Waste Affecting Wildlife – Part 1, Birds
To be out in nature, hearing the calls of birds, and to be able to have them in our lives bring so much more to the experience. This is why so many people are fascinated by birds, and spend hours birdwatching, identifying their calls. Waste Affecting Wildlife
Whether done as a hobby, or for the purposes of studying these feathered friends of nature, occupies a special place in our hearts.
In the USA, bird focused organizations, such as the Audubon Society, are dedicated to the welfare, study, and promotion of bird awareness. They publish a growing list of endangered species each year, which includes those from our waterways and oceans as well as those across the USA. The fact is that we should be worried about the increasing numbers of threatened species, as most of the damage is coming from ourselves. Declining species of birds is an indication of what we are doing wrong to the environment, and ourselves, for that matter.
Legislation such as the Endangered Species Act, was brought into play more than three decades ago to safeguard the interests of our birds in this country. It highlights their plight and helps concerned bodies focus on correction programs for threatened species to help increase their numbers and secure their habitats.
Remembering that it’s us spoiling their environment, let’s participate in some of these programs to help them recover. In many instances, it just starts with an awareness of what we are doing with our junk.
Let’s make a difference in the Mechanicsburg area, where we live. Junk Removal Mechanicsburg is your junk management company of choice right here, operating to clean your community, where we strive to keep a clean, healthy environment for us all to live in.
Keeping it clean for ourselves and our birds is the right thing to do!
The Dangers of Pollution for our Birds
Humans are often unaware that we are spoiling the environment for birds. Waste Affecting Wildlife
Just take the California Condor, one of the most threatened birds in the USA. The species was declared extinct in 1987. A few birds were saved by dedicated volunteers determined to save the species. On reintroduction, we now find about 100 California Condors in the wild nowadays. We are mainly responsible for the plight of the California Condor. Lead poisoning has been shown to be the main reason for their demise, primarily from ammunition that is to be found scattered at dump sites which have been devoured by the Condors thinking it is food. In addition to ammunition, these rare birds have ingested just about every conceivable kind of junk such as electrical wires, chips of plastic, pieces of cloth and rubber, bottle caps, glass fragments bottle tops, and similar items of no nutritional value. Food is taken back to the young in the nest, which results in digestive problems and mostly death from the junk.
Condors are susceptible to lead poisoning and volunteers are now trying to ensure that lead and dumped ammunition is cleaned up form dump sites where the Condors scavenge.
Seabirds are even more vulnerable to junk ingestion. They mistake floating junk debris for food. Research has shown that most seabirds have synthetic materials in their digestive tracts. This will cause blockages in their digestive systems and the result is the weakening or death of the bird. Floating marine junk can be spread over long distances even to very remote areas by tides, currents, and winds. On beaches pollution by humans is caused when rivers come down in flood, and at sea, ships indiscriminately throw junk into the ocean.
Fulmars, Petrels, Albatrosses, and Shearwaters are sea birds that frequently ingest a lot of junk from the ocean, it is common for them to peck at floating plastic objects covered in polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are chemicals that coat plastic. When the birds peck at the plastic, they swallow these toxic chemicals which build up in their bodies. This can lead to a drop in the bird’s fertility, and harm their immune systems, thereby making the bird vulnerable to health problems. Also, they take this worthless junk back to their young and feed them with death enhancing junk instead of proper food.
Beautiful birds such as the Wandering Albatross and Royal Penguin are examples of threatened species suffering from this environmental damage we cause.
Pesticides and Pollution- The Threat to Birds
A 74% decline has been observed in birds across farming areas. And the reason is easy to understand. As the pressure on food production increases, more farming land is required. This involves clearing new areas, which are the habitat of birds in the area. Added to that is the pressure to increase farming productivity, and so spraying programs using aggressive pesticides are put in place. This in turn kills the food of our farmland birds, and the health of the birds as well. Think about birds like the Whooping Crane or the Gunnison’s Sage-Grouse which is so rare that one would probably never see it in one’s lifetime. Smaller birds like the Kirtland’s Warbler and Piping Plover are similar examples of farming causing numbers to diminish.
At home we encourage the use of eco-friendly pest management techniques, so that whatever is used prevents no harm to the birds in your garden.
What Can we Do?
In the interests of our feathered friends of the world, everyone needs to make an effort to make their lives safe by being aware of our responsibilities to the environment. The way we treat junk and the contribution we make to responsible junk removal and disposal can help our birds have a cleaner and healthier place to share their space with us.
Junk Removal Mechanicsburg is fully aware of the impact of junk on the environment and we are here to keep Mechanicsburg pristine. When you need a junk removal company in your area, trust us as a licensed waste removal company to dispose of your junk in a way that it has least impact on the environment. If you need your waste collected after hours or on weekends, we can do it, even offer the same day removal if urgent.
Please contact us today for a No Obligation quote for your trash removal in the Mechanicsburg area.
Phone: 717 988 0997
Email: enquiries@junkremovalmechanicsburg.com
Website: www.junkremovalmechanicsburg.com