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goose and navy landing field



Howdy!

Saturday Joe and I hooked up with Tom and Margaret at the Mapleview Farm
Country Store on Dairyland Rd. in Chapel Hill to search for the Ross's
Goose. The guys were ready for ice cream already, but I said let's find
the goose first! After driving around the area for over an hour, they
thought an ice cream break would bring us luck in finding the goose.
Turns out they were right because we saw Jeff and Toni, who gave us
directions to the goose off of Green Rise Road!! That seems to be the
area where birders saw the goose on Saturday. The goose was sleeping
most of the time, but we were able to see the short, pinkish bill and
sweet face. After Clyde's email yesterday, I wonder how long it's been
around? We met Mrs. Snipes inside the store selling chili. When I asked
her how to pronounce Anilorac Farm, she said it's Carolina backwards!!!
She moved here from Bangor, Maine and talked how she was able to see the
goose from her kitchen window! I told her how her farm has become famous
to birders around here and thanked her for her support.

Remember the recent CBC meeting in Washington, NC with field trips to
Lake Mattamuskett and Pocasin Lakes to see the beautiful swans, geese,
eagles, and ducks? The email below mine is from Chris Canfield, Director
of Audubon NC, and directly affects us and our birds wintering in North
Carolina.

Happy birding!! Karen Bearden
Raleigh, NC
chickadeebirders@earthlink.net

The Navy is proposing putting a jet fighter landing field within 3 miles
of the globally significant Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge where
as many as 100,000 swans and geese congregate each winter.  (See media
stories below covering a press day we had 2/6/03 -- great pictures!)
THIS IS THE MOST PRESSING CONSERVATION ISSUE FOR BIRDS IN NC RIGHT NOW!

Audubon North Carolina has commented on earlier versions of the
proposals as part of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process.
We had hoped simple logic would dictate the elimination of at least two
sites (Hyde County and Washington County) right away due to their
location right next to these premiere wildlife sanctuaries (Mattamuskeet
NWR and Pocosin Lakes NWR respectively).  Unfortunately, Washington
County ended up as one of two "preferred" locations, while Hyde County,
according to the Navy, "is still in consideration."  We invited Navy
personnel down to show them the birds that will be a hazard and conflict
at least half the year.  Their eyes were opened, but to date they still
refuse to eliminate these locations.  Rumors are that Washington County
is their favorite choice.

So ... even though official EIS comment periods have ended, we need all
of us to push for the Navy to stop any consideration of these sites NOW:
PLEASE ... write to the Navy official ultimately responsible for making
the recommendation to the Secretary of the Navy and insist that he take
these locations off the list now.  I am a former Pentagon staff officer
myself.  I can assure you this will make a difference to a political
appointee such as a Deputy Assistant Secretary.

Please send a very brief but strong message to:

Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy
Installations and Facilities
Mr. Wayne Arney
1000 Navy Pentagon Room 4E765
Washington, DC  20305-1000

If possible, send a copy to your local Congressional Representatives (we
are working to get them to see the birds, too).

The "official" way to refer to the proposal is ...

Proposed Outlying Landing Field for F/A-18 E/F (Super Hornet) aircraft.

The points to emphasize:

* The National Wildlife Refuges of the Albemarle Sound in NC represent
globally significant resources for birds and other wildlife.

        -- More than 100,000 large Tundra Swans and Snow Geese come to
the area lakes and agricultural fields each winter to feed and rest.
That is 80 percent of the Atlantic Flyway population of Tundra Swans.

* The military's own computer modeling shows this region presents a
"severe" (the military's term) hazard for bird and aircraft collisions
during at least half the year (Nov-April).  That's a very high risk of
losing a $50 million aircraft and some very highly trained pilots.

* For the Navy to have any hope of training during the winter, it will
have to disperse, control, and predict the movements of these 100,000
waterfowl, not to mention Bald Eagles, ducks, geese, vultures,
blackbirds, and other birds that collectively number in the millions
here.

        -- Our biologists tell us this is not going to be possible.
Swans, especially, are notoriously resistant to attempts to move or
control them and very unpredictable in flight patterns.

        -- In the process of trying, the Navy plans to eliminate food
sources and other attractants in a 50,000-acre area -- guaranteed to
destroy the purpose of our wildlife refuges there.

* The result will still be a Navy unable to train at best, or with lost
pilots and planes at worst, and a vital natural resource of the region
destroyed along the way.

* Ask Mr. Arney to exercise his leadership by 1) coming immediately to
visit the area and learn firsthand about the threats and 2) rule NOW
that field locations near the National Wildlife Refuges will no longer
remain in contention for the landing field.

* Thank him for the wisdom you trust he will show as a former pilot
himself to put pilot safety and the value of our natural resources
uppermost. (He is a former Navy Fighter pilot and "TOP GUN" graduate.
His two sons are also Naval fighter pilots, one of whom is stationed in
Virginia at NAS Oceana.)



THANKS

Chris

(see story links below for more info and some GREAT pictures.  The
Charlotte one has a slide show you can click on).

*****************************************
Chris Canfield
Executive Director
Audubon North Carolina
410 Airport Rd.
Chapel Hill, NC  27514
919-929-3899/fax: 919-929-4599
email: ccanfield@audubon.org
*****************************************

WILDLIFE
Flying in the face of Navy's jets. The huge congregations of
geese, tundra swans and other waterfowl that winter at Pocosin
Lakes National Wildlife Refuge could soon face an even larger
bird of prey: fighter jets (020703b.htm)
<http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/5126125.htm>

Navy looks at sites for airfield. Thousands of snow geese
huddled Thursday morning in a Washington County field, covering
the ground like a white lumpy blanket until they took to the air
in a honking, flapping whirlwind. The birds taking a breather
near Pungo Lake are a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of
geese, ducks and swans that have been protected by federal laws
for decades. A Navy proposal to build an airfield for fighter
jets and to gently shoo birds from a 53,000-acre buffer zone
could threaten both waterfowl and pilots, critics say.
(020703g.htm)
<http://www.newsobserver.com/news/nc/story/2178066p-2062790c.html>