[texbirds] Now: Bird Stress (Was: Black-throated Gray Warbler)
- From: Clay Taylor <Clay.Taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "C. Savage" <txpaczki@xxxxxxxxx>, "brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx" <brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx>, Jim Hailey <irasciblej@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 02:40:05 -0400
Dang it! One more try, this time from the laptop in the hotel room, not the
iPad. Funny, but the iPad worked fine yesterday from Frankfurt airport. Ah,
technology....
Clay Taylor
(Currently in Austria)
Calallen (Corpus Christi) TX
Sent from my iPhone
Subject: Re: Black-throated Gray Warbler (Now): Bird Stress
All -
Ok, here I DO have proof as to the effect of handling wild birds on stress
levels, at least for one specific technique.
In the 1980s, I was doing a lot of hawk banding in New York State. A
veterinarian that was also a state-licensed bird rehabber and raptor enthusiast
took blood samples from migrating raptors that we caught. He was trying to
see what blood chemistry was considered "normal" for a healthy migrant, so
their clinic could compare those levels to the blood from a traumatized bird
that might be sent to their facility by state wildlife agents. Pretty
straightforward.
When we capture migrating hawks, we hold then in a container with their heads
covered, mimicking a falconer's hood, while we weigh, measure, and band them.
Some people have questioned whether this holding period was in fact stressful
to the birds. The vet decided to see how the hawk's blood chemistry,
specifically white blood cell counts, changed over time while being held. If
the birds were under significant stress, their white blood cell count would
spike relatively quickly. He said that a freshly-captured gull (the poster
child for badly-behaving wild birds) would show a huge increase in 5 to 10
minutes, and they would take a long time to return to normal.
We would capture a hawk (usually a Sharp-shinned or Cooper's Hawk) and within a
minute or two of the capture take a blood sample in a micropipette. After the
blood coagulated at the puncture and the flow stopped, we would continue with
the weighing, measuring, and banding as normal. Then we left the hawks
resting quietly in their container before taking a second sample. We varied
the times between one and two hours. Holding them any longer than that would
not have made a difference, as by that time the stress would have either
manifested itself or not.
It took him a few months to do all the blood studies (counting the average
number of white blood cells must have been VERY tedious!), and he did publish
the results in a veterinary journal. The result was that more than 90% of the
hawks tested showed NO elevation of white blood cell counts at all, and the
remaining <10% had counts that were fractionally higher than the first sample.
All of those values were well within the range of healthy responses to the
handling.
The caveat here is that different bird species do react differently to stress,
but we did at least prove the efficiency of hawk handling techniques. In my
years banding passerines as well as raptors, we always tried to keep the
subjects restrained and hooded or covered.
Anecdotally, when we would release captured hawks, most of them would return to
hunting or migrating behavior almost immediately. A number of them would even
return later to the banding station, as they were actively hunting the area
again. So much for traumatized Coops.
Clay Taylor
Calallen (Corpus Christi) TX
Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent from my iPad
From: C. Savage [mailto:txpaczki@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2013 9:23 PM
To: brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx; Jim Hailey
Cc: <heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Clay Taylor; texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [texbirds] Re: Black-throated Gray Warbler
I don't condone over using play back, and especially think it is wrong near
nesting time, but there are many unnatural ways we disturb birds. Pishing
didn't come out of nowhere, it is an attempt to imitate an alarm call, thus
birds come investigate. Catching and banding birds must be an extremely
stressful incident to the bird and then leaving an unnatural band on its leg
for its remaining life seems out of context of not disturbing a bird's natural
existence. Anyone who disagrees that this is stressful on the individual bird
is kidding themselves, but we use it, as other tactics, to learn more and
hopefully gain some insight to help the birds in the bigger picture.
Everything in moderation. On the other side of the coin, I am AMAZED how many
field trip leaders are using this very method on led hikes to call birds out.
Their song or the song of a predator is played until the birds show themselves.
From: Brush Freeman <brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx>>
To: Jim Hailey <irasciblej@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:irasciblej@xxxxxxxxx>>
Cc: "<heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>"
<heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>; Clay Taylor
<Clay.Taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:Clay.Taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>;
"texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>"
<Texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:Texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2013 4:25 PM
Subject: [texbirds] Re: Black-throated Gray Warbler
Me too even tho danger iS my business. B
Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 26, 2013, at 2:41 PM, "Jim Hailey"
<irasciblej@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:irasciblej@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
> I best just stay out of this discussion!
>
> Jim Hailey
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> [mailto:texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]
> On Behalf Of Heidi Trudell
> Sent: Monday, August 26, 2013 2:38 PM
> To: Clay Taylor
> Cc: brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx>;
> texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [texbirds] Re: Black-throated Gray Warbler
>
> All, I simply wish that notable sightings would be just that - notable
> sightings. Every time I see playback mentioned, I just cringe. The vast
> majority of folks reading Texbirds, I trust, are sane and ethical birders
> who would not abuse playback, but less is more; we lead by example and new
> birders who may not understand the context might just fall back on the
> technology crutch of i-gadgetry that is so ubiquitous.
>
> Brush, I'd probably benefit greatly from spending time in the field with
> you. But I would also wager that you didn't hone your skills with an ipod in
> hand.... better to learn from the birds or the masters than the apps.
