Some birding good news
I drove from Taughannoch to Treman Marina and thought aboutpopulation changes for some of the charismatic fauna. Peregrine young at Taughannoch! At the peak of DDT use,there were no nesting Peregrine Falcons in eastern United States. Tom Cadetried to re-introduce peregrines to Taughannoch. Without adults, a Great HornedOwls ate some of the young and others were recaptured and returned tocaptive breeding. I drove by Glenwood Pines and the long term eagle nestnearby. Bald Eagles were eliminated from New York at the DDT peak: excepting a pair on Hemlock Lake that laid eggs with thin egg shells that did not hatch.That pair was successfully used for foster parenting. With the boost from youngeagles hacked back at Montezuma by Tina Milburn, a Tom Cade graduate student,and young hacked back by Peter Nye and the DEC, eagles are now conspicuous inNew York. Osprey were limited to the Long Island area where they atefish from the ocean during the peak use of DDT. Osprey are now doing fabulously. Merlin first nested in New York in 1990s in the Adirondacks.These birds came from an exploding population in Ontario that expandedsouthward after the DDT ban. This has been followed by Merlin nesting inTompkins County since 2005. Fish Crow moved northward into Tompkins County in the 1970s. We can now see nests of all five of these species in a 10 miledrive and 15 minutes, whereas none of the raptors were here in the peak yearsof DDT use. Somethings do get better. Enjoy -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
