Subject: Urban Bird Observations
Date: Apr 15 13:06:37 1997
From: Dyannesh at aol.com - Dyannesh at aol.com


A not surprising, but interesting avian observation yesterday from my office
window. We are in the U. Heights old Elementary school and are rewarded with
15 foot high windows with unobstructed views of the surrounding canopy
habitat. However, this observation occured closer to what might have been
the herbaceous layer previously. We occaisonally have gulls cruise by the
building here, but rarely do they stop by... However yesterday morning I
noticed that someone had "cleaned their car" the night before by opening the
doors and dumping the bags of their dinner remanents on the pavement in the
parking lot. Didn't think much of it, however later that morning I was
sitting at my desk and heard several gull cries at close range...looked out
the window and there were 5 crows tearing into the "food source" and 7 gulls
(3 adults, 4 juves) circling overhead. I was amazed at how these creatures
are so adapted to the habitats that we have created that they not only
recognize white paper bags as a potential food source, but that they utilize
it within a very short time period. And gather quite the crowd. Okay, so it
is not a rare bird siting, but it fits into the awareness of how we have
changed this ecosystem and how the various elements within the system adapt
to utilize the resources available.

An interesting peice of research on that topic is in the Feb.'97 issue of the
journal of Northwest Science. The research indicates that coyotes are
becoming more abundant in our urban/rural/agricultural landscape as we create
more food sources for them. Increases in "meadow/pasture" habitats has
increased the vole and mice populations (sources of prey for those raptors
too), and urban/rural habitat has increased the "habitat" for domestic cats
which comprised a significant percentage of the mamalian diet of the coyotes.
How does this relate to birds? Well, the coyotes are busy foraging on
domestic cats, which means that the domestic cats are not busy foraging on
passerines, Therefore the presence of the coyotes may be a benefit to the
passerines due to the coyotes control (such as it is) on a major passerine
predator...such intricacies....

Dyanne
Univ. District, Seattle