Santa Barbara News Press 10/18/98 By LEAH ETLING
Mark Holmgren is encouraged by the number of white-tailed kites he's
seen throughout the Goleta Valley in the last year. But he's also worried
about the continued survival of the birds of prey and the wetland areas
they depend on for existence. Holmgren, associate director of the Museum
of Systematics and Ecology at UCSB, took his concerns to county planners
recently. He wanted to notify them about the changing habits of the kites,
and the ramifications that widespread development could have on their numbers.
To Holmgren, the kites' situation can be used as an indicator of the
overall environmental problems facing the South Coast. While kites are
not a threatened or endangered species, they are protected by federal,
state and local laws meant to support bird migrations and guard wetlands
from urban encroachment. Holmgren, who spent the last year studying the
small hawks, believes additional education of local government leaders
must be implemented to maintain the slowly growing bird population along
the South Coast.``There are indications that their numbers are perhaps
still gradually increasing,'' Holmgren said, while not specifying actual
bird counts. ``The concern locally is that we see some things that are
alarming."
One worrisome factor is how the kites have moved their traditional
roosting site from the south side of Highway 101 to north of the freeway.``There
seems to be a change in distribution both with respect to their roosting
and their breeding,'' Holmgren said, adding that it's unknown why the birds
have moved northward.
What worries Holmgren is that the number of open-space corridors in
western Goleta are declining. The corridors are connections to open areas
that provide habitat for small mammal populations, which the kites feed
on.``Recently we have approved some development actions that have begun
to close off our open-space corridors,'' Holmgren said, citing the Storke
Ranch development in western Goleta and new golf courses. Another development
concerning Holmgren is a proposed county road that will go through a roosting
site located in a lemon orchard to the southwest of Patterson and Hollister
avenues.
Kites use a seven-mile radius of land for their hunting territory,
flying from their roost site during the day to find food for their young
and themselves. Around the turn of the century, they were a popular target
for hunters. Kites are found mainly in the West, and predominantly in California.
Until 1990, most of the birds living in Goleta bred in the open space and
wetlands along the More Mesa area south of Highway 101.
During 11 months of monitoring the birds over the past year, 20 volunteers
watched kites roost from Winchester Canyon to Cieneguitas Creek in the
far eastern area of the Goleta Slough watershed. Holmgren pointed out that
open spaces not naturally suited for kite habitat can be ecologically restored
to meet the needs of the hawks. But he isn't sure where such land might
be found.``I think that what I've done is enough to make the point that
the changes that are occurring are something that the kites may not be
able to adapt to,'' Holmgren said. ``We've kicked up a number of questions
that really need to be looked at in more detail."