Far too little has been made in the national media of the oil well fire in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 platform workers and spurred a well leak that is currently spewing 42,000 gallons of crude oil per day into the ocean with absolutely no sign of abatement. The national media prefers to focus on the tit-for-tat in the US Congress between Republicans and Democrats on whether immigration, financial reform, or cap and trade is the next piece of legislation to be watered down into complete ineffectiveness (completely ignoring the fact that yes, we Americans do in fact expect our elected officials to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time). I suppose it’s better political theatrics, which is what they think we care about in lieu of actual accomplishments but those self-same elected officials, including the President himself, have been mostly mum on the subject. Whatever, but I suspect the oil spill is about to get a lot more play as it’s sticky tendrils reach closer and closer to the fish-spawning Louisiana marshes and the white sand Spring Break meccas of Florida.
(snip)
It’s at this point that the issue becomes one that should be near and dear to birders. We’re in the midst of spring migration, a time of year when hundreds of thousands of neotropical migrating songbirds are teeming onto our continent from parts south, many of them taking a route that famously leads them to jump the Gulf of Mexico in one swoop. It’s a flight that can take up to 20 hours and leaves birds completely famished and exhausted. To say that it’s difficult is an understatement. It’s one of the truly amazing behaviors in the natural world. And now at the peak of migration, for those birds taking a path straight across the gulf with a bullseye on, perhaps, crucial bits of coastal habitat like Alabama’s Dauphin Island or Florida’s St. Mark’s NWR, the last stretch of migration has to be through a sooty, black curtain of oil smoke several thousand feet high. I think it’s safe to say that fallouts will be limited this year. Not that that’s a concern for the Coast Guard, obvious bird experts that they are:
“Based on our limited experience, birds and mammals are more capable of handling the risk of a local fire and temporary smoke plume than of handling the risk posed by a spreading oil slick. Birds flying in the plume can become disoriented, and could suffer toxic effects. This risk, however, is minimal when compared to oil coating and ingestion.”
Clearly they see the primary concern to be the sea-going birds hunting for food during the day who will be able to see the smoke cloud and presumably avoid it. Nocturnal migrants however, or songbirds for whom a several hundred mile detour is completely out of the question, have apparently not been considered. And where do they get off considering this is a “temporary smoke plume”? Has the leak stopped? Is the oil somehow magically disappearing between the blown pipe and the surface? Are the laws of combustion in response to a steady fuel source somehow suspended all of a sudden? The permanent fix is still several months out. I have a hard time believing that it’s not a fairly reasonable possibility that this smoke cloud will not abate for those many months or that this fairly obvious fact hasn’t been considered by the authorities.
http://thedrinkingbirdblog.com/2010/04/29/complete-and-utter-disaster/
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