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Rip Van Winkle’s Crow Killing Contest

10,000 Birds

I am not anti-hunting. The “Crow Down” is a “hunting contest” where both adults and children slaughter as many crows as they possibly can in two days. The “Crow Down” is a “hunting contest” where both adults and children slaughter as many crows as they possibly can in two days. Why do they do this?

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A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon’s Flight to Extinction

10,000 Birds

While the Dodo and the Triceratops may be more famous for being extinct, the scale of the slaughter required to eradicate billions of birds makes this species perhaps the most enduring symbol of our culture’s predilection for waste and folly. What, you may ask, is left to do but sigh sadly and shake our heads?

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Highs and Lows from the Champions of the Flyway Bird Race in Eilat, Israel

10,000 Birds

Today, I am writing about another very birdy place and an event that I was very fortunate to have experienced, the Champions of the Flyway Bird Race in Eilat, Israel. It might not be Costa Rica, but it is one of the most important, birdiest events on the planet, and checking it out was a dream come true. And yes, the need is desperate.

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Should We Take the “Christmas” out of the Christmas Bird Count?

10,000 Birds

The oft-told tale of its start in 1900 as an alternative to the “side-hunt” which was itself a long tradition in many families warms many a birder’s heart. What’s not to like about citizen science, conservation, and transforming a day of slaughter into a day of enjoying being outside watching birds?

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The Nonessential Whooping Crane

10,000 Birds

With the proposed hunting seasons on sandhill cranes being discussed in Tennessee, Kentucky and Wisconsin, we must not forget the whooping crane, which travels and winters in the big sandhill crane flocks. More states will doubtless join the queue of those proposing hunts. Another thing to consider. Now, it’s time to go to the top.

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Comebackers

10,000 Birds

Not only were they a common bird, they were a common bird nearshore; indigenous peoples hunted them up and down the coast. However, the age of the Golden Gooney was to come to a brutal end; beginning in the late 1800′s, they were being slaughtered by the millions for their feathers at their breeding colonies.

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