The southeastern United States supports about 90 percent of all the brown pelicans in the country, and 40 percent of those live on the Gulf Coast between Louisiana to the Florida panhandle....[More]
BROWN-ER PELICANS:
The southeastern United States supports about 90 percent of all the brown pelicans in the country, and 40 percent of those live on the Gulf Coast between Louisiana to the Florida panhandle. The birds were losing vital habitat to erosion on the east side of the Mississippi Delta when they got the double whammy of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. They've since been rebounding—partly because they've begun nesting on new beaches forming on the west side of the delta. Now, both sides are in the path of the spill.
Here wildlife rehabilitator Erica Miler—member of the Louisiana State Animal Response Team—cleanses a pelican of oil at Ft. Jackson in Louisiana on May 15.
[Less]
[Link to this slide]
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Justin Stumberg
LAUGHING GULLS:
Easily identified by a red beak and a striking black head during the breeding season, laughing gulls are common along the Atlantic coast in North America and into northern South America....[More]
LAUGHING GULLS:
Easily identified by a red beak and a striking black head during the breeding season, laughing gulls are common along the Atlantic coast in North America and into northern South America. Their fishing lifestyle means that laughing gulls will be among the hardest hit if the oil spill encroaches on the beaches. Because of their robust population numbers, conservationists are not worried about their status.
[Less]
[Link to this slide]
Courtesy of Donna A. Dewhurst, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
MAGNIFICENT FRIGATE BIRD:
Magnificent frigatebirds move into the Gulf for the warmer months.
Once called man-o'-wars, the birds are kleptoparasites. They watch other birds fish, then harass them until they drop their catches....[More]
MAGNIFICENT FRIGATE BIRD:
Magnificent frigatebirds move into the Gulf for the warmer months.
Once called man-o'-wars, the birds are kleptoparasites. They watch other birds fish, then harass them until they drop their catches. Then they swoop down and swipe the fish from the surface of the water.
"We don't have the [same] kinds of numbers of those birds as on [the] Pacific Coast or farther up in [the] Atlantic, but we do have them, and more are going to be showing up in the coming weeks," says Chuck Hunter, an ornithologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Atlanta.
[Less]
[Link to this slide]
Courtesy of E. Kirdler
ROYAL TERN:
Both royal terns and Sandwich terns, the latter named for the place they were described on the English coast, are on the front lines of birds experiencing the heaviest impacts from the Deepwater Horizons spill....[More]
ROYAL TERN:
Both royal terns and Sandwich terns, the latter named for the place they were described on the English coast, are on the front lines of birds experiencing the heaviest impacts from the Deepwater Horizons spill.
"They tend to forage out into the Gulf, where the oil is dominating the seascape," Hunter says.
[Less]
[Link to this slide]
Courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
PIPING PLOVER:
Plovers skitter along the glistening zone on beaches where the waves lap at the shore, foraging for insects and invertebrates. They are easily spotted, with their yellow legs and a distinct dark band around the neck....[More]
PIPING PLOVER:
Plovers skitter along the glistening zone on beaches where the waves lap at the shore, foraging for insects and invertebrates. They are easily spotted, with their yellow legs and a distinct dark band around the neck. Their beaches and sand flats are highly productive zones that will be vulnerable if spring storms or later-season hurricanes push oil past the protective boom.
[Less]
[Link to this slide]
Courtesy of Gene Nieminen
SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER:
Migrating plovers and sandpipers spend the winter months farther south and are now coming through the Gulf in large numbers, en route to breeding grounds as far north as the Arctic....[More]
SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER:
Migrating plovers and sandpipers spend the winter months farther south and are now coming through the Gulf in large numbers, en route to breeding grounds as far north as the Arctic. Along the way, they're foraging on mud flats and low beaches exposed at low tide.
"We're talking about the potential for really high proportions of North American shorebirds being exposed to oil," Hunter says. "If this persists, they're going to be right back in it going south again in July and August."
