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Peregrines (my last post on this, I promise!) and yard Siskins
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: Peregrines (my last post on this, I promise!) and yard Siskins
- From: Joshua Stuart Rose <jsr6@duke.edu>
- Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1999 12:29:43 -0500 (EST)
- cc: Catherine Bezanson <bezanson@ns.sympatico.ca>
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
Hi Carolinabirders,
I want to thank Will Cook for posting the address of the Federal Register
containing the notice of the proposed Pegegrine Falcon capture plan. I
suggest that anyone and everyone who is even remotely considering posting
about this read the Register first; it greatly reassured me that the
USF&WS does, in fact, know what they are doing. Here's that web address
again:
http://www.fws.gov/r9mbmo/issues/falcons/gpogate.pdf
And here are a couple of quotes in particular that should set many folks'
minds at ease, and clear up a few things:
"One management plan will address take of peregrine falcon nestlings in
the United States. The other will address take of immature peregrines
that originate in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, and migrate through the
contiguous United States. These management plans will be developed
cooperatively by the Service and the States with input from the
governments of Canada, Greenland, and Mexico."
"To avoid compromising the restoration of peregrine populations in North
America, our preliminary objectives for the combined plans are:
(1) Protect from harvest to the extent possible, nesting and dispersing
juvenile American peregrines from natal areas in eastern Canada..."
So apparently the falconers *do* want some nestlings, not just adults.
And the plan is not to catch "mostly Canadian birds" as one post claimed,
but a mix of Canadian and US birds. And the planners are completely aware
of the different statuses of the still-rare Peregrines of eastern Canada
vs. the more common arctic subspecies, and will take steps to take birds
from only the healthy populations, so the New Brunswick folk can stop
worrying about their local breeders. That is, if the project is ever
actually implemented; these plans are still in very preliminary stages,
and may never even be approved, and if they are it will be after
considering the input of the other governments involved. So we can
probably drop the whole subject until a more complete plan is published.
Frankly, after reading this, the Peregrine issue sounds much less
alarming than the following Register article, which authorizes BP Oil to
take polar bears and walrus incidental to oil and gas exploration... but
that's completely off topic.
So back to Carolina birds: I mentioned last week some suspiciously
familiar finchy calls in the trees above my yard. Unfortunately, the
buggers are far too busy with Sweet Gum balls to come anywhere near my
feeders, so all I've seen until now has been silouettes that could just
as easily be goldfinches. But today I finally took the scope out and
nailed one: Pine Siskin! It was with a group of about 4 others, with
loads of American Goldfinches all around also partaking in the Gum
fruits. Also had the Brown Creeper back at the suet, and a skulker in the
hedgerow that may possibly have been a Winter Wren, but my housemate's
dog scared it off into the shrubbery before I could confirm it. Oh,
well...
Good birding!
Josh
Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Zoology
jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/