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From: paul_noeldner <paul_noeldner@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2015 4:40 AM
To: Peter Fissel
Subject: Birds disappear from Florida rookery
Hi Peter - please fwd to wisbirdnet thanks!
The sudden disappearance of thousands of nesting birds from a historic Florida
rookery at Cedar Key in early July has been in the news. Several possible
causes were cited but so far I have not seen any follow up other than that even
experts are mystified.
A bit of web research turned up European related research (pdf link below) that
documents that low flying aircraft can cause nesting bird stress as indicated
by elevated heart rates even if birds do not show visible signs of stress. More
concerning, the research appears to indicate that even a visit or two by low
flying helicopters in particular can cause large swarms of birds such as colony
nesting birds to flush and not return.
http://www.fai.org/component/phocadownload/category/1107-air-sports-and-wildlife?download=2924:lan-3-1-aircraft-effects-on-birds
A helicopter service recently started ferrying tourists to an island only 2
miles away from the Cedar Key rookery. Thousands of white birds in rookeries
is quite visible over the water. If someone asked the helicopter to take a
route over the rookery to get some pictures, that could have flushed the birds.
That in combination with a rainstorm at the time could have left eggs exposed
to weather, which could have contributed further to nest abandonment. I hope
this possibility is being followed up and that appropriate rules and distances
from rookeries for helicopters are in place and enforced.
A cautionary lesson for all of us is that the use of helicopters and
inexpensive drones (remotely operated small helicopters with cameras) to get
pictures of nesting birds should probably be left to researchers until we know
more about it and perhaps avoided entirely around rookeries.
Paul Noeldner, Maple Bluff
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