AMADOR BIRD TRACKS Monthly Newsletter of the Amador Bird Club May, 2017 The Amador Bird Club is a group of people who share an interest in birds and is open to all.
“home of the rare Amadoran Combo Parrot” Dates of bird club President’s Message The Amador Bird Club meeting will meetings this year: be held on:
May 12 Friday, May 12th, 2017 June 9 Hi All, Now it's so bloody HOT and in two at 7:30 PM July 14 days it's going to be almost 30 degrees colder August 11 and rainy !!!!! Good thing we are not of the Place: Administration Building, September 8* feathered creation or we would definitely be Amador County Fairgrounds, October 13** Plymouth confused about the breeding season. Enough of November 10 December 8 the weather stuff, we are having John York (Xmas party) speaking at this month's meeting, and as always Activity: Pizza Night and we will be presented with an illuminating, presentation from John York * Semi-Annual interesting and educational presentation. Raffle Also let's remember that it is our pizza Refreshments: Persons with last names beginning with A-M night so come hungry for food AND *Friday-the-13th: drive entertainment. I have been asked by a couple of carefully! members for an update of our club's membership roster so we need to get the latest info. into Terry so it can be drawn up for our new and old members. Hoping to see you all at our meeting on the Please join 12th. Be good, smile and take care...... Blue. us For our A couple of meetings ago, when Linda Annual Nichelmann spoke in February, I joined the JOHN YORK AFA (American Federation of Aviculture). Pizza Night! Their magazine is quite professional, in
comparison to our humble ABC newsletter, but bear in mind that our newsletter is Officers for 2017 - 2018 published monthly, while theirs is published only quarterly! The following article shares President Blue Wrigley Treasurer Cathy Hooper with you one of the eye-opening topics that Secretary Terry Ryan have been introduced to me by them since Newsletter Todd Sargent joining. Webmaster Kim Schmutzler-Agee
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When I decided to join the AFA, my decision was motivated by a number of factors:
1. I love birds, especially parrots; 2. I believe strongly in the protection of threatened species by maintaining domestic populations through aviculture; 3. Strong domestic breeding offsets, and desirably should eliminate by substitution, the capture of birds from the wild for the illicit pet trade; 4. I don’t have the time and resources to breed parrots myself, but I can do something to help those who do, and to whom I am grateful for contributing their time and love to aviculture; 5. It is a simple way to “step up” my level of interest in birds from the local, county level to the national, even international, level; 6. I might learn some more about the world of parrots and birds from a broader perspective; 7. My African Grey, Calvin, has been up-listed to CITES Appendix I: something that is somewhat of a direct connection to international affairs as it relates to wild populations of his species;
After joining the AFA, I received their journal Watchbird (number 1 2017), which included an article update about progress at the ACTP, an organization that I had not previously heard of. The Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots, ACTP, is doing what I have dreamed of doing in the back of my mind, and kind of hoped somebody was doing somewhere. They have a web page and everything, yet somehow I never ran across them on the internet, so I guess the AFA has already helped broaden my scope. From the ACTP webpage, http://www.act-parrots.org/, I will relate what they are about:
MISSION
ACTP e.V. (Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots e.V.) is a registered non-profit organization based in Germany. We dedicate our work to the protection and conservation of endangered parrots and their habitats.
OBJECTIVES
We initiate innovative and sustainable projects for the protection and the conservation of endangered parrots and their natural habitats. All our projects are jointly implemented with our partners on site.
Our conservation strategy targets two main objectives:
1. In-situ measures Together with our partners we develop measures on site to protect endangered parrots from illegal trafficking and to preserve their natural habitats from human influences.
2. Ex-situ measures In our breeding facility located in Germany, we engage in the breeding of endangered parrots for the future reintroduction of the birds into the wild and for the development of captive safety populations.
To achieve our goals, we work closely with scientific institutions, international organizations and wildlife protection agencies as well as a large community of institutional and private breeding organizations.
As registered non-profit organization, we depend on donations to make our work possible.
2 Amador Bird Club Newsletter May 2017 ACTP FACILITY
OUR MAIN COMPETENCY LIES IN THE BREEDING AND NURSING OF ENDANGERED PARROTS.
Around 15 employees work constantly in our facility, seven days a week, day and night. Our team consists of biologists, zookeepers, hatching specialists and kitchen and maintenance staff.
Our facility near Berlin, Germany, is a state-of-the-art breeding facility, unrivaled around the world. Thanks to the financial support of engaged and generous donors, we were able to continuously expand and technologically improve our aviaries and support buildings. Our facility comprises: • 114 aviaries, for a maximum capacity of 280 birds (Status as of 2014) • Total area of 13,000sqm, including 1,240sqm indoor aviaries and 3,000sqm outdoor aviaries • 1 Building with kitchen and breeding rooms 1 medical room Note from Todd: 1 square meter is more than 1 square yard!
