Don Baccus volunteered to talk to our anonymous caller saying:

>Sure! - as long as your department's liability insurance is paid-up.

Thanks for volunteering yourself Don. I'm sure that almost everyone who
read the abstract of this phone message thought of you as the best choice to
respond (because of your excessively considerate nature and tactful style,
of course).

On the Eastern Gray Squirrel's effect on native Douglas Squirrels, Dennis
Paulson wrote:

>My guess is that the Douglas squirrel has disappeared in most areas because
>the conifer forests on which they depend have been fragmented too much. It
>may be that gray squirrels play a part, once the DOSQ (now I'm doing it
>with mammals!) numbers are considerably reduced, but GRSQs don't seem to
>thrive in conifer forests, where there isn't much for them to eat.
>Instead, they're adapted to broadleaf trees (not to mention bird feeders,
>of course), such as come to predominate in most cities.

This is a good point that may be more easily seen in this comparison than it
is for many other species. I wrestle with it alot when observing high
densities of introduced bullfrogs in habitat formerly occupied by native
frogs. Traditionally, the switch from the native to the introduced frogs is
blamed on the bullfrogs, i.e. they were the reason for the loss of the
native species. However, the alternative and equally plausible hypothesis
is that habitat changes (sometimes quite subtle) eliminated the native
species and provided a good environment for the introduced species, i.e. the
introduced species did not out-compete or eat all of the native animals at
all.

And, there are always the odd cases where the introduced and the native
species co-exist and the reasons why they are able to co-exist are equally
debatable. Is it because the habitat has not been altered, a new species
has simply been added? Is it because some habitat feature or combination of
habitat features inhibits the competitive interactions between the two
species (perhaps some kind of cover or refugium where the native species can
get away from the introduced competitor)?

In spite of these doubts, the potential for severe competition or steady and
eventually devastating predation pressure seems very real and I am very
concerned about the continued spread of bullfrogs (for the sake of native
frogs and other native wildlife). And, just to get back to the subject at
hand, Eastern Gray Squirrels are likely a factor in the decline of our
native Western Gray Squirrel and Eastern Gray Squirrels continue to spread
as well (whew, I think I got back on topic).

And, Tom Foote wondered if the anonymous caller could have misidentified the
supposed Peregrine Falcon. I would say so. Don Baccus gave an account
suggesting that Cooper's Hawk may be a possibility. How about Red-tailed
Hawk? Goshawk (maybe a subadult)?


Kelly McAllister