[nysbirds-l] Fighter Kite string (manja) found in Floyd Bennett (Kings County)
Birders, A blight has developed with a popular kite war game, originated from southern Asia (banned in Pakistan) , carried over to here to the wide open spaces of Floyd Bennett Field. The harmful string used to fly the kites, called manja, is a very strong high tensile usually red ( or another color) string coated and embedded with glass ! The purpose of this war game is to cut the competitor(s) kite strings in the sky.You get the idea. see this link http://tinyurl.com/FBmanja The problem arises when this string is left behind , discarded unto the fields, posing great danger and threats to birds that use these fields for roosting, feeding or resting. Can one envision a Short -eared owl being a victim ? Last month , me and another birder found remains of manja which I rolled up at least 1000 feet across field A, my glove shredded afterwards. Last week, birders ( who contacted me yesterday) found remains of fighter kite string in field C where the Northern Shrike was and those birders also collected the string, also getting their gloves damaged. Its a widespread problem that is not enforced , likely because no stated policy or action has been clarified by Gateway administrators. I sent a letter to the Gateway superintendent tonight stating my concerns and need to ban and enforce by the US Park Police. I stated also the requirements of the Migration Bird Treaty Act in the spirit of that law even if it doesn't cover fighter kite string. If you happen to come upon this nemesis kite string, I advise you tell the Gateway staff person at the Visitors Center, if possible collect the string with a stick ( never bare hands).Or carry rawhide gloves and a plastic bag if you visit Floyd Bennett. Let me know if you find any and I 'll forward to the appropriate people or give you the superintendent contact info. Here's more To give you an idea of how dangerous this fighter kite string is, please read these links below of what the glass string did to a human being's neck. The second link includes pictures and comments about the kites at Floyd Bennett and Flushing Meadow (Queens County) . In the first link,apparently a young man had his throat slashed by some of the string. The "sport" has been outlawed in Pakistan because of the injuries. _http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1046683--kite-string-slices-man-s-neck_ (http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1046683--kite-string-slices-man-s-neck) The following NY Times link shows eleven slides , some showing the cuts on the kite flyer hands which the string no doubt will kill birds or at least maim their limbs or bodies and produce extreme prolonged suffering. _http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/10/09/nyregion/20111002KITEss.html_ (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/10/09/nyregion/20111002KITEss.html) For more about Fighter Kites, read this link _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighter_kite_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighter_kite) Peter Dorosh President Brooklyn Bird Club -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[nysbirds-l] Rich Marina, Buffalo NY 1/30/12
I stopped by Rich Marina after work but before heading to class (5:10 p,m), still hoping for the Black-headed Gull. No luck on that front, however the following were present: 4 Canada Geese 11 Mallards 4 Common Mergansers 500+ Boneparte's Gulls 2 Little Gulls (1 adult, 1 juvenile) 17 Ring-billed Gulls 11 Herring Gulls Many more gulls and ducks out in the river - I am only including the birds in the canal/ marina area. Joe Fell Buffalo, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[nysbirds-l] Syracuse RBA
RBA * New York * Syracuse * January 30, 2012 * NYSY 01.30.12 Hotline: Syracuse Rare bird Alert Dates(s): January 23, 2012 - January 30, 2012 to report by e-mail: brinjoseph AT yahoo.com covering upstate NY counties: Cayuga, Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge and Montezuma Wetlands Complex (MWC) (just outside Cayuga County), Onondaga, Oswego, Lewis, Jefferson, Oneida, Herkimer, Madison & Cortland compiled:January 30 AT 4:30 p.m. (EST) compiler: Joseph Brin Onondaga Audubon Homepage: www.onondagaaudubon.org #290 -Monday January 23, 2012 Greetings! This is the Syracuse Area Rare Bird Alert for the week of January 16 , 2012 Highlights: --- TURKEY VULTURE SANDHILL CRANE ICELAND GULL GLAUCOUS GULL LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL GLAUCOUS GULL SNOWY OWL NORTHERN SHRIKE BOHEMIAN WAXWING WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge (MNWR) and Montezuma Wetlands Complex (MWC) 1/29: Although not in the complex proper, 4 SANDHILL CRANES were seen on Gravel Road just east of Rt. 89. Madison County 1/24: At the Madison County Landfill 4 ICELAND GULLS, 2 GLAUCOUS GULLS, and 2 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS were seen. The next day 6 ICELAND GULLS, 1 GLAUCOUS GULL, and 1 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL were found. Onondaga County 1/26: 2 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS were found with a flock of Cedar Waxwings at Three Rivers WMA north of Baldwinsville. The next day one of the BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS was relocated. They were found in an open area along a service road east of 60 Road near the Bald Eagle nest. 1/27: An overwintering TURKEY VULTURE was spotted in Elbridge. 1/29: A LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL was found at the inner harbor near Carousel Mall. Despite some unsuccesful reports SNOWY OWLS are still being seen at Syracuse’s Hancock Airport. Two birds were reported today. Oswego County 1/28: 25+ BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS were seen on the east side of County Rout 3 just north of Selkirk Shores State Park. 1/29: A NORTHERN SHRIKE was found on Fort Leazier Road north of Mexico. Cayuga County 1/28: A WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW was seen with American Tree Sparrows at the Sterling Nature Center. End Transcript -- Joseph Brin Region 5 Baldwinsville, N.Y. 13027 U.S.A. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[nysbirds-l] Jan. 28 Freeport Pelagic Results - Record Common Murre Count!
