[BCNnet] Fw: Chickadees wiped out by WNV

[Terry Schilling]

I suspect that most birders who live on the northwest side of Chicago 
will tell you that the chickadees "disappeared" well before any spraying 
was done, by over a month. Chickadess were gone by the end of July, and 
the spraying started in September. No doubt spraying was done earlier in 
some suburban communities, but this was the first time in 25 years that 
ANY insecticide spraying was done on a large scale within the city 
limits, and it came after there were a number of human fatalities caused 
by WNV.

So I don't see how chickadee disapperance can be blamed on insecticide 
spraying, at least not it the city.

Terry Schilling
Chicago

Karolyn Beebe wrote:
> Dear BCNneters,
>  
> Maybe someone knows if the areas where Chickadee numbers are low were 
> sprayed with pesticides, maybe to fight WNV?  I posted the article on 
> the Wisbird list and it brought the following 2 replies. 
> Karolyn Beebe
> Madison WI
>  
>  
> ----- Original Message -----
> *To:* Wisbird <mailto:wisbirdn@lawrence.edu>
> *Sent:* Thursday, November 07, 2002 3:51 PM
> *Subject:* re: Chickadees wiped out by WNV
> 
> Daryl makes a very good point, that we MUST NOT jump to conclusions 
> about what is killing off any species.  Testing to show it is WNV (or 
> whatever) should be done.  And his other point that pesticide spraying 
> is worse than the disease and does more harm is right on the money as well.
> 
> I'm not saying chickadees are not being killed by WNV, but we do NOT 
> know for sure at this stage.
> 
> Bettie Harriman
> in her woods north of Oshkosh where "my" chickadee numbers are about the 
> same as ever and I sure hope to keep them that way!
> 
> At 03:21 PM 11/7/02 -0600, Daryl Christensen wrote:
> 
>> Hi All:
>> I would suspect that the intensive spraying of insecticides in those 
>> counties killed most of the birds rather than WNV. This article 
>> concerns me because the simple absence of a species doesn't mean they 
>> were "wiped out" by WNV. Without the collecting of carcasses and 
>> testing them for a cause of death, it is pure speculation that WNV was 
>> the culprit. Wholesale spraying kills all the insects in the area, 
>> wiping out a major food source for local birds. These birds will move 
>> out of the area unless of course, they are killed by eating the 
>> poisoned insects. If they don't eat them, but feed them to their 
>> young, the young will die, thus accounting for a big drop in local 
>> bird numbers.
>> It seems awfully suspicious to me that this big absence of chickadees 
>> is only occuring in these heavily sprayed areas.
>> West Nile Virus has been documented in humans and birds all across 
>> southern Wisconsin, yet there doesn't seem to be a drop in chickadee 
>> numbers here. In fact, I have never seen so many chickadees while 
>> birding all across the state this late summer and fall.
>> I would hate to see municipalities use the threat of a "chickadee 
>> wipe-out" for an excuse to do more spraying next spring with the 
>> blessing of conservation groups over fears of WNV killing the birds.
>> -Daryl Christensen
>> Marquette co., WI
>>  
>> Karolyn Beebe wrote:
>> Birdwatching for science, Chicagoans found huge holes in Chickadee 
>> populations. The Tribune
>> article is below and the press release is in the BCNnet archives, 
>> thanks to Judy Pollock:
>> http://www.ece.iit.edu/pipermail/bcnnet/2002-October/000278.html
>>
>> Virus claims another species
>> West Nile takes toll on chickadees
>>
>> By William Mullen
>> Tribune staff reporter
>> Published October 30, 2002
>> http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/
>>
>> Black-capped chickadees, popular back-yard residents with a sweetly 
>> familiar "chickadee-dee-dee" call, have been exterminated in huge 
>> swaths around Chicago by West Nile virus, according to a report 
>> released Tuesday by the Audubon Society.
> 


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