Since the invasion of West Nile Virus into the scrub lands of Eastern Washington the corvidae populations have experienced a fairly study and rapid decline in all areas of eastern Washington state .
The Common Raven counts are down as well but by far the most rapidly declining corvid here is the black billed magpie . Where once they were found in large numbers it is now difficult to find even one bird in many of their old haunts.
Couple the loss to W.N.V with the increased presence of Toxoplasmosis Gondi and the ongoing shooting trapping and poisoning of the eastern Washington magpie population and it paints a very ugly picture for their continued presence here.
Recently while discussing the magpie decline here with a fellow researcher I was informed that the same thing seems to be happening in Portions of Idaho as well .
Magpies have always been cursed by many who refuse to accept that the predation on some crops and other species by the pica are just another part of the natural controls of nature and more often then not an asset to long term leveling of the order.
Magpies and common night hawks are the most aggressive foragers of wasp larvi we have in eastern Washington . The night hawk population was decimated long ago by land development .
Now W.N.V and other factors are eliminating the magpies of our area. Something needs to be done to protect what is left of the magpie population here and it needs to take place quickly or believe it or not they will go the way of our now missing eastern Washington jack rabbits.
Like the wolf , with magpies we may very well go from paying a bounty for killing them to paying the government to try to bring them back . Not a pretty picture at all .
JR.Inghram
The Common Raven counts are down as well but by far the most rapidly declining corvid here is the black billed magpie . Where once they were found in large numbers it is now difficult to find even one bird in many of their old haunts.
Couple the loss to W.N.V with the increased presence of Toxoplasmosis Gondi and the ongoing shooting trapping and poisoning of the eastern Washington magpie population and it paints a very ugly picture for their continued presence here.
Recently while discussing the magpie decline here with a fellow researcher I was informed that the same thing seems to be happening in Portions of Idaho as well .
Magpies have always been cursed by many who refuse to accept that the predation on some crops and other species by the pica are just another part of the natural controls of nature and more often then not an asset to long term leveling of the order.
Magpies and common night hawks are the most aggressive foragers of wasp larvi we have in eastern Washington . The night hawk population was decimated long ago by land development .
Now W.N.V and other factors are eliminating the magpies of our area. Something needs to be done to protect what is left of the magpie population here and it needs to take place quickly or believe it or not they will go the way of our now missing eastern Washington jack rabbits.
Like the wolf , with magpies we may very well go from paying a bounty for killing them to paying the government to try to bring them back . Not a pretty picture at all .
JR.Inghram
