The Rare Bird Review

First came the Amazing Grace Pelicans (I've been lost but now I'm found). Next came the Kamikaze Pelicans in Arizona. Now comes this shocking news from the north and west.

It's bad news for Ducky and others of his ilk. The duck population in the United States and Canada dropped 11 percent from a year ago as drought dried up breeding grounds, said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Canadian Wildlife Service Monday. This year's duck population of 32.2 million birds was 11 percent less than the 36.2 million birds tallied a year ago.

While more rain has fallen since duck populations were measured in May, a shortage of winter precipitation and limited runoff into ponds and basins dried up areas commonly used for breeding. "This is a definite plus for the fall flight but, unfortunately, not as beneficial for ducks as moisture that arrives earlier in the year," said Bruce Batt, chief biologist with Ducks Unlimited.

The survey found breeding had dropped by 7 percent in Montana and the western Dakotas while breeding rose 3 percent in the eastern Dakotas. In most parts of Canada, breeding populations dropped between 4 percent and 9 percent. In northern Manitoba, western Ontario and northern Saskatchewan, duck populations were up 15 percent while in southern Saskatchewan they plunged 38 percent.

The 'loonies' over at Godlike Productions Forums are going to be all over this news considering how excited they became over the AGP's (Amazing Grace Pelicans). In fact, I'm sure they will be all over this since I intend to post the information there to watch what the resulting commotion.

With duck numbers dropping this quick and the pelicans abandoning their young there can be little question left that one of the three main theories espoused thus far is correct.

The first theory argues that the next ice age is upon us and the birds are simply fattening themselves up for the trip south in the fall, not to return because their former breeding area will covered in ice for a millennium or two. The birds are intelligent enough to realize that this year's young are not likely to survive the cataclysm.

The second theory argues that the earth's magnetic fields are reversing themselves on a north/south axis and that is playing hell with the birds' sense of direction, not to mentioin their moral and sexual obligations.

The last theory states that a supreme being is whisking them all away to populate a new and better world before said being returns to take a few select people.

The RBR prefers the second theory simply because the reversal in the magnetic field would make water run down the drain counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere, and that would be fun the watch.

More news as it happens.