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Tag: plastic pollution

KBO at Rogue Valley Bird Day Festival – Next Saturday May 11!

Spring is here and so are the birds at the Rogue Valley Bird Day festival at Ashland’s North Mountain Park! Join Klamath Bird Observatory biologists at a bird banding demonstration—one of the many family friendly activities planned. The City of Ashland Department of Parks and Recreation with many partners will host the Rogue Valley Bird Day festival Saturday May 11 from 8 am to 12 pm. The festival is our local celebration of World Migratory Bird Day and will feature expert-guided bird walks, The Big Sit feeder watch, thrilling programs featuring birds of prey by Wildlife Images Education Rehabilitation Center, our bird banding demonstration, and the ever-very-popular bird calling contest!

KBO will also present an interactive display and demonstration of eBird tools that help link community birders with conservation science. The display will highlight Community Science tools that allow all birders to contribute to local and international monitoring efforts and existing bird data from Bear Creek and North Mountain Park, which has undergone immense restoration over the past 20 years.

CLICK HERE for more information about Rogue Valley Bird Day.

The 2019 World Migratory Bird Day theme is “Protect Birds: Be the Solution to Plastic Pollution! Come and learn about the problems birds face from our world-wide plastic problem. And experience the bird migration right here in our beautiful Rogue Valley! Several walks through the park led by area birding experts will visit KBO’s bird banding demonstration. Biologists will share the captured wild birds up close before their release.

Each year, the World Migratory Bird Day advisory committee selects an artist to illustrate the annual conservation theme. Arnaldo Toledo Sotolongo, from Santa Clara, Cuba was selected to create the World Migratory Bird Day 2019 artwork. Arnaldo is a scientific illustrator, photographer and designer, and volunteers in conservation projects in his free time. His 2019 poster illustration tells a passionate though painfully tragic tale.

CLICK HERE to view the 2019 World Migratory Bird Day poster “Protect Birds: Be the Solution to Plastics Pollution”.

Now in its 29th year, World Migratory Bird Day has grown from a one-day event into a framework underpinning hundreds of projects and programs year-round. It is coordinated by Environment for the Americas, which provides multi-lingual educational materials and information about birds and bird conservation throughout the Americas. Their programs inspire children and adults to get outdoors, learn about birds, and take part in their conservation.

CLICK HERE for more information about World Migratory Bird Day and Environment of the Americas.

CLICK HERE to learn more about plastic pollution and how it is affecting birds.

 

Year of the Bird’s June Call to Action: Skip the Plastic!

It is June in the Year of the Bird and this month’s Call to Action is to Skip the Plastic. Our use of plastics has far out-stripped our ability and motivation to keep it out of natural environments. The accumulation of discarded plastic is both plain to see and nearly invisible almost everywhere, creating an acute problem for all life on Earth.

But we are in a time of change—there is real traction around this issue at the individual level and among policy makers and industry leaders. Innovators are offering solutions to municipal waste management and creative ways to repurpose trash.

This month, Year of the Bird spotlights this issue because of the acute challenge it presents to bird conservation. From the National Geographic Society’s Call to Action …

Why is plastic a problem for birds?
• The threat to birds is severe: 90 percent of seabirds eat plastic and virtually every one will be consuming it by 2050. Flesh-footed Shearwaters eat more plastic as a proportion of their body mass than any other marine animal.
• The problem is growing: Scientists have been tracking plastic ingestion by seabirds for decades. In 1960, plastic was found in the stomachs of fewer than five percent, but by 1980, it had jumped to 80 percent. World plastic production has increased exponentially from 2.3 million tons in 1950 to 162 million in 1993 to 448 million by 2015!

How can we all help solve the problem?
• Shop with reusable bags. Shoppers in the United States use almost one plastic bag per resident per day. Shoppers in Denmark use an average of four per year.
• Recycle—this old idea is still far from common place. The United States recycles just 9 percent of its plastic trash.
• Properly dispose of your own trash and pick up litter when you can. Join or organize a community park or beach clean-up.
• Do not purchase plastic bottles and start carrying a reusable straw. Bottles take 450 years to biodegrade.
• Avoid products with plastic packaging and buy in bulk. The largest market for plastics today is packaging materials—most of it never gets recycled or incinerated.

To learn more about this tragic problem and what we can all do to help solve it …

CLICK HERE to view the National Geographic Society’s Nearly Every Seabird on Earth Is Eating Plastic article.

CLICK HERE to view the National Geographic Society’s Reducing Plastic as a Family Is Easy article.

CLICK HERE to view the National Audubon Society’s Eight Easy Ways to Reduce Your Plastic Waste article.

CLICK HERE to view some of Photographer Mandy Barker’s artwork using discarded plastic in the ocean, on beaches, and inside seabirds.

If you haven’t already heard, 2018 is Year of the Bird! The National Geographic Society is celebrating the centenary of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act with a year-long celebration of birds. Dozens of Year of the Bird partners, including Klamath Bird Observatory, are coordinating Year of the Bird activities.

CLICK HERE to learn more about the Year of the Bird at the National Geographic Society’s website.