Wow! Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about! Their main projects are the Spix’s Macaw, the St. Vincent Amazon, the St. Lucia Amazon and the Lear’s Macaw. I encourage the reader to peruse their web page, http://www.act-parrots.org/, and even watch videos of baby Spix’s Macaws! Long-time readers of this newsletter may recall several articles I have written or relayed over the years about the Spix’s Macaw: its plight is near and dear to my heart as it is to so many in the parrot community. Thanks to the ACTP and other organizations, this bird may one day have a chance to be re- populated into the wild; if successful, it would be an unprecedented achievement.
3 Amador Bird Club Newsletter May 2017 SPIX’S MACAW
STATUS
The Spix's macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii) is an endemic Brazilian parrot, first discovered and documented by the German naturalist Johann Baptist Ritter von Spix on his Brazil expedition in 1819. Already at that time, the species with the blue color was considered particularly rare and over time only few people were able to observe the bird in the wild.
Only little is known about the life of the Spix's macaw and not much evidence can be found in the ornithological literature. In the middle of the last century the species was considered extinct, until it was spotted again in 1986. Three birds were observed - perhaps the last three of their kind - near Curaça in the north of Bahia state. Their offspring were probably captured in the 1980's and offered for sale in the US and Europe at high prices. It is likely that these birds form the basis of today's population in captivity.
EXTINCT IN THE WILD
In 1990, only one Spix's macaw could be found in the wild, living together with an Illiger macaw (Primolius maracana). Since 2000, the species is considered extinct in the wild. In addition to illegal trafficking, the destruction of habitat due to human influences were the main reason for the extinction of the species. Today only around 100 Spix's macaws exist in captivity worldwide.
ACTP BREEDING PROGRAM
As things stand today, around 100 Spix's macaws exist in professional parrot breeding facilities. In total, three organizations officially promote the breeding of the Spix's macaw worldwide. Among these three organizations are, besides ACTP, the Al Wabra Wildlife Conservation and Preservation Organization in Qatar and the Brazilian breeding station of the ‘NEST’ organization. The majority of Spix's macaws are nowadays held in the facilities of the Al Wabra organization, which already achieved considerable success in its Spix's breeding program.
ACTP is official partner of the Brazilian Spix's breeding program led by ICMBio, working jointly towards the goal of reintroducing the Spix's macaws into the wild by 2021. At our breeding facility in Germany, our team works on the successful breeding of these rare birds. Through regular exchange of the offspring with the Brazilian offspring, we consistently promote the broadening of the genetic diversity of the species.
Thanks to a dedicated team and enthusiastic supporters we could already achieve remarkable success in our breeding efforts of the Spix's macaw: • 2008: 1 Spix's macaw offspring • 2011: 4 Spix's macaw offspring • 2014: 2 Spix's macaw offspring („Carla“ und „Tiago“) • 2015: 4 Spix's macaw offspring To deepen the cooperation and to increase breeding success and genetic diversity, ACTP and ICMBio regularly exchanges birds as part of the breeding program: • 2013: Transfer of ownership of „Felicitas“ to the State of Brazil • 2013: Transfer of „Paula“ to Brazil for breeding purposes • 2015: Transfer von „Carla“ and Tiago“ (incl. ownership rights) to the State of Brazil
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John York is coming to eat pizza again. This time he will be showing a bunch of bird pictures he has shot in zoos around the world. Locations include many US zoos such as San Diego, but also Spain and Brazil. When he is not eating pizza at the Amador club, he is still raising pheasants and doves and birding whenever possible.
ABC Meeting Minutes
4/14/17
Meeting called to order at 7:31 PM by President Blue Wrigley
No meeting minutes from previous meeting were available, so we did not review
Visitors Colton Downing and Amber Blake were introduced
Old Business: Donation to AFA was made and a beautiful thank you note was received and read aloud. Blue needs to reimbursed $100 for this
Next month's meeting is pizza night. John York is tentatively scheduled to speak about birds in countries that he's visited
New Business: Marianne talked about AB485 which bans pet stores selling any dogs/cats/rabbits not acquired from shelters or rescues. This could potentially expand to include birds. This bill is sponsored by Assemblyman O'Donnell. There is a meeting on Tuesday, 4/18 at 9:00 AM to protest passage of AB485. The meeting will be in Room 202 at the Capitol.
