Date: 10/29/26 10:57 pm From: Robert O'Brien via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Crisis in the Flesh-footed Shearwater Population
I wonder if birds have some strange attraction to plastics. My neighbor has
free range chickens at this place that come over to our place. I've noticed
that, if available, they will eat large amounts of styrofoam. Pecking
chunks out of a larger piece and swallowing them.Bob You would think they
would realize this was not 'food' but they do not. The neighbors also have
Peafowl;. the same. They chunk it down piece by piece.
Very sad. I wonder if there is a relationship with seabirds?
Bob OBrien Portland
On Thu, Oct 29, 2026 at 2:54 PM Carol Riddell via Tweeters <
<tweeters...> wrote:
> Hi Tweeters,
>
> We infrequently see Flesh-footed Shearwaters on Westport Seabirds pelagic
> trips. I was recently reading an article about the breeding population on
> Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea off Australia’s east coast. They are
> called Sable Shearwaters there. That population had been studied by
> researchers since 2010 and the study is still under way. They are finding
> increasing loads of stomach plastic that prevent the birds from eating and
> digesting food. The article can be accessed at nationalgeographic.com.
> You will have to enter your email address to read it. (If you start getting
> too many messages from NatGeo just unsubscribe.) You can also search it
> with the article headline: “These Seabirds Are So Full of Plastic They’re
> Starving to Death.” The author is Annie Roth.
>
> Carol Riddell
> Edmonds, WA
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