Falconers, birders, and fish and wildlife officers, and bilogists are the
ones that will determine where nests (eeries) are and how many birds we have
in our state. Falconers are very, VERY protective when they find any raptor
nest such as a peregrine falcon, merlin, etc. They don't want any unwanted
attention to that nest site, therefore keeping the birds safe. Like I said,
taking a bird out of the wild won't do anything, if the falconer plans on
releasing, which they most often do, it benefits the birds greatly because
we teach them how to take difficult quarry, how to take them safely etc.
Cooper's hawks, females at least, don't take crows reguarly. But if a
falconer wants to catch crows with a female cooper's, then the falconer will
teach the bird how to, when that birds goes back into the wild, it now knows
how to catch one more DIFFICULT quarry just in case hard times come. Trust
me, as a birder and falconer, don't be too concenred about what happens,
because falconers do have the BEST interest and welfare in mind of the wild
birds of prey.



Blake Iverson
Arlington, WA
coopershwk at hotmail.com





>From: Hans Krauss <wingnuts at cet.com>
>Reply-To: wingnuts at cet.com
>To: Birders Inland NW <inland-nw-birders at uidaho.edu>, Post Tweeters
><tweeters at u.washington.edu>, commission at dfw.wa.gov
>Subject: 5% taking of falcons
>Date: Fri, 06 Dec 2002 16:38:10 -0800
>
>I am not an expert on the subject but it seems to me there are too many
>unknowns. 5% of what?
>Who determines the number of chicks available in WA state? How accurate is
>the estimate? One chick out of a 2 chick nest is 50%. What is the
>mortality rate of the falcon population? We all know that many factors
>influence survival and now West Nile is an added problem. There is only
>one pair nesting in Spokane that I am aware of which is not exactly a
>population explosion of falcons. When in doubt don't take them out! Hans
>Krauss Spokane WA


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