Saturday’s trip out of Freeport, NY was a big success with both great weather and great birds. Seas were running about 2 feet with winds less than 15 knots for most of the day, eventually building only up to 3 feet. The winds and waves started to pick up quite a bit in the afternoon as forecast, but we had planned our route to make sure we put this on our tail so the ride was comfortable all day. On the way out, before we reached the inlet, I thought I spotted a “BLACK” BRANT, a subspecies from the West Coast. I took some long distance Hail Mary photographs and sure enough that’s what it was. We turned around to try to find it but it must have wandered into the mass of its eastern cousins and blended in with the crowd. If you’re birding the area, check the Brant flocks. Once we cleared the inlet we quickly began finding numbers of RAZORBILLS. They seemed a bit skittish and didn’t allow real close approach, but we often had several small flocks in the air at once and there were plenty of birds to study. Ditto for the return trip with streams of birds very close to the beach. Some of their nervousness might be explained by a PEREGRINE FALCON we found about a mile or so offshore. We’ve had good numbers of this species in the past but our count of 481 was exceptional. Further offshore we started to pick up COMMON MURRES, mostly in ones and twos. With the calm seas they were visible from a long way off. We destroyed our previous record (which I believe was also a New York state record) of 49 birds and came up with a final total of 86. Unlike other years nearly all of them were in basic plumage. Were these mostly young birds? We don’t know, but it’s one of those things that keep pelagic trips interesting. We got to about 16 miles offshore. We picked up some DOVEKIES in these more distant waters, mostly birds in flight though we had one sitting on the water for a little bit. It is unusual to have this species this close to shore on our January trips, but water temperatures are much higher than usual and I think they are finding food closer than they normally do. Throughout the day we were given a good show by the BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES, and many pixels were killed by the photographers on this dynamic little gull species. An amazing sight was watching one that had grabbed a piece of our beef suet chum getting dragged across the water by a Herring Gull that had grabbed the other end. Nearly all the birds were adults with just one 1st cycle bird making a brief appearance. The chum at the back of the boat also pulled in two ICELAND GULLS, though they didn’t stay with us long, and the usual NORTHERN GANNET show which also caused the filling of photographers’ cards. All in all, it was a great day to be at sea. Here are the totals from outside of the inlet: Long-tailed Duck- 225+ Common Eider- 250+ Surf Scoter - 2 White-winged Scoter - 8 Black Scoter- 3 Surf/Black Scoter - 32 Red-breasted Merganser - 40 Red-throated Loon - 23 Common Loon - 26 Northern Gannet - 200+ Peregrine - 1 BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE - 29 (incl. a single 1st-basic) Bonaparte's Gull- 12 American Herring Gull - 700 ICELAND GULL- 2 (ad and 1st-basic) Great Black-backed Gull - 75 DOVEKIE - 12 COMMON MURRE- 86 (3 breeding, 1 heavy molt) RAZORBILL - 481 (incl. one bird well inside the inlet) large alcid sp. - 52 Harbor Porpoise - 4+ Short-beaked Common Dolphin - 5+ dolphin sp. - 25+ whale sp. - 3 (spouts looked Fin Whale like, consistent with elusive behavior) And here are a few notable birds from inside the Jones inlet and along the Loop boat channel. BLACK BRANT - 1 (photographed, details to NYSARC) HARLEQUIN DUCK - 3 Double-crested Cormorant - 11 Great Cormorant - 1 Great Blue Heron - 21 Peregrine Falcon - 2 We currently do not have any trips scheduled for Freeport this year, but several people aboard have requested that we try to run a few more for 2012. We’ll talk to the captain to see if we can pull something off, perhaps in early September for summer species like White-faced, Leach’s, and Band-rumped Storm-Petrels, Bridled Terns, Long-tailed Jaegers, etc. and maybe a November trip which produced birds like Red Phalarope, Northern Fulmar, and good numbers of Manx and Great Shearwaters out of Delaware this year. Stay tuned! -PAG -- *Paul A. Guris See Life Paulagics PO Box 161 Green Lane, PA 18054 215-234-6805 www.paulagics.com paulagics@gmail.com i...@paulagics.com* -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1)
[nysbirds-l] Sparrows at Union Square Park and birds from The Adirondaks, etc.
