Tweets--

thought this might be of interest..

this is the way it appeared in our local paper
including Mr. Latta's comment that falcons
kill with their feet..

Tom

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 12:28:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tom Foote <footet at elwha.evergreen.edu>
To: Hawk-l <hawk-l at falconry.org>
Subject: Newspaper story on Peregrines LONG




The Olympian Friday July 17, 1998 Olympia, WA

Falcons Return to California
PEREGRINES: A resurgence in the channel islands
is an indication that DDT levels are falling.

Los Angeles Times
ANACAPA ISLAND, Calif. - The three men scramble across the steep
hillside, clinging to clumps of coreopsis and bunch grass. The foaming
sea crashes on the jagged black rocks more than a hundred feet below.
As they near their destination-a tiny cave carved from the stern cliff
face-a proud, big-winged bird circles, swooping down and screaming her
shrill warning cry: "Caaaa caaaaa caaaaa!"
The bird is a peregrine falcon.
The men, rangers and biologists from the Channel Islands National Park,
are hiking in to her nest. It is hatching season, and they hope to find
some chicks.
After being driven to near extinction in the past four decades by the
deadly pesticide DDT, peregrine falcons-which once soared in great numbers
above the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California have been
returning to the islands' pocked volcanic cliffs.
First they were released into the wild by humans. Then some began
migrating south from their strongholds farther north. In the past several
years the falcons have begun-slowly-to reproduce on the islands.
Now there are at least 14 peregrine falcon pairs on the five islands
that make up the national park: Santa Cruz, Anacapa, San Miguel, Santa
Barbara and Santa Rosa.
Perched at the top of the local food chain, peregrine falcons are
considered an indicator species-an index for the health of all the animals
and plants beneath them.
About 60 miles southwest of Anacapa Island sits the world's largest DDT
deposit, about 100 tons, sprawled across 27 square miles of the ocean
floor near Los Angeles. Montrose Chemical Corp., which manufactured the
pesticide at a plant near Torrance, Calif., from 1947 to 1971, flushed
waste into the county sewers.
Decades later, that poison still lingers in the sediment on the ocean
floor and works its way up the food chain.
But park Superintendent Tim Setnicka, one of three hikers, call the
falcons' homecoming a symbol of returning environmental health on the wild
chunks of rock off the coast of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
On this day the men will see how many falcon chicks have survived,
gather eggshell fragments to test for pesticide effects and tag chicks so
they can monitor their travels and whether they reproduce in the wild.
Sweaty and streaked with dirt, the men reach the cave and peer into the
shadows. There sits a single terrified chick. Her shattered eggshell is
scattered about.
She is soft, with white down like the inside of a pillow, but already
she is armed with talons more than half an inch long. She is 23 days old
and she is alone. she will unsteadily take wing-or fledge-in about 20
days.
Park field biologist Brian Latta reaches in with his bare hands-gloves
might hinder the delicate process-and grabs the chick. She screeches and
scratches drawing his blood.
Her startled eyes dart about as Latta deftly clips a silver tag onto
her ankle.
"Looking at a young peregrine is like looking into the soul of the
Channel Islands," Setnicka said. "If the birds of prey are coming back,
it means the islands are less polluted."

AT A GLANCE
Peregrine Falcon Facts

Revered as the fastest flying bird, the peregrine
falcon is an aerial predator that can dive at speeds
exceeding 150 mph. The peregrine's name derives
from "peregrinus" meaning wanderer.
Monogamous birds, they usually mate for life. The
female is bigger, and built for battle, and the male is
smaller and built for speed, said Brian Latta, a field
biologist at Channel Islands National Park, off the
coast of California.
Ninety nine per cent of their diet consists of other
birds. They dive through the air and kill prey with
their talons.
"It is like someone riding by on a motorcycle with
a switchblade and going for the juggler," Latta said.