10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2022

These two islands are about halfway between the tip of South Africa and Antarctica in the Subantarctic Indian Ocean, have had relatively few human visitors, and are primarily inhabited with some of the rarest seabirds in the world and a smaller number of mammals. Salvin’s Prion. Which makes it a haven for seabirds….and and seabirders.

South Africa 263

South Africa Mice Albatross Africa 263

10,000 Birds

APRIL 11, 2019

Quarter of a century later, I jumped at an opportunity to study environmental sciences, and guess what awaited me there? An asphalt road passes by the eastern pond, the site of the breeding colony of Black-headed Gulls , in some years with a pair or two of Mediterranean Gulls among them. And it was still hard and I barely made it.

Serbia 153

Serbia New Jersey Europe Hunters 153

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2011

Nationwide, wildlife watchers now outspend hunters 6 to 1. Giving a few hundred hunters something else to shoot, in my opinion, cannot be worth the blowback from tens of thousands of people who are willing to travel and spend just to watch the birds fly over. Additionally, sandhill cranes reproduce very slowly.

2011 245

2011 Kentucky Tennessee Hunting 245

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2011

So, one might surmise, it’s OK if they get shot by hunters thinking they’re sandhill cranes? Another 170 are in captivity, many of them breeding stock for reintroduction efforts. What could motivate gunmen (I cannot call them hunters) in two states to deliberately kill North America’s tallest and most critically endangered bird?

2011 242

2011 Hunting Kentucky Hunters 242