[birding] early morning driving can kill birds

[Don Boucher]

Hello,

During this hot weather, I've made an observation that warrants people to take care to prevent killing birds while driving. On country roads with moderate traffic, many jays, flickers, robins and others glean the pavement early in the morning to take advantage of dead insects that were killed by the hot pavement the previous day. While riding my bike down Riverside Drive, I watch dozens of scrub-jays and other birds happily absorbed in the insect banquet on the road. This only occurs in the morning, not in the afternoon. I've also seen too many near misses with speeding cars and, sadly, several bird carcasses on the roadside. So be wary while driving in the morning. Look way ahead on the road surface and the watch the sides of the road too. Most of all, don't speed. On the freeway and busy city streets, this doesn't seem to be as much of a problem.

Don Boucher
Corvallis, OR
www.Neighborhood-Naturalist.com

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