BK 74: (Sep 3 , 2024): A Wing and a Prayer: The Race to Save Our Vanishing Birds

Our Sep 3rd meeting we will be discussing the book A Wing and a Prayer: The Race to Save Our Vanishing Birds by Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal  (Apr 18, 2023). With 242 reading pages it is approximately 8 pages a day. 

Check out the Bio, links and videos below: 

"A captivating drama from the frontlines of the race to save birds set against the devastating loss of one third of the avian population.

Three years ago, headlines delivered shocking news: nearly three billion birds in North America have vanished over the past fifty years. No species has been spared, from the most delicate jeweled hummingbirds to scrappy black crows, from a rainbow of warblers to common birds such as owls and sparrows.

In a desperate race against time, scientists, conservationists, birders, wildlife officers, and philanthropists are scrambling to halt the collapse of species with bold, experimental, and sometimes risky rescue missions. High in the mountains of Hawaii, biologists are about to release clouds of laboratory-bred mosquitos in a last-ditch attempt to save Hawaii’s remaining native forest birds. In Central Florida, researchers have found a way to hatch Florida Grasshopper Sparrows in captivity to rebuild a species down to its last two dozen birds. In the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a team is using artificial intelligence to save the California Spotted Owl. In North Carolina, a scientist is experimenting with genomics borrowed from human medicine to bring the long-extinct Passenger Pigeon back to life.

For the past year, veteran journalists Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal traveled more than 25,000 miles across the Americas, chronicling costly experiments, contentious politics, and new technologies to save our beloved birds from the brink of extinction. Through this compelling drama, A Wing and a Prayer offers hope and an urgent call to action: Birds are dying at an unprecedented pace. But there are encouraging breakthroughs across the hemisphere and still time to change course, if we act quickly."

Here are a few videos to start with...

Article: Smithsonian Magazine Rare and Elusive Australian Bird, Once Thought Extinct for 100 Years, Discovered by Indigenous Rangers & Scientists
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This is what we discussed at our Meeting...

 

* General Impressions of the book

 

* All the roles Birds perform

 

* The methods researchers calculate bird populations (tags, apps etc)

 

* Specific birds mentioned and what is being done for them

 

* White Oak Dance studio & Mikhail Baryshnikov

 

* 1/3 birds disappeared

 

* Various Labs holding audio, photos and frozen DNA

 

* Intelligence of Crows

 

* Seasonal Fires

 

* EPA backlog

 

* Conserve what they care about...Jacques Cousteau..."People Protect what they Love."

 

* Eagles & DDT

 

* ICARUS

 

* CA Spotted Owl & Barn Owl

 

* Haikubox

 

* Farmers watering farms for 3 weeks migration

 

* Canary...handheld carbon monoxide monitor

 

* Nespresso

 

* Walmart

 

* Ecuador

 

* Costa Rica

 

* Mauna Kea

 

* Climate shifting Mosquitos 

 

* Revive & Restore, Ducks Unlimited

 

* Land owners making their lands bird sanctuaries and making money

 

* Passenger Pigeon

 

* 60% of land privately owned

 

* 90% of revenue goes to 5% birds ??

 

* 4B in birdseed sold in US/yr...none goes back

 

* Military  raising marshes, drones watch Golden Eagle nests, Fort Hood, Fort Benning story

 

* Dutch study birds consume insects by apple crops 66% increase in productivity. 

 

* Hurricane Hugo damage to trees/birds

 

* 1B birds die each yr in US & Canada crashing into glass. 

 

* 2.6B die by cats in US & Canada

 

* Cornell Lab resources

 

* Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center

 

* Caterpillars over 96% of songbirds critical food

 

* India & Pakistan 3 primary species of vulture lost

 

* Various Acts/Laws

 

* "A Wing & A Prayer" history

* Ravens/Crows intelligence. (Nature's Inside the Animal Mind 3 part mini-series, Crows stealing fish (ice fishing) and experiments with crossing strings to get meat) I currently can't find this online. 

* NASA and Vultures mentioned in the book Challenger by David Higginbotham which came out in May. You might like to look at this from NASA. The author also has a book on Chernobyl (2020)

* I forgot to mention in 1993 I had caught the 20/20 segment below and was showing it to my students for the concept of "Imprinting." It is just breath-taking. I then updated my students the following spring that the day Bill was going to leave to bring the geese back, he woke up and they were on his lawn, except for two who were injured and could not make the trip. I had used it ever since. Yes, the movie "Fly Away Home" is based on him. Bill died Dec 2017. I had emailed with Joe Duff (in the segment) for a time back then. Operation Migration is the organization they created which you can check out. For some time they did try to help the Whooping Crane as mentioned in this piece below. Here is a piece which explain why in 2018 they organization called it quits. 

 ** If there is anything I missed please let me know!