NM, USA: Birders find dozens of dead crows in Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park

[Emily]

http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_19590713

Birders find dozens of dead crows in Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park
By Ashley Meeks ameeks@lcsun-news.com
Posted: 12/20/2011 11:41:05 PM MST

Dead American crows lay along the banks of the Rio Grande... (Photo courtesy of Ken Stinnett.)

LAS CRUCES - The Mesilla Valley Audubon Society counts birds every year - but it usually focuses on birds of the living variety...

The discovery disturbed birders doing the 36th annual Christmas Bird Count. USDA officials appeared to take carcasses for necropsy. An agricultural extension agent said the poison DRC-1339 might be the cause of the deaths. The article says that USDA Wildlife Services doses french fries, raisins, rolled grain and pellets with the poison. A paper the USDA wrote says they have never poisoned secondary species with the poison, but this is disputed.

http://www.wildearthguardians.org/site/PageServer?pagename=priorities_wildlife_war_wildlife_kill_methods_poison_DRC_1339&AddInterest=1227

Wildlife Services’ recklessness with DRC-1339 alarmed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The FWS indicated in several biological opinions that only strychnine (a highly regulated substance) has more potency than DRC-1339; that Wildlife Services repeatedly failed to account for non-target species poisonings; and that federally-protected species such as whooping cranes and bald eagles could be harmed by DRC-1339.

DRC-1339 kills target species such as blackbirds, but also poisons other species unintentionally through two processes: 1) directly: grain-eating birds consume the toxicant and die; and 2) indirectly: avian predators or scavengers eat dead or dying birds that have been poisoned by DRC-1339.

The list of non-target species killed by DRC-1339 includes: savannah sparrows, killdeers, mourning doves, meadowlarks, American pipits, northern cardinals, horned larks, herring gulls, ring-necked pheasants, American robins, American tree sparrows, Canada geese, mallards, northern flickers, downy woodpeckers, dark-eyed juncos, green-winged teals, song sparrows, vesper sparrows, grasshopper sparrows, field sparrows, and rock doves. The FWS documented in 1995 that a peregrine falcon died from secondary toxicity after eating starlings near a DRC-1339-baited site; FWS also had concerns about bald eagles succumbing to secondary poisoning.

In short, DRC-1339 causes primary and secondary death. It kills non-target species. Yet, poisoning black birds with DRC-1339 has failed to protect sunflower crops, according to Wildlife Services’ own researchers.