Both the White-crowned Sparrow and the Swamp Sparrow were easily visible towards the South end of Union Square Park at around 10:45am this morning. A bit of a contrast from our weekend where Philip Dempsey and I joined Joan E. Collins for some Adirondack birding on Saturday. Spent most of Saturday and early Sunday morning around Oregon Plains/Bigelow Roads and Bloomindale Bog. I think others have documented this area recently so I won't go into detail. In summary we saw GRAY JAYS, BOREAL CHICKADEE and good numbers of WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS and PINE SISKINS, along with a supporting cast that included Ruffed Grouse, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Purple Finch, Red-breasted Nuthatch and Pileated Woodpecker. We spent a lot of time listening/looking for Black-backed Woodpecker but came up empty. We did however stumble into a mixed flock of Waxings (mostly Cedar Waxwings but with at least four BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS) feeding on fruit in ornamental trees at the Pizza Hut in Saranac Lake at around 3pm. Joan went back later and estimated the flock to be about 70 birds in total although most were sitting high in pine trees with only a smaller subset coming down to feed at any given time. Thanks to Joan for sharing her, voluminous, local knowledge and providing such pleasant company. On Sunday afternoon, Philip and I drifted South as the snow started to get heavy near Bloomingdale. We spent a fair amount of time in the fields North of Westport and picked up three ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS in the Clark Road triangle, along with a NORTHERN SHRIKE a little further North. We finished birding at the Fort Edward Flats (or Fort Edward IBA) with another three ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS, four Northern Harriers and 8 Wild Turkeys. This site is apparently a great spot for Short-eared Owls, with locals reporting 13 or more some evenings, but we had to head South before the appropriate time. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[nysbirds-l] Sparrows at Union Square Park and birds from The Adirondaks, etc.
Both the White-crowned Sparrow and the Swamp Sparrow were easily visible towards the South end of Union Square Park at around 10:45am this morning. A bit of a contrast from our weekend where Philip Dempsey and I joined Joan E. Collins for some Adirondack birding on Saturday. Spent most of Saturday and early Sunday morning around Oregon Plains/Bigelow Roads and Bloomindale Bog. I think others have documented this area recently so I won't go into detail. In summary we saw GRAY JAYS, BOREAL CHICKADEE and good numbers of WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS and PINE SISKINS, along with a supporting cast that included Ruffed Grouse, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Purple Finch, Red-breasted Nuthatch and Pileated Woodpecker. We spent a lot of time listening/looking for Black-backed Woodpecker but came up empty. We did however stumble into a mixed flock of Waxings (mostly Cedar Waxwings but with at least four BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS) feeding on fruit in ornamental trees at the Pizza Hut in Saranac Lake at around 3pm. Joan went back later and estimated the flock to be about 70 birds in total although most were sitting high in pine trees with only a smaller subset coming down to feed at any given time. Thanks to Joan for sharing her, voluminous, local knowledge and providing such pleasant company. On Sunday afternoon, Philip and I drifted South as the snow started to get heavy near Bloomingdale. We spent a fair amount of time in the fields North of Westport and picked up three ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS in the Clark Road triangle, along with a NORTHERN SHRIKE a little further North. We finished birding at the Fort Edward Flats (or Fort Edward IBA) with another three ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS, four Northern Harriers and 8 Wild Turkeys. This site is apparently a great spot for Short-eared Owls, with locals reporting 13 or more some evenings, but we had to head South before the appropriate time. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[nysbirds-l] Jan. 28 Freeport Pelagic Results - Record Common Murre Count!
