Vol 53, 2001 - Northern State University

emained at the refuge for 11 days before disappearing. It is unknown whetherthe bird simply moved to warmer latitudes or succumbed to the cold. One thingis for sure, our southern visitor provided a glow of activity among refuge personnel,area birders, and local residents during an otherwise cold and snowy November.BLACKBIRDCONTROLBy Jim Williams5239 Cranberry Lane, Webster, WI 54893(Reprinted in edited form from Minnesota Birding)Over 3,000,000 blackbirds have been killed with poisoned bait in South Dakotain the last seven years. This research was done in an attempt to find a wayto reduce bird depredation on sunflower crops in that state and North Dakota andMinnesota. Information for an environmental impact statement (EIS) is beinggathered as part of a request for a permit to kill 2,000,000 more blackbirds.Biologists in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and in North and South Dakotastate agencies question the efficacy of the effort. It has been suggested thatthe birds in South Dakota, targeted for poisoning in the spring, are not the birdscausing the problems in the fall. Other biologists worry about the effect of thepoison on non-target species of birds. An official within the U.S. Department ofAgriculture, the agency responsible for the research, says it is hard to prove thatremoval of these birds will be a solution.In April of 1994, the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish, and Parks issueda permit to kill up to 250,000 blackbirds. Red-winged Blackbird was thetarget species. It was understood that some Common Grackles and YellowheadedBlackbirds would die as well. The permit was issued to the U.S. Departmentof Agriculture-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA,APHIS) in Bismarck, North Dakota. The purpose of the kill was to researchways to prevent blackbird predation of unharvested sunflower seeds in NorthDakota and Minnesota fields. This permit covered 1994 and 1995. In August of1995, the same applicants received another permit allowing them to kill another250,000 blackbirds the next spring. In February of 1997, a third permit was issued,again for a quarter million blackbirds. In December of 1997, another permitwas issued for poisoning of up to 500,000 blackbirds the following spring. In1998, the applicants wanted to expand research to include fall migrant blackbirds,and so received a permit to take 500,000 more birds as they moved southfrom breeding grounds. In March of 1999, South Dakota officials issued anotherpermit to APHIS, this for permission to kill up to 950,000 blackbirds that spring.In July a permit was requested and received to kill 500,000 more birds that fall.All of these permits were acted upon, according to a biologist with the SouthDakota Department of Game, Fish, and Parks.In the spring of 2000, APHIS requested from South Dakota yet another researchpermit, this one for a proposed kill of up to two million blackbirds. Apermit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also was required at that time.The state research permit to take two million blackbirds was granted; theSOUTH DAKOTA BIRD NOTES 53(4): 73 DECEMBER 2001