>
> -h
>
> Heidi Trudell
> Marathon, TX
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 1:56 PM, Clay Taylor
> <Clay.Taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:Clay.Taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
> wrote:
>> All -
>>
>> Actually, the way it is written, it looks like the initial Screech owl
> calling ("casual") might have been whistled, but the subsequent iPod
> playback was after the initial sighting. In any case, I am not going to
> condemn either action. Sorry, Heidi.
>>
>> I fall squarely in the camp maintaining that any controversy about audio
> playback away from the immediate active nesting areas is much ado about
> nothing. Near an active nest - yeah, stifle the recordings, pisshing,
> squeaks, etc. As Brush was speculating about the Crow People taking cues
> from humans, I do feel that getting parent birds too upset in the vicinity
> of the nest is a call to lunch for smart predators.
>>
>> However, I have heard anecdotally that playback of territorial songs,
> alarm notes, etc., in post-breeding or wintering populations might actually
> strengthen group cooperation and vigilance. I will leave that to a
> post-grad student to prove or disprove, but an instance with using
> recordings to attract an obviously non-resident warbler is not an issue to
> me. If there emerges some hard science that proves otherwise, I will
> modify my behavior accordingly.
>>
>> Clay Taylor
>> Calallen (Corpus Christi) TX
>> Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>
>> Sent from my iPad
>>
>> On Aug 26, 2013, at 7:06 PM, "Brush Freeman"
>> <brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx>>
> wrote:
>>
>>> Sorry Heidi, I stand corrected....I do see he was using an Ipod
>>> later... I read the first part...But it does not matter except where
>>> use of such things are prohibited...If anyone is strongly opposed to
>>> the use of such accessories, they would likely quickly get quite
>>> upset on an outing with me. Tho I usually whistle :-)
>>>
>>> Brush
>>> *********************************************************************
>>> *
>>> Brush Freeman
>>> 503-551-5150 Cell
>>> http://texasnaturenotes.blogspot.com/
>>> Finca Alacranes., Utley,Texas
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 11:56 AM, Brush Freeman
>>> <brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx>>
> wrote:
>>>> **
>>>> Dear Heidi: He said he was imitating a Screech Owl, I did not read
>>>> anything about playbacks he is also a biologist that probably is
>>>> very aware of any remote, very remote, repercussions at this time of
>>>> year to anything perhaps except breeding White-wings...IE post
>>>> breeding exercise on a private land.which turned out to produce a
>>>> darn good bird with minimal effort that area. Kind of a bummer you
>>>> called him out in public, but know you and a few other folks have
>>>> strong feelings about this. Like you say tho, I don't want to kick
>>>> a hornet's either...Just feel that there needs to be a devil's
>>>> advocate here :-)
>>>>
>>>> Brush Freeman
>>>> Utley
>>>>
>>>> ********************************************************************
>>>> **
>>>> Brush Freeman
>>>> 503-551-5150 Cell
>>>> http://texasnaturenotes.blogspot.com/
>>>> Finca Alacranes., Utley,Texas
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 11:09 AM, Heidi Trudell
> <heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>>>>> Apologies for repeatedly kicking a hornet's nest, but must playback
>>>>> be used so casually?
>>>>>
>>>>> -h
>>>>>
>>>>> Heidi Trudell
>>>>> Marathon, TX
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 8:30 AM, Barbour, Philip - NRCS, Fort
>>>>> Worth, TX
>>>>> <Philip.Barbour@xxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:Philip.Barbour@xxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>>>>>> Saturday, 24 August, 2013, 0330 pm: I watched a female Black-throated
> Gray Warbler foraging in Ashe juniper trees in NW Austin.
>>>>>> I got very good, close looks of this somewhat rare (for Central
>>>>>> Texas) western warbler. I was in a friend's (Paula Shaw) backyard
>>>>>> casually imitating an Eastern Screech Owl when this bird flew in.
>>>>>> As this was a lifer for me, I asked Paula to bring a book so I could
> check what I recognized as a warbler unknown to me. We played call notes
> from her iPad and the bird came back in and gave both of us definitive looks
> at an unexpected migrant.
>>>>>> This was on private land in a gated community (Golf Vista Drive, River
> Place Blvd, near the Overlook). Coordinates are 14R 0609886, 3360485 at
> 267m (~801 ft).
>>>>>> Philip
>>>>>> Philip J. Barbour, Ph.D.,Certified Wildlife Biologist (r)|Central
>>>>>> Region Biologist ND, SD, NE, KS, OK, TX, LA, AR, MO, IA, MN, WI,
>>>>>> IL, IN, MI USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service|Central
>>>>>> National Technology Support Center
>>>>>> 501 West Felix Street, Building 23|Fort Worth, Texas 76115
>>>>>> Office:(817) 509-3225| Fax:(817) 509-3336|iPhone:(817) 320-2095
>>>>>> Email: philip.barbour@xxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:philip.barbour@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>>>>> [[Use this link to access the
>>>>>> USDA Home Page]]<http://www.usda.gov/>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This electronic message contains information generated by the USDA
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>>>>>>
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- » [texbirds] Now: Bird Stress (Was: Black-throated Gray Warbler) - Clay Taylor
