from vital feeding and resting areas long-term by hunting. In short, I would be very surprised if a biological argument could be made against legal and regulated hunting on any part of Cayuga Lake. 2. So that leaves the societal issues, which John and Dave and others have alluded to at the end of their posts: "I would prefer not to hear gunshots" "I would prefer to watch the birds feeding, courting, preening, and resting." These of course are valid concerns, but I think we need to very careful to separate these personal-choice and societal issues from the biological. It may indeed be time to have a conversation about the justification for allowing hunting along the populated and popular shoreline within the Town of Ithaca -- but this is primarily a conversation about human conflict of interest and not biology. Like all human-conflict issues, it promises to be complex, contentious, and even potentially nasty. 3. I urge everyone to carefully consider Jody Enck's remarks, in light of our big-picture goals -- i.e. keeping bird and wildlife populations healthy and stemming the cancer of rampant development and habitat loss. if Birders and Hunters cannot reconcile our relatively minor differences to present a unified front against the much-larger forces threatening our shared resource, the future for birds and their habitats will be much dimmer. KEN Ken Rosenberg Conservation Science Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology 607-254-2412 607-342-4594 (cell) [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> On Jan 6, 2013, at 11:24 AM, <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: I agree with John Confer and others. I think his arguments should be more clearly and succinctly stated in order to be clear to others and effective to those who make decisions. I'm not volunteering or attempting to do so here, just adding some observations. The number and variety of waterfowl throughout Cayuga Lake in the winter are directly and obviously related to when the ponds at the adjacent Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge are frozen. Large numbers of birds rely on the lake as they do on the refuge. Duck shooting still occurs along the shore of Treman Marine Park despite bans by the City and/or the park. The loophole is that firing initially happens from a shallow-draft boat, while chairs, supplies, and carcasses are piled a few feet away on the shore. Gunners step into the ankle-deep water or wade up to their knees to shoot repeatedly at wounded birds. It's surprising how many shots it takes to kill a sitting duck. Yesterday morning a large raft of Redheads was in the southeast corner of the lake. Two guys from near Treman in the southwest corner of the lake, where we had heard gunfire, drove over in their boat, flushed the raft, and returned to the southwest corner. It looked like a deliberate disturbance of the birds in hopes that they would settle near the ambush. Thousands of Redheads flew north instead, but maybe some did settle in the southwest and get shot. I have also seen this practice of flushing birds on the water within the southwest part of the lake when birds are settled outside the range of their guns. I would prefer not to hear gunshots, as I did throughout my New Year's Day walk all over the streets of West Hill in the City of Ithaca. Rather than see birds being harassed, maimed, and killed by guys with guns and big motor boats, I would prefer to watch the birds feeding, courting, preening, and resting. Truly the bird life on Cayuga Lake is a spectacle worth publicizing and promoting. --Dave Nutter -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
