Tom Foote wrote:

>Doug--
>
>> Get some help and trap 'em out of there...sounds like a golden
> opportunity to get rid of exotics that may, in fact, be displacing
> your Waxwings..I'm surprised there hasn't been more of an effort
> to do this...if they can trap the hybrid ducks out of Green Lake
> because in their mating zeal they were pushing the heads of the
> females under water and drowning them, it should also be possible
> to get rid of parrots..this isn't Florida, right?
> Is this possible? Ethical? Doable?

First of all, I didn't realize they had trapped the domestic ducks out of
Green Lake. You wouldn't know it to go there, or to any of the other city
lakes, where weird mongrel ducks & geese are becoming an ever-increasing
part of the scene. I have a student doing research on Mallard behavior,
and finding a place around Tacoma where the ducks didn't come *toward* you
as you approached the water has been very difficult. I imagine in the
future there will be a duck dichotomy--wild ducks that live away from the
cities and city ducks that live in them. Sigh....

> Does anyone know what species they're displacing? Any research on
> this?

No research, and they are certainly not "displacing any species," not with
only a pair or two of them in town. They have shown no sign of increasing
over the years, and I can't imagine they represent any threat at all (see
my recent postings for the "dreaded starling threat").

> I find this pretty annoying. Last summer I had an E. grey squirrel
> on my Screech Owl Box...needless to say, no owl..this year I think
> I'll get an air rifle :-( I suspect my little Doug fir squirrels are
> competing..(I have one I think I want to send to the cone cutting
> championships this year...I thought it was raining cones!!

In England, gray squirrels have (apparently) driven out the native red
squirrels from many areas, and I think there is actual evidence for this.
What their effects are on Douglas squirrels, I don't know. Might be like
the starling saga, with Douglas squirrels decreasing because of habitat
change, and gray squirrels filling in, or there maybe competition; if so,
I'd bet on the invader, just because it's larger. But remember, Douglas
squirrels are adapted for conifer forests, gray squirrels aren't.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416