Clips about birds - Utah Wildlife News - 12 Aug

["Utah Birds" <utahbirds at excite dot com>]

<taken from the Utah Wildlife News>

Guide to Utah's Wetlands Wins First Place
in National Competition

Salt Lake City -- Fourth grade students in northern Utah are learning about the state's wetlands through a guide that won a national award recently.

"Utah's Wonderful Wetlands: An Educator's Guide" beat out nine other entries to take first place in the national education competition held at the Association for Conservation Information's national convention in New Orleans, La.

Gabrielle Morey, wetlands education coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, prepared the guide. She was excited to win the award. "I'm also excited that Utah's fourth grade teachers have a guide they can use to teach their students about one of the state's most precious resources," she said.

The guide provides teachers with background information about wetlands. It also provides activities teachers can use to teach students about wetlands before, during and after a trip to one of Utah's local wetlands.

To receive this award-winning guide, teachers must attend a workshop hosted by the DWR. Teachers who would like to have a "Utah's Wonderful Wetlands" workshop in their area can visit the DWR Web site at wildlife.utah.gov/wetlandsed for contact information, sample activities and a wetlands education packet.

"Wetlands education was added to the 4th grade curriculum several years ago, but teachers didn't have a lot of ways to learn about wetlands," Morey said. "The DWR feels wetlands are very important, so we put a guide together for teachers, and it ended up winning a national award."

The ACI, which presented the award to Morey, is a non-profit association of information and education professionals representing state, federal and Canadian wildlife, parks and natural resource agencies, and private conservation organizations.

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Contact: Gabrielle Morey, DWR Wetlands Education Coordinator (970) 759-1170, or Mark Hadley, DWR Conservation Outreach Specialist (801) 538-4737

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West Nile Virus Found in Utah Bird

Salt Lake City -- The first detection of West Nile virus in a bird in Utah has been found in Grand County, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources announced Aug. 11.

The affected bird was a black-billed magpie. A sample from the affected bird was submitted to the Utah Public Health Laboratory for testing. This bird is the first bird determined to be WNV positive during the 2004 surveillance season. Wild bird surveillance will continue throughout Utah as needed.

In addition, the UDWR is also testing live birds at its bird banding stations for West Nile virus.

Wild Bird Surveillance

Wild birds continue to be important indicators of West Nile viral activity in local communities. The UDWR encourages the public to participate in its Wild Bird Surveillance program. If you see an ill or dead bird in your area, please contact the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources office nearest to you (see the list at the end of the news release).

Target species for testing in the 2004 season include birds of the Corvid family (ravens, crows, jays, and magpies, etc.), raptors, and other discretionary species that may be exhibiting neurologic symptoms.

It is important to note that not all birds may be suitable for testing. To determine if a bird is suitable for testing, please follow these guidelines:

§     Is the bird a target species (raven, crow, jay, bird of prey, or does the bird appear to be ill or dying)?

§     Has the bird been dead less than 24 hours (evidence of decay would indicate the bird has been dead longer than 24 hours and is therefore not suitable for testing)?

§     Is there no other obvious cause of death (window strike, cat-kill, or collision with a vehicle)?

For those with access to the Internet, the UDWR has provided an online submission form to make reporting dead birds more convenient. More information regarding wild bird surveillance, including a bird identification page and the online submission form, can be found at wildlife.utah.gov/wnv

Live Birds Tested at UDWR Banding Stations

In addition to surveillance of dead birds for West Nile virus, the UDWR has also begun its surveillance of live birds at various locations around the state.

This activity was begun as soon as West Nile virus was detected in Utah during the 2004 season. The UDWR annually maintains bird-banding stations throughout the state to gather important data on Utah's avifauna. This year, birds banded at the UDWR stations will also be tested for West Nile virus before their release.

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has been working closely with other state and local agencies involved in West Nile virus surveillance and prevention, including the Utah Department of Health, local Health Departments, the Utah Mosquito Abatement Association and the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.

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