Laura Erickson's For the Birds

I’m leaving for the Gulf of Mexico on July 24th. I’ll be doing my best to conserve gas en route by driving my Prius no faster than 55 wherever it’s safe to do so, so I don’t expect to get to Grand Isle, Louisiana until sometime Monday. Burning gasoline to document the effects on birds of an oil disaster is ironic, to say the least, and it seems like I need to mitigate my youth somehow.

I’ve long believed that we Americans should be paying a minimum of $5 a gallon for gas, most of the money going to develop safer ways of getting oil, finding the most effective ways to deal with accidents before those accidents happen, and developing the best proactive strategies to help wildlife during spills. On this trip I plan to put my money where my mouth is, so whenever I buy gas I’m going to calculate the difference between what I spend and what the gas would have cost at $5 a gallon. After my trip I’m going to donate that difference to the conservation organizations that I feel are doing the best job to help wildlife in the Gulf.

A team of Midwestern biologists, conservationists, and wildlife rehabilitation experts is working out plans to track our common loons when they reach the Gulf this October and November. Already as of July 20th, fifteen common loons have been collected off Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Loons remain on the Gulf for one to three years after their first migration, and so I’m presuming that most or all of these were young birds. I’m afraid the dimensions of this tragedy for Minnesota and Wisconsin’s loons cannot be overstated, though I’m hoping against hope that my fears are unfounded.

Most of the biologists I’ve heard from are not at all concerned about how our hummingbirds are going to fare, but I think at least part of their mindset involves how they can actually measure the effects of the spill. They can’t do this except for birds that come in direct contact with the oil. My concerns about hummingbirds will be very difficult to prove or disprove scientifically. Ruby-throated hummingbirds migrate to the general Gulf area, pig out in upland areas and on some marsh flowers and insects, and then strike out many over open water on an arduous journey to the Yucatan Peninsula, a journey that takes over twenty hours. Humans have been getting sick from the poor air quality there, so it’s hard for me to imagine that hummingbirds on a demanding migratory flight aren’t going to be sickened.

Also, because there is no place for them to rest over the open water, hummingbirds migrate overnight across the Gulf. Nocturnal migrants usually use stars to navigate and get disoriented by bright lights which seem to draw them in. I expect many songbirds and hummingbirds are going to collide with cleanup ships and be lured to their deaths by flames from burning oil. Hummingbirds are too tiny to be found in oily water, will only be able to guess how many are lost by reduced numbers of them returning north next year.

This year I’ve heard dozens of people concerned about how low hummingbird numbers are. This may be due, at least in part, to the fact that northern ruby-throated hummingbirds leave Mexico in late April, and many were crossing the Gulf right when oil was gushing and the main response was to burn surface oil. But my concern again cannot be proven scientifically, so it’s the kind of issue scientists prefer to ignore in favor of the issues that are actually measurable.

For the next two weeks, I’ll be producing “For the Birds” from the Gulf as I try to get a handle on what is really facing our birds. I’ll be posting photos, videos, and updates at www.lauraerickson.blogspot.com.

I’m Laura Erickson, speaking for the birds.