30 Birds Killed, Hurt in Shootings

An unprecedented rash of shootings of birds of prey in Orange County this year, including three this week, has left 30 dead or injured, officials said Thursday.

Three birds were found shot Wednesday night in Santa Ana, Anaheim and Irvine, said Jan Yost, a warden with the state Department of Fish and Game.

One, an adult sharp-shinned hawk, a migratory bird, died during surgery. Another, a rare merlin falcon, also a migratory species, was in critical condition Thursday night; and the third, a common red-tailed hawk, was expected to make a full recovery, said Marge Gibson, a Villa Park biologist and raptor rehabilitation specialist who is now caring for the falcon and hawk.

Many of the wounded birds, after being treated by veterinarians, have been turned over to Gibson, the only state-licensed rehabilitator of hawks, owls and falcons in the county.

Yost said state officials are baffled by the shootings, particularly because many of the birds have been found in business or commercial areas. She said that in her 4 years as a game warden in the county, she has not “seen anything like this.”

There have been no arrests. “Unless we catch someone in the act of shooting it’s virtually impossible to track a suspect down,” Yost said. Virginia Chester, president of Sea and Sage Audubon, the county’s largest Audubon Society chapter, said: “What is particularly disturbing is that the shootings have occurred all over the county, suggesting it’s more than one person. How can people do this and live with themselves?”

County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, whose 3rd District includes much of the wilderness land left in the county, called the shootings “cruel and vicious.” His office is monitoring the situation in the event the county needs to take action on the matter, he said.

Although none of the victims belongs to an endangered species, some of the species represented are rare and many are protected by state, federal law and even international law.

Anyone caught killing a protected bird in California faces a fine of $2,000 and up to a year in jail. Catching a shooter often depends on public cooperation, however, Yost said, and witnesses rarely come forward.

“It’s a matter of someone willing to notify us, that’s the key,” she said.

The shootings, Yost said, come at a time when dozens of species are resting and feeding in the county before making their spring migrations.

Wildlife experts said many bird populations in the county are already pressured because land development, particularly in the eastern and southern foothills, is diminishing their habitats.

“With all the building going on in Orange County, these shootings simply add insult to injury,” said Kimball Garrett, an ornithologist with the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. “Many of those species are already struggling because their native birding grounds are being destroyed at a remarkable rate.”

Garrett said it is not uncommon to find dead raptors, largely solitary predators, along roads or in fields. The birds often become entangled in power lines or, in the case of owls, are drawn to the beams of car headlights.

The spate of bird shootings in Orange County is unusual, he said.

Sometimes, he said, “it becomes trendy” to shoot at birds, particularly when it generates news coverage.

“It might be a bit like the freeway shootings,” he said. “The situation tends to feed on itself.

It’s tragic, but everybody wants to get in on the act.”

“Sometimes it’s as simple as a parent telling a child to go out back and practice their aim by shooting at the birds on a telephone pole,” Yost said. “The frustrating part is, people don’t make the connection between shooting the bird and killing the bird.”