Beer, firearms, testosterone, and birds are a combination that is somehow always combustible.  So it was this past Saturday, when six drunken yahoos on a beach southwest of Seattle shot ten gulls and a crow.  They apparently lured the birds in with hot dogs.

Sharnelle Fee, director of the [wildlife] center, said two bullets found in the bird will be removed and given to authorities for ballistics tests.

“We have a lot of trouble with beaches where cars are allowed to drive on,” she said. Seagulls sometimes get run over, but the multiple killings are unusual. The fact that the birds were baited is particularly troubling, she said.

“It’s one thing to take a potshot, but to bait them and shoot them is pretty premeditated,” Fee said.

Many 10,000 Birds readers are esavvy and may well have seen this before, but if you haven’t check out the amazing facts on this stat-packed YouTube video about social media. I will never scoff at Facebook ever again (well, probably never…).

Fortunately for birds that migrate through or live in the United States, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that violators of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act need not have intentionally killed birds to be convicted.  Considering the current makeup of the United States Supreme Court, let’s hope that the case ends here.

A recent post on Planet Ark gave an interesting insight into the realities of conservation, specifically, in this case, of Orangutans. A survey of villagers living near orangutans in Indonesia’s Kalimantan province found that a quarter were “not aware the rare primates are protected”, that “more than 50 percent of respondents” thought it was NOT a protected species, and that some correspondents claimed that “they killed the animal for no specific reason”. I and most readers of 10,000 Birds know they’re protected, but many villagers interacting with the apes don’t. In financially-stressed times when charities and governments are low on funds how do you solve a problem like that I wonder?