Saturday’s trip out of Freeport, NY was a big success with both great weather and great birds. Seas were running about 2 feet with winds less than 15 knots for most of the day, eventually building only up to 3 feet. The winds and waves started to pick up quite a bit in the afternoon as forecast, but we had planned our route to make sure we put this on our tail so the ride was comfortable all day. On the way out, before we reached the inlet, I thought I spotted a “BLACK” BRANT, a subspecies from the West Coast. I took some long distance Hail Mary photographs and sure enough that’s what it was. We turned around to try to find it but it must have wandered into the mass of its eastern cousins and blended in with the crowd. If you’re birding the area, check the Brant flocks. Once we cleared the inlet we quickly began finding numbers of RAZORBILLS. They seemed a bit skittish and didn’t allow real close approach, but we often had several small flocks in the air at once and there were plenty of birds to study. Ditto for the return trip with streams of birds very close to the beach. Some of their nervousness might be explained by a PEREGRINE FALCON we found about a mile or so offshore. We’ve had good numbers of this species in the past but our count of 481 was exceptional. Further offshore we started to pick up COMMON MURRES, mostly in ones and twos. With the calm seas they were visible from a long way off. We destroyed our previous record (which I believe was also a New York state record) of 49 birds and came up with a final total of 86. Unlike other years nearly all of them were in basic plumage. Were these mostly young birds? We don’t know, but it’s one of those things that keep pelagic trips interesting. We got to about 16 miles offshore. We picked up some DOVEKIES in these more distant waters, mostly birds in flight though we had one sitting on the water for a little bit. It is unusual to have this species this close to shore on our January trips, but water temperatures are much higher than usual and I think they are finding food closer than they normally do. Throughout the day we were given a good show by the BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES, and many pixels were killed by the photographers on this dynamic little gull species. An amazing sight was watching one that had grabbed a piece of our beef suet chum getting dragged across the water by a Herring Gull that had grabbed the other end. Nearly all the birds were adults with just one 1st cycle bird making a brief appearance. The chum at the back of the boat also pulled in two ICELAND GULLS, though they didn’t stay with us long, and the usual NORTHERN GANNET show which also caused the filling of photographers’ cards. All in all, it was a great day to be at sea. Here are the totals from outside of the inlet: Long-tailed Duck- 225+ Common Eider- 250+ Surf Scoter - 2 White-winged Scoter - 8 Black Scoter- 3 Surf/Black Scoter - 32 Red-breasted Merganser - 40 Red-throated Loon - 23 Common Loon - 26 Northern Gannet - 200+ Peregrine - 1 BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE - 29 (incl. a single 1st-basic) Bonaparte's Gull- 12 American Herring Gull - 700 ICELAND GULL- 2 (ad and 1st-basic) Great Black-backed Gull - 75 DOVEKIE - 12 COMMON MURRE- 86 (3 breeding, 1 heavy molt) RAZORBILL - 481 (incl. one bird well inside the inlet) large alcid sp. - 52 Harbor Porpoise - 4+ Short-beaked Common Dolphin - 5+ dolphin sp. - 25+ whale sp. - 3 (spouts looked Fin Whale like, consistent with elusive behavior) And here are a few notable birds from inside the Jones inlet and along the Loop boat channel. BLACK BRANT - 1 (photographed, details to NYSARC) HARLEQUIN DUCK - 3 Double-crested Cormorant - 11 Great Cormorant - 1 Great Blue Heron - 21 Peregrine Falcon - 2 We currently do not have any trips scheduled for Freeport this year, but several people aboard have requested that we try to run a few more for 2012. We’ll talk to the captain to see if we can pull something off, perhaps in early September for summer species like White-faced, Leach’s, and Band-rumped Storm-Petrels, Bridled Terns, Long-tailed Jaegers, etc. and maybe a November trip which produced birds like Red Phalarope, Northern Fulmar, and good numbers of Manx and Great Shearwaters out of Delaware this year. Stay tuned! -PAG -- *Paul A. Guris See Life Paulagics PO Box 161 Green Lane, PA 18054 215-234-6805 www.paulagics.com paulagics@gmail.com i...@paulagics.com* -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1)
[nysbirds-l] Syracuse RBA
RBA * New York * Syracuse * January 30, 2012 * NYSY 01.30.12 Hotline: Syracuse Rare bird Alert Dates(s): January 23, 2012 - January 30, 2012 to report by e-mail: brinjoseph AT yahoo.com covering upstate NY counties: Cayuga, Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge and Montezuma Wetlands Complex (MWC) (just outside Cayuga County), Onondaga, Oswego, Lewis, Jefferson, Oneida, Herkimer, Madison Cortland compiled:January 30 AT 4:30 p.m. (EST) compiler: Joseph Brin Onondaga Audubon Homepage: www.onondagaaudubon.org #290 -Monday January 23, 2012 Greetings! This is the Syracuse Area Rare Bird Alert for the week of January 16 , 2012 Highlights: --- TURKEY VULTURE SANDHILL CRANE ICELAND GULL GLAUCOUS GULL LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL GLAUCOUS GULL SNOWY OWL NORTHERN SHRIKE BOHEMIAN WAXWING WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge (MNWR) and Montezuma Wetlands Complex (MWC) 1/29: Although not in the complex proper, 4 SANDHILL CRANES were seen on Gravel Road just east of Rt. 89. Madison County 1/24: At the Madison County Landfill 4 ICELAND GULLS, 2 GLAUCOUS GULLS, and 2 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS were seen. The next day 6 ICELAND GULLS, 1 GLAUCOUS GULL, and 1 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL were found. Onondaga County 1/26: 2 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS were found with a flock of Cedar Waxwings at Three Rivers WMA north of Baldwinsville. The next day one of the BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS was relocated. They were found in an open area along a service road east of 60 Road near the Bald Eagle nest. 1/27: An overwintering TURKEY VULTURE was spotted in Elbridge. 1/29: A LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL was found at the inner harbor near Carousel Mall. Despite some unsuccesful reports SNOWY OWLS are still being seen at Syracuse’s Hancock Airport. Two birds were reported today. Oswego County 1/28: 25+ BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS were seen on the east side of County Rout 3 just north of Selkirk Shores State Park. 1/29: A NORTHERN SHRIKE was found on Fort Leazier Road north of Mexico. Cayuga County 1/28: A WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW was seen with American Tree Sparrows at the Sterling Nature Center. End Transcript -- Joseph Brin Region 5 Baldwinsville, N.Y. 13027 U.S.A. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[nysbirds-l] Rich Marina, Buffalo NY 1/30/12
I stopped by Rich Marina after work but before heading to class (5:10 p,m), still hoping for the Black-headed Gull. No luck on that front, however the following were present: 4 Canada Geese 11 Mallards 4 Common Mergansers 500+ Boneparte's Gulls 2 Little Gulls (1 adult, 1 juvenile) 17 Ring-billed Gulls 11 Herring Gulls Many more gulls and ducks out in the river - I am only including the birds in the canal/ marina area. Joe Fell Buffalo, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
[nysbirds-l] Fighter Kite string (manja) found in Floyd Bennett (Kings County)
Birders, A blight has developed with a popular kite war game, originated from southern Asia (banned in Pakistan) , carried over to here to the wide open spaces of Floyd Bennett Field. The harmful string used to fly the kites, called manja, is a very strong high tensile usually red ( or another color) string coated and embedded with glass ! The purpose of this war game is to cut the competitor(s) kite strings in the sky.You get the idea. see this link http://tinyurl.com/FBmanja The problem arises when this string is left behind , discarded unto the fields, posing great danger and threats to birds that use these fields for roosting, feeding or resting. Can one envision a Short -eared owl being a victim ? Last month , me and another birder found remains of manja which I rolled up at least 1000 feet across field A, my glove shredded afterwards. Last week, birders ( who contacted me yesterday) found remains of fighter kite string in field C where the Northern Shrike was and those birders also collected the string, also getting their gloves damaged. Its a widespread problem that is not enforced , likely because no stated policy or action has been clarified by Gateway administrators. I sent a letter to the Gateway superintendent tonight stating my concerns and need to ban and enforce by the US Park Police. I stated also the requirements of the Migration Bird Treaty Act in the spirit of that law even if it doesn't cover fighter kite string. If you happen to come upon this nemesis kite string, I advise you tell the Gateway staff person at the Visitors Center, if possible collect the string with a stick ( never bare hands).Or carry rawhide gloves and a plastic bag if you visit Floyd Bennett. Let me know if you find any and I 'll forward to the appropriate people or give you the superintendent contact info. Here's more To give you an idea of how dangerous this fighter kite string is, please read these links below of what the glass string did to a human being's neck. The second link includes pictures and comments about the kites at Floyd Bennett and Flushing Meadow (Queens County) . In the first link,apparently a young man had his throat slashed by some of the string. The sport has been outlawed in Pakistan because of the injuries. _http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1046683--kite-string-slices-man-s-neck_ (http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1046683--kite-string-slices-man-s-neck) The following NY Times link shows eleven slides , some showing the cuts on the kite flyer hands which the string no doubt will kill birds or at least maim their limbs or bodies and produce extreme prolonged suffering. _http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/10/09/nyregion/20111002KITEss.html_ (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/10/09/nyregion/20111002KITEss.html) For more about Fighter Kites, read this link _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighter_kite_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighter_kite) Peter Dorosh President Brooklyn Bird Club -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
