Source: MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE, Published: Fri, May 4, 2001
Author: By Rex Springston, Posted on 05/04/2001 06:36:43 PDT by Rebelbase,
Williamsburg, VA.
A nondescript stretch of Interstate 64 became a death trap for hundreds
of
birds last week. Cars and trucks killed more than 1,100 sleek, brown
birds
called cedar waxwings as they flew in low to feed on berries in the
highway
median of a one-mile stretch just east of Williamsburg. "I've never
seen
it quite as bad as this," said Bryan D. Watts, a biologist who is studying
the high number of bird deaths that have been noticed along the stretch
of
highway over the past few years.
As Watts watched from the median one day last week, a black westbound
van
hit a waxwing, which exploded in a cloud of feathers. Another bird
was
clipped by a car and lost several feathers but flew on. Seconds later,
another was hit and fell to the road. "This happens all day long,"
said
Watts, the director of the College of William and Mary's Center for
Conservation Biology. In about a half-hour, Watts saw 20 birds killed.
Watts is studying the deaths for the Virginia Department of Transportation,
which for nearly 20 years had planted the exotic shrub, thorny elaeagnus,
in the medians of highways.
The department no longer plants that type of shrub, but the ones already
in place are responsible for attracting the birds into the path of
traffic.
Because the shrub hails from Asia, it behaves differently from native
shrubs, producing fruit in spring instead of late summer or fall. Since
birds are migrating north in the spring, they need food and energy.
That
makes the shrub's red, juicy berries attractive. An early spring last
year
caused the berries to form in early to mid-April, before the peak of
the
birds' migration. In 1999, and again this year, the peak of migration
seems
to have coincided with the peak in ripeness, resulting in more deaths,
Watts said.
Cedar waxwings are silky-looking brown birds with crests, black masks
and
waxy-looking red tips on some of their wing feathers. They are slightly
smaller than robins. Cars have killed cardinals, robins and various
other
birds, but the waxwings are the most common victims because they are
voracious berry eaters and travel in large flocks.
Donald West, a VDOT wildlife biologist, said that the agency is
considering removing some of the shrubs. The shrub, which can endure
drought, is commonly planted throughout the Southeast, and it's surely
killing birds in other states, too. But Watts said that only Virginia
seems
to be trying to fix the problem. Removing shrubs across Virginia and
replacing them with other shrubs could cost hundreds of thousands of
dollars, highway officials said.