On Mon, Jun 9, 2008 at 11:28 AM, Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Bill,
This is somewhat anecdotal but when I was regularly visiting Japan a
few years ago a Japanese birder friend of mine and I would drive
around farm country north and east of Tokyo looking for shorebirds.
In a sea of visually uniform rice and lotus paddies he would know
specifically where to look for birds.  Finally, I asked what it was
about the particular paddies that had concentrations of birds and was
told that they were the ones where organic farming was practiced.
--
Cheers,
Bill Hull
Cincinnati, OH, USA
http://www.mangoverde.com/

> 2) Some have sought to excuse eradication of shores for shorebirds along
> Lake Erie by citing the attractiveness of pooled rainwater in
> agricultural fields near the Lake, at least during the spring migration
> (in fall, of course, these fields are usually covered with crops). My
> observations of spring shorebirds in these locations is that they
> readily stop here briefly, for lack of anything else, but don't spend
> much time feeding. Does anyone know of good published studies of the
> effects of agricultural chemicals on food production for migrant
> shorebirds? I don't imagine these birds stay long enough to suffer much
> from the chemicals, but they may not be finding much to eat, either.

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