Silent spring at Blackbird Pond

VIC LEIPZIG AND LOU MURRAY

Blackbird Pond in Shipley Nature Center is named for the red-winged

blackbirds that nest there. In spring, the sky above the cattails

fills with the melodious lilt of their courtship song. This year, the

blackbirds disappeared shortly after they arrived in December.

Also in early December, the first of several dead and dying

red-winged blackbirds were brought from Central Park to the Wetlands

and Wildlife Care Center at Pacific Coast Highway and Newland. From

there they were passed to bird rehabilitator Vicki Andersen. She was

surprised because in her seven years as a bird rehabilitator she had

never seen a red-winged blackbird brought in for treatment.

Two weeks later, a woman who boards a horse at the Equestrian

Center in Central Park brought in a pigeon with seizures. She

reported that the stable managers had hired a pest control company to

poison pigeons and that there were dead pigeons everywhere.

Several more birds were brought in during January and February

from Central Park. Most died. Andersen made the connection between

the poisoned pigeons at the Equestrian Center and the dying

red-winged blackbirds in Central Park. She immediately launched a

personal investigation. She phoned the Equestrian Center, their pest

control company, city staff members, the local California Department

of Fish and Game warden, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She

learned that the poison was Avitrol, that it was legal for a licensed

pest control company to use it, and that if one more songbird died,

Fish and Wildlife would prosecute.

Andersen was rightfully angry. She began spreading the word about

the problem. Lena Hayashi, who volunteers with the Wetlands and

Wildlife Care Center and the Friends of Shipley Nature Center,

contacted City Councilwoman Connie Boardman, who contacted Jim Engle,

head of community services. He phoned Jim and Mary Behrens, the

managers of the Equestrian Center, which is a concession on city

property. Even though use of Avitrol is legal, Engle told them to

stop using it.

You might think that’s the end of the story, but there’s more. We

researched Avitrol and are upset with how it is being promoted. Some

pest control companies claim that it is merely LSD for birds. They

claim that Avitrol makes birds hallucinate and that their odd

behavior and distress cries scare off other birds. Uh-huh. And we

have a bridge in Brooklyn we’d like to sell you.

Avitrol, with a tongue-twisting chemical name of 4-aminopyridine,

is a potassium channel blocker and a lethal neurotoxin. The birds are

acting oddly and crying out because they’re poisoned. Death can take

up to 60 hours. Avitrol kills not just the targeted pigeons, but any

bird that eats the poisoned grain or any predator that eats the

poisoned bird. A bird flopping around with seizures is easy prey.

Avitrol can secondarily poison red-shouldered hawks, peregrine

falcons, pet dogs or anything else that ingests the poisoned grain in

the dying bird’s crop.

Avitrol can bind to soils with a half-life of three months in clay

soils and 32 months in loamy soils. It can wash into waterways and

kill fish. Given how close Central Park is to the Bolsa Chica

wetlands, and given that Central Park is an important stopover on the

Pacific flyway for migratory songbirds and waterfowl, we were very

alarmed about the use of Avitrol there.

We met with Dave Bucy, the stable operator at the Equestrian

Center. He gave us a tour of the stables, where 440 horses are

housed. The Equestrian Center is a class act, clean and well managed.

The horses boarded there are beloved pets, some worth up to $200,000.

The problem is that pigeons roost on the ledges between stalls and

over water bowls. Horses are subject to colic from bacteria in the

pigeon droppings that fall in their water. Colic can be fatal to

horses. Pigeon droppings can also carry protozoa picked up from

opossum droppings. If ingested by a horse, these protozoa can cause a

disease called equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, or EPM.

Bucy has made an effort to mechanically control the pigeons by

placing netting between some stalls to prevent roosting, but there

are valid reasons why many forms of mechanical control are not

appropriate there.

The stable managers hired a pest control company to reduce the

pigeon population in an effort to protect the horses in their care.

The pest control company used Avitrol in bait stations so it wouldn’t

come in contact with soil. But they used mixed seed in the bait

station instead of the whole corn that would have targeted pigeons

more preferentially. Another concern is that Avitrol is not to be

used in areas where nontarget bird species feed.

The Avitrol is now gone. According to Bucy, it was not very

effective in solving the pigeon problem anyway. The good news is that

red-winged blackbirds have come back to Blackbird Pond. But there is

still potential for use of this poison at homes, businesses, or the

other privately owned stable in town.

We object to the use of Avitrol in Huntington Beach. Other

communities across the country, including Boulder, Colo., and New

York City, have banned its use. We would like our City Council to

enact an ordinance banning its use here. If our community demands

action, we can prevent this nasty poison from ever being used here

legally again.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].