Jane asked if ABC could/should have AFA membership. This discussion was tabled
Daryl reported that there is currently $1030 in treasury. Also, Kathy will email list of paid members to Terry
We broke for snacks and the RAFFLE
Blue adjourned the meeting at 8:26
Respectfully submitted,
Jane Perez for Terry Ryan
------ABC Meeting Attendees
4/14/17
Phil and Pat , Dave and Jane, Grace Graham, Bob and Lynn Clevenger, Don Garbarini, Kim, Suzanne Copple, Mariana Mejia Doug and Ingrid Janson, Mike and Kay Young, Virginia Blake ‘ Amber Blake - visitor, Jack Deslieu, Todd Sargent, Linda Nichelman, Jackie Fox, Colton Downing -visitor, Daryl Hooper
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My Rant about Genocide and Extinction
Recently I watched a interview of the recently released movie The Promise on TV. It is the first film to depict the Armenian Genocide of 1.5 million people around the time of World War I. It is the event that first inspired (a legal) definition of the term “genocide”. Not to minimize the severity of the crime, I do consider this term, however, to be a misnomer and just plain wrong, as it has nothing to do with genetics, or with the extinction of a genotype. Rather, it is a sort of oxymoron, like “open secret”, or “military intelligence”, chosen to make ears be perked up by something that sounds even more shocking than what it describes. If lawmakers want to compose a term to describe the mass killing of humans by other humans (‘homo-genocide’?), it should be called something else, such as ‘racicide’, ‘culturecide’, I don’t care, just not ‘genocide’: to portray the act of exterminating humans under the pretense that a race, religion, or creed are somehow genetically different from their exterminators is to invoke the same twisted rationale as the perpetrators. If such people are to be deviled, why adopt their language to define the crime? This is not common practice in criminal law. As if the term were not bad enough being oxymoronic on its face, in the same stroke, it hijacks sentiment away from crimes of actual genocide that man has inflicted upon dozens or even hundreds of species over centuries and is still continuing today. Genocide should be a word used to describe the deliberate extinction of species by an individual, nation, society or group by means of capture, hunting (murder) and/or habitat destruction. For the rest of this article, I will use the word genocide as redefined in this way. There is nothing more deserving of the moniker of genocide than the heinous crime of murderous extinction of a species!!! Morally and genetically speaking, it is, and should be considered by all to be, a far more severe crime than wholesale slaughter short of extinction. A great many bird species have fallen victim to genocide by man: the Dodo, the Great Auk, the Carolina Parakeet (the only North American Parrot), the Tasmanian Emu, the Passenger Pigeon, the Arabian Ostrich, and the list goes on and on and on. And that’s only the list of birds, not including other animals: all of the species in the above list were hunted to extinction, but habitat destruction also played a role. Now climate change is taking the rate of genocides to a global scale that is destined to dwarf the extinction rate of previous centuries. Those people who deny climate change express a thought process (denial and absurd fictions as fake truth) similar to evil dictators for whom the mass murder of humans is justified by the fictions they espouse. Such people, from the perspective of a proper definition (mine) of genocide, should be regarded with the disdain deserving of a modern-day Hitler. In that basket I include our president, Donald Trump, along with his anti-environmental staff. (I do commend his daughter, Ivanka, for meeting with Al Gore and her positive stance on global warming, but she has had no impact upon her father’s environmental policy). Based upon his staff appointments, I hold Trump already responsible for the future extinction of countless species of birds (and other animals too). -Todd
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April 9th, Sunday 2106 Exotic Bird and Animal Expo Merced County Fairgrounds (Yosemite Hall) 900 Martin Luther King Jr Way Hours: 10am-4pm May 7th, Sunday 2106 Exotic Bird and Animal Expo Santa Clara Fairgrounds 344 Tully Rd. San Jose, CA Hours: 9am-3pm
June 4 2017 Central California Avian Society CCAS Bird Mart Fresno County Fairgrounds Gate #6, off Kings Canyon Ave. Fresno, CA 9am-3pm Admission: $5, under 12 free
Bourkes Parakeets
Terry Ryan (209) 969-9030
(530) 621-4171 Diamond Doves
For Sale
Adult Golden Pheasants, $50 each. See photo right (example) .
CallCST 1013939 Jackie-40 Fox, (530) 677-1035
Bird Placement For information on birds, referrals or the Amador Bird Club, please If you need to place a bird (find a contact: home for a beloved companion), please consider the ABC as a Sherri Elliot (209) 245-6921 (Amador/Calaveras area) resource. We have several members that are experienced at finding good Jackie Fox (530) 677-1035 (northwest area) or homes for birds in need. We also have members that take rescue birds Virginia Blake (209) 981-5016 (Amador/Calaveras area) (already homeless birds, and/or birds
with special needs). For more information, please contact: Email: [email protected] Sherri Elliot (209) 245-6921 Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AmadorBirdClub Terry Ryan (209) 969-9030 (Amador/Calaveras area) Website: www.mycccbc.org/abc
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95232 CA Glencoe,
26 Hwy 17706
Ryan Terry c/o
Club Bird Amador
Amador Bird Club Membership Application The Amador Bird Club meets the 2nd Friday of each month, 7:30pm in the Administration Building of the Amador County Fairgrounds!
Name:______Address:______City:______State______Zip______Phone#______Cell#______E-mail address:______Family members:______Birds owned, bird related items made/sold:______New Member______Renewal______Are you a ____breeder and/or____ hobbyist (please check one or both) Do you want your address printed in the membership directory? ___yes ___no Signature:______Date:______Annual Dues: Family: $15.00 Single: $10.00 Junior: $7.50 $______E-mailed newsletters free! Fee for newsletter via US mail: $5.00 $______Please make check payable to club secretary: Total $______Terry Ryan, 17706 Hwy 26, Glencoe, CA 95232
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