Yesterday evening on my drive home from work, I heard the unmistakable shrill cries of a raptor, and since I was passing the Ladoga Wetland area by Myers, I slowed to see if it was an Osprey. It turned out to be a vociferous Red-tailed Hawk shrieking incessantly from the railroad tracks. I've never seen one do that, so I slowed down and pulled off to see if something was wrong with it. It flew away, and I noticed a dead bird on the track which was about the same size as the hawk. Thinking it might be a dead raptor, I walked over to check it out.
It was actually a dead mallard<https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=810160141426&set=a.549564831516.2023935.100500325&type=1&theater>, which had its mouth and head encircled by a ring of plastic (like a bridle). Either the bird had died from this entanglement and was scavenged by the hawk, or the hawk had picked it out as an easy target. Either way, I decided to remove the ring since I was already there, just in case the hawk or some other scavenger might get caught in it, too. It was very difficult to get it off...no way the mallard could have freed itself. I moved the carcass off the tracks but left it in plain sight in case the hawk came back. The hawk did fly around calling for about 15 minutes (crows were chasing it), but I didn't see it go back. The duck was gone this morning, so hopefully the hawk found it again. Anyway, I'm telling this story because it made me really sad to see our wildlife strangled on plastic garbage. And it inspired me to tell this story and hope that it might inspire you to join the Conservation Action Committee<http://cayugabirdclub.blogspot.com/2012/10/conservation-action-committee.html> of the Cayuga Bird Club, of which I am a member. We have a lot of good ideas for projects, but not enough members to realize them all. One thing we do is participate in the annual clean-up of the Stewart Park/Renwick Woods area, and we'd like to do more fishing line recycling, etc. The results are tangible and local. Please consider joining this important committee; we need you. If you have questions, you can email me or Candace Cornell to find out more. Thanks for reading, Robyn Bailey Lansing -- 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/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
