Subject: squirrel predation possible resource
Date: Jan 30 16:00:40 2003
From: Layra Croft - owlerprowler at yahoo.com


My how times have changed....This reminds me of a
journal that I read when I was working in a
ornithology lab as an undergraduate in the Midwest. An
ornithology professor from the early 1900's had
written that there were so many prairie chickens
around, "you could have 3 for breakfast, lunch and
dinner every day for the rest of your life" and called
them "horrendous squawking chickens with lemons caught
in their throats." The ornithology professors at that
university wished they could have even found one
prairie chicken in the area! (they had completely
vanished from that entire area years before)
something to think about.....

--- B&P Bell <bellasoc at isomedia.com> wrote:
> Gary and Tweets -
>
> Having owned a copy of Birds of American since I was
> a kid, your
> reference sent me to the nether regions of the
> collection. You are
> correct, it does contain "grisly little paragraphs"
> of food sources and
> stomach contents. Of the hawks and owls, only the
> Great Grey and Horned
> Owls were noted as including squirrels as a food
> source.
>
> In addition to this information the book is
> informative on changing
> attitudes towards many birds, particularly
> predators. The hawks, eagles,
> and falcons are rated as to being "beneficial" or
> "not beneficial" with
> many uses of the term evil included. All of the
> accipiters are deemed
> evil and worthy of extermination - quoting:
> "Although the Sharp-shinned
> Hwk has a body but little larger than a Robin's,
> this relentless
> buccaneer, like his larger relative, the Cooper's
> Hawk, fully uphold the
> traditions of Hawks for destructiveness.", and "This
> murderous little
> villain will destroy all small birds unfortunate
> enough to live within
> its hunting grounds." Similarly the owls are rated,
> with notes for some
> species that if they confined their ranges to the
> open spaces of the
> west they could be considered beneficial because
> they eat rodents.
>
> The Fuertes plates are generally very nice, although
> some of the birds
> are rather generalized.
>
> Another interesting point is the changes of names
> which have taken
> place (in some cases a number of times) since the
> publication in 1917
> and 1936. An example is the Flicker or Northern
> Flicker with many
> references to other names including Yellow-shafted
> and Red-shafted.
>
> Brian H. Bell
> Woodinville Wa
> bellasoc at isomedia.com
>
> Gary Bletsch wrote:
>
> > Dear Tweeters,
> >
> > I don't have the time to look into it, but I
> believe there might be
> > info on the prey items of owls and hawks, and
> perhaps squirrel
> > predation as well, in the old Birds of America
> book. I think that's
> > the title. It's the one from the early 20th
> century with the plates by
> > Louis Agassiz Fuertes.
> >
> > One thing I remember from that venerable book are
> the grisly little
> > paragraphs that the authors included for many
> species, telling about
> > "examination of stomach contents."
> >
> > Yours truly,
> >
> > Gary Bletsch
> >
> >
> >
>
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>
>
>
>
>


=====
Layra Croft
Edmonds, WA mailto:owlerprowler at yahoo.com

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