Richard Rowlett forwarded an informative account of Swainson's Hawk
insecticide deaths in Argentina and asked for additional information.

As it happens, I talked with Michael Kochert in Boise yesterday as he
was putting the finishing touches on an application for National Biological
Service funding to mark more Swainson's Hawks with satellite transmitters.
He spoke at length about the mass deaths of the hawks in Argentina, and
almost all of what he said was virtually identical to the Birdchat post.
He did mention, and I don't recall seeing it in the post, that a high
percentage of the dead hawks were adults.

The forwarded post included this quote:

>Thus we can conclude that
>a high proportion of this mortality are hawks that breed in Canada.

This may be so, but Canada has been banding/radiomarking lots more
Swainson's than the United States, so the conclusion may be a bit strong.
Regardless of where they summer, the carnage is almost unimaginable.

Curiously, Kochert also said that the Swainson's Hawk population in his
area seem to be doing very well. And the species' apparent well being in
Washington has prompted WDFW to pursue removing Swainson's Hawks from the
candidate list.
------------------------
Scott Richardson
NE Seattle
salix at isomedia.com