Dear Birders,

I am posting to amend my email from yesterday.  First, thanks to all that have replied.  But, I also want to point out that I should have been more specific and less vague with the use of the term "logistics", etc. in my email about my Avian Mortalities Project.  As an avian researcher having studied wild birds for more than 35 years and working on birds for more than 50 years, I know the literature, including cities like Cleveland and what has been done in Ohio, etc., and the methods, etc., so what I am looking for is local contributions to add to my project and to help convince UC to mitigate.  My biggest need is funding for more freezer space and working up the birds, that is where I am lacking or falling short!  In short, so many dead birds daily that I cannot keep up.  We need to have a much more extensive lobbying at local, state, and national levels, stronger laws protecting wildlife and to hold developers and architects accountable.  Hey, everyone should know that birds are not designed to fly through glass!

In addition, I am a member of many national groups/working groups, and including those on Windows Collisions and Telecommunication Towers, etc., and have conducted many environmental assessments and studies, including Mountaintop Removal and Wind Farms.  So, just looking to add to my local project and to fix any shortcomings and troublesome issues with the projects, i.e., funds to hire museum technician(s) and to help train students on avian skins preparation.  I realize we are up against a strong national, local, and state unwillingness for those outside birding to contribute and to take this seriously and that we are running out of time, which is typical and contributes to our human mentality of wrong priorities, i.e., imagine if we get up tomorrow and rather than hear about politics, we hear about what we are doing to save species in an era of human-induced mass mortalities/extinctions and what to do about global climate change.  The same analogy applies that if we were eliminating Burmese Pythons 24-7 in Florida and with more methods and manpower that we are currently using!  The python challenge should be daily, in ever locality, etc.

In short, we also wait too late!  Silent Spring is truly coming!  Birds are pivotal to our ecosystems, no forest industry, no crops, etc. without birds!  My email was urgency to act now, and more robustly!  I am willing to help lead these efforts!  Let's face it, there are really no rules and regulations on development and on industries.  Developers can build about anything they want!  Overall, our World is functioning with little to no urgency!  I personally think the situation is much more dire than we realize!

Society is not listening to the scientists, let's force everyone to take an ecology class, no matter their expertise and passion in life.  We MUST change the narrative now!  The urgency, with human-induced 6^th mass extinction, is Earth cannot sustain infinity of exponential population growth, development, etc.  We cannot build into infinity and still have a viable planet.  With my rant, you now must know I am against social media, mobile phones, domestimated and feral cats outside, etc.  Sorry!

Yes, I realize most everyone on this platform knows all this.  BTW, I enjoyed reading Dr. Paul Ehrlich's latest manuscript that just came out and encourage readers to do so, including the politicians, developers, government officials, lobbyists, school officials, and architects, etc.

You are welcome to hit the delete button on this email!  But, I, Ronald C., am tired of picking up dead birds daily!  I have nearly killed myself walking over 200 acres, checking over 100 buildings for 2 ½ hours a day, where we hardly ever anymore have a day of "no dead birds"!  At UC, for birds, it is "next dies here"!

Thanks, everyone!

Ron Canterbury

Editor, The Ohio Cardinal

Ornithologist