[Less]
[Link to this slide]
Courtesy of Tim Bowman
SORA:
The sora is called a secretive marsh bird because it hangs out in dense, young marsh vegetation. Like related clapper rails and king rails, these birds are rarely heard and even more seldom seen....[More]
SORA:
The sora is called a secretive marsh bird because it hangs out in dense, young marsh vegetation. Like related clapper rails and king rails, these birds are rarely heard and even more seldom seen.
Clapper and king rails in particular are high on ornithologists' concern list due to their limited distribution, lack of habitat and close association with brackish and saltwater marshes. Any oil washover from storms will be a hit to the marshes, and the marshes' ability to filter an oil spill is unknown.
[Less]
[Link to this slide]
Courtesy of Dave Menke
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
You know and I know that no matter how much you oil you spill or how many birds die, or how many men are killed ...it is not going to get people out of their cars. It doesn't even matter what the price goes to... everyone wants their plastic bottles and do-dads. We will keep drilling until it is ALL gone. then whine about it. Politians will keep their paychecks and free cars and gas and airplanes. LET THEM EAT CAKE. It doesn't matter how many rivers we dam we want our electric comps and lights. Tough on fish but really now I want hot water. lol wanna bet the bird clearners took cars to the beach???? lol
"You know and I know that no matter how much you oil you spill or how many birds die, or how many men are killed ...it is not going to get people out of their cars." = Plaisham
Then we will just have to destroy the American nation some more, until there is capitulation.
This oil disaster is man made and the biggest conspiracy to shut down oil production since the kennedy assassination plot. Seemingly the best minds are befuddled how to stop this runaway oil leek. How stupid can the world, watching this fiasco, be. When oil is taped by drilling a well often a GUSHER will occur. how do you think it is tapped under so much pressure ? The same way this leak can be taped and shut off any time the powers that be want it so. A sleeve valve slipped over the end of the exposed pipe once bolted in place with cross bolting the valve is turned off like your garden hose. At a minimum... with 20 to 30 feet of broken tail pipe that can be crimped as many times as necessary to stop the flow is also possible as long as that tailpipe is there. but looks like after today they are going to cut off the only remnants of hope to these solutions.
Building a Better Biofuel: A New Carbon-Neutral Approach Turns Carbohydrates into Hydrocarbons
High-Pressure Hybrids: Fuel-Efficient Hydraulic Vehicles Come of Age
Obama Favors Plug-in Hybrids over Hydrogen Vehicles
Could Denmark Be Fossil Fuel Free by 2050?
10 Solutions for Climate Change
Why the Right to Emit Carbon Dioxide Is Given Away in U.S. Climate Change Bill
Spread Reckoning: U.S. Suburbs Face Twin Perils of Climate Change and Peak Oil [Excerpt]
Window Shopping for Electric Cars: How to Compare Conventional and Plug-in Vehicles
3 Comments
Add CommentYou know and I know that no matter how much you oil you spill or how many birds die, or how many men are killed ...it is not going to get people out of their cars. It doesn't even matter what the price goes to... everyone wants their plastic bottles and do-dads. We will keep drilling until it is ALL gone. then whine about it. Politians will keep their paychecks and free cars and gas and airplanes. LET THEM EAT CAKE. It doesn't matter how many rivers we dam we want our electric comps and lights. Tough on fish but really now I want hot water. lol wanna bet the bird clearners took cars to the beach???? lol
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"You know and I know that no matter how much you oil you spill or how many birds die, or how many men are killed ...it is not going to get people out of their cars." = Plaisham
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThen we will just have to destroy the American nation some more, until there is capitulation.
This oil disaster is man made and the biggest conspiracy to shut down oil production since the kennedy assassination plot. Seemingly the best minds are befuddled how to stop this runaway oil leek. How stupid can the world, watching this fiasco, be. When oil is taped by drilling a well often a GUSHER will occur. how do you think it is tapped under so much pressure ? The same way this leak can be taped and shut off any time the powers that be want it so. A sleeve valve slipped over the end of the exposed pipe once bolted in place with cross bolting the valve is turned off like your garden hose. At a minimum... with 20 to 30 feet of broken tail pipe that can be crimped as many times as necessary to stop the flow is also possible as long as that tailpipe is there. but looks like after today they are going to cut off the only remnants of hope to these solutions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this