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• NOVEMBER 2021
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IN BRIEF
RAPTOR vs. songbird
New vaccination requirements likely to fuel Florida debate
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The Biden administration, on Nov. 4, moved forward with COVID-19 vaccination requirements for employees of large businesses and health-care workers, adding fuel to a debate that will be on display in Florida during a special legislative session this month. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued rules that will fully take effect on Jan. 4. The OSHA rule will apply to employers with 100 or more workers. It will require employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or test negative at least once a week — a measure that will cover 84 million workers nationally, according to a White House estimate. “COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on workers, and we continue to see dangerous levels of cases,” U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said in a prepared statement. “We must take action to implement this emergency temporary standard to contain the virus.” The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rule will apply to workers at health-care facilities, such as hospitals and nursing homes, that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Workers in the facilities will have to show they have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine by Dec. 5 and be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4. The agency said the rule will apply to about 17 million health-care workers across the country. The Biden administration had earlier announced it would require vaccinations at large employers and health-care facilities, but Thursday’s rules filled in the details. Also, it said a deadline for requiring employees of federal contractors to be vaccinated has been pushed back from Dec. 8 to Jan. 4 to correspond with the new rules. The release of the rules came less than two weeks before Florida lawmakers will hold a special session that Gov. Ron DeSantis called to push back against the requirements.
Osprey
Florida legislators propose replacing the mockingbird with the osprey as the state bird THE COMPETITORS HABITAT: Mockingbird: Open areas like fields and parks, edges of forests Osprey: Coastal areas, rivers and lakes, swamps DIET: Mockingbird: Insects, berries, seeds, fruit Osprey: Overwhelmingly fish, but occasionally invertebrates or small reptiles, mammals or birds FEEDING HABITS: Mockingbird: Forages on open ground Osprey: Dives feet-first into water. On average, catch fish at least once every four dives FAMILY LIFE: Mockingbird: May pair for life, or have multiple pairings over lifespan. Females generally lay three to six eggs. Osprey: Form lifeling breeding pairs. Females generally lay three eggs, but can have from one to four. Both parents incubate eggs.
NEWS EDITOR
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h e m o c kingbird — Mimus polyglottos, meaning the mimic of many languages — has been Florida’s state bird since 1927. But the mockingbird is also the state bird of Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi. Is it really the right bird for Florida? A proposal to remove the mockingbird as the state bird was offered by Sen. Jeff Brandes, a Republican from St. Petersburg, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is reopening the debate on who should be the state’s avian representative, offering a new alternative: the osprey, Pandion haliaetus, also known as the fish hawk. But given a choice between the mockingbird and the osprey, the choice for some local birders is clear: Neither. Flagler Audubon President Jason Giraulo said his chapter members tend to favor making the Florida scrub-jay — the only bird that lives exclusively in Florida — Florida’s state bird. It’s an idea also favored by two legislators, Sen. Tina Polsky (D- Boca Raton) and Rep. Sam Killebrew (R-Winter Haven). “Both times over the past
two decades, the scrub-jay has been suggested, and for some reason or another, was always shot down,” Giraulo said. He suspects developers, in particular, may not be enthusiastic about making the state bird a species that’s been decimated by development. When Giraulo started birding in Flagler eight years ago, he said, birders knew of three scrubjays remaining in Flagler; now, as far as they know, there are none. Using the scrub-jay as the state bird would have the benefit of making Florida’s state bird unique, Giraulo noted. But when the switch to the scrub-jay had been proposed in the ‘90s, the mockingbird had also earned an enthusiastic supporter in the person of Marion Hammer, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association. Hammer’s backing of the mockingbird helped kill the campaign for the scrub-jay, said Halifax River Audubon President and Conservation Chair David Hartgrove. But the osprey, like the mockingbird, is found nationwide; other species of osprey are found on all continents except Antarctica. And, Giraulo said, ospreys don’t really scream “Florida” — not
nearly as much as, say, the state pie (key lime) or the state flower (the orange blossom). For that purpose, something like the flamingo might be a better pick, he said. Hartgrove agreed. “Personally, I would prefer to see a bird that’s suffered population declines and is an iconic, easily identified species, like the roseate spoonbill, become our state bird,” Hartgrove said. “However, I have my doubts that anything serious will be done to change the status quo.” When the FWC put the question of the state bird before 77,000 elementary- and middle-schoolers in 2008, there had been a clear winner — the osprey — so that’s the species the commission has proposed as an alternative this year. “No matter what the state bird is, the most important thing — whether it’s protecting whatever little scrub-jay habitat exists, or celebrating the survival of the osprey — is that it’s important for people to connect with what nature we have here,” Giraulo said. “Because it could be gone in an instant.”
VSO receives generous gift to care for K-9s Daytona Beach resident shares love of dogs with community
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JONATHAN SIMMONS
Mockingbird
Pamela Mobbs
LAURA WILLIAMS VOLUSIA SHERIFF’S OFFICE
The Volusia Sheriff’s K-9 Unit has received a gift of more than $32,000 from the estate of a Daytona Beach resident who spent her life loving dogs, especially German shepherds, and wanted to support local K-9s. Pamela Mobbs, who died in October 2020, at age 90, specified that her gift was to be used equally to buy bullet-proof vests for the Sheriff’s Office K-9s and purchase and train additional dogs. Mobbs’ love of dogs began when she was very young, said her daughter Jane Mobbs, of Daytona Beach. When her mother was a little girl in England, Pamela Mobbs’ grand-
father had a fierce guard dog that stirred fear in most people. “My mother wandered out into the back yard, and although her grandfather feared the worst, the dog was super gentle with her and protected her always,” Jane Mobbs said. “She had many shepherds in her life.“ Pamela Mobbs fell in love with law enforcement K-9s after her daughter took her to a K-9 demonstration at the Boardwalk near the Bandshell in Daytona Beach. “She thoroughly enjoyed the K9s and watching the officers handle them,” Jane Mobbs said. “My mother wholeheartedly believed all the K9s should be fitted with bullet proof vests as they often go into uncertain areas first to help apprehend suspects.
“She would be so happy to know that she is making a difference in a dog’s well-being,’’ Jane Mobbs said. The Sheriff’s Office has a force of 18 dogs. Some are trained to detect narcotics; others learn to locate bombs and some are sent into dangerous situations to find bad guys. The Sheriff’s Office received two separate checks from Mobbs’ estate, each for $16,428.16, ($32,856.32 total) representing her kind generosity. “This is an incredible gift to our agency and it represents this woman’s amazing love for dogs,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood said. “Her legacy will continue to positively impact the Sheriff’s Office and our citizens for years to come.”