FRG is kicking in $100 (so far) to WPZ for aiding the birds. This is
money from T-shirt sales for fund-raising purposes. So the resources used
are voluntary, as is most of the effort in this project.

I understand Mike's concerns about the extraordinary efforts that have
been made to rescue these birds. There is something awry when we are tube
feeding, incubating, medicating, and hand-wringing about fledglings that
probably aren't going to be around next year. And Fred is right, public
relations, or awareness, has been the catalyst. This nesting site is
anything *but* natural selection in action. The fact that the site is on a
skyscraper negated any sort of natural processes to occur. The history of
this project is a study in how we try to turn a bad situation (i.e., a
really bad nesting site) into something positive for all the creatures
involved. Nesting PEFA makes for good media coverage, good PR for the
bank, good awareness raising opportunities for people who are interested
in raptors, and the chance for the average downtown worker to do something
kind of interesting on their lunch hour (and maybe learn something). I
confess I suffer from Raptocentrism (great term, BTW) and to watch PEFA's
or other raptors *in the field* is one of the most compelling aspects of
birding for me. But birds trying to dodge windows, TV crews, helicopters,
and rescuers seems odd to me. When do we decide to let nature return? I'm
afraid that once these birds became part of the downtown scene, any chance
of allowing them to lead "normal" PEFA lives vanished. Maybe we should be
rescuing their habitat instead... I wonder if Dennis has any opinions
about this ;)

David
Buckley----------------------------------------------------------------
lsdb at u.washington.edu West Seattle, USA