Re: [Marxism] Red-tail hawk sighting

["Jacob Levich" <jlevich@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Does anyone know whether the presence of red-tail ("chicken") hawks
> in cities is new?

Not really -- they like cities, especially dirty cities, because people's 
garbage attracts rats, mice and other prey. (See the Times article pasted 
below -- the Bronx Birding Club spotted 14 of them on a day in 1934.)

A lot of factors come into play, though. Falcon, eagle, and hawk populations 
were all in severe decline until the DDT ban came into effect in 1972. Now 
raptors are making a comeback nationwide. This is something to be kept in 
mind as Big Agriculture increases pressure to bring back DDT -- using yuppie 
hysteria over bedbugs as the thin edge of the wedge. (I guess that qualifies 
as relevance to Marxism.)

Just about everything I know about urban birds is due to Bob DeCandido, and 
extraordinarily knowledgable, personable, and entertaining naturalist who 
leads weekly bird walks in Central Park. It's only $5 and it's well worth 
it. His insights turned my 10-year-old son into a dedicated birder and 
fervent environmentalist.

You can find out more about him at his Web site, http://www.birdingbob.com/

I believe he's about to go on a research trip to Malaysia, so I'm not sure 
how many more walks are scheduled before he goes. But catch one of you can.

Jake

**************

97 SPECIES OF BIRDS FOUND IN THIS AREA
New York Times - 28 December 1934
pg. 23

Bronx Club Members' Census reveals one more kind than last year

> From early morning until after dusk last Sunday, twenty-nine members of the 
Bronx County Bird Club, in their eleventh annual bird census, toured a 
roughly circular district, between the Palisades, Van Cortlandt Park, Rye 
and White Plains, in search of birds. Dr. Ernst Mayr, associate curator of 
birds at the American Museum of Natural History, compared the reports of the 
members and announced yesterday that ninety-seven species had been recorded, 
one more than last year.

Three birds were seen, he said, that had not been found on any previous 
census - the pigeon hawk, the clapper rail and the purple sandpiper. A 
purple sandpiper was seen by a party led by William Vogt of the Jones Beach 
Bird Sanctuary. His party had hired a boat to take a census of marine birds, 
fearing, as happened last year, they would miss several birds owing to fog.

In the last eleven years, Dr. Mayr said, the club has recorded in its 
censuses, always taken on the Sunday before Christmas, 139 species. He 
believed that in the next 25 years, the club might find 160 species, 
depending on climactic conditions.

All over the country, Dr. Mayr said, similar censuses are taken from Dec. 22 
to 27. The results are sent to Dr. Frank Chapman, editor of Bird-Lore, which 
is published by the National Association of Audubon Societies, and the 
tabulations are used as an index of climatic conditions and the migration of 
birds. Dr. Chapman originated the first bird census in this country in 1899.

The complete 1934 census list of the Bronx club, with estimates of the 
numbers of birds seen is as follows:


Common loon, 4 
Long-eared owl, 5
Red-throated loon, 3 
Short-eared owl, 16
Horned grebe, 1 
Belted kingfisher, 3
Great blue heron, 8 
Flicker, 11
Black-crowned night heron, 60                                      Hairy 
woodpecker, 11
American bittern, 2 
Downy woodpecker, 61
Mute Swan, 2 
Blue jay, 88
Canada goose, 3 
Crow, 54
Mallard, 17 
Fish crow, 5
Black Duck, 1000 
Black-capped chickadee, 84
Canadian red leg black duck, 1000                                Tufted 
titmouse, 12
Baldpate, 3 
White-breasted nuthatch, 50
Pintail, 7 
Red-breasted nuthatch, 2
Green winged teal, 1 
Brown creeper, 11
Wood duck, 14 
Winter wren, 14
Canvasback, 15 
Carolina wren, 1
Greater scaup, 6000 
Long-billed marsh wren, 6
Lesser scaup, 1 
Catbird, 1
American goldeneye, 775                                              Robin, 
10
Bufflehead, 6 
Hermit thrush, 1
Old-squaw, 18 
Bluebird, 48
White-winged Scoter, 2000 
Golden-crowned kinglet, 29
Hooded Merganser, 1                                                  Cedar 
waxwing, 7
American merganser, 250                                             Northern 
shrike, 1
Red-breasted merganser, 231                                       Starling, 
8000
Sharp-shinned hawk, 2                                                 Mrytle 
warbler, 178
Cooper's hawk, 3 
English sparrow, 900
Red-tailed hawk, 14 
Meadow lark, 23
Red-shouldered hawk, 6 
Redwing, 50
Rough-legged hawk, 1                                                  Rusty 
blackbird, 4
Duck hawk, 2 
Bronze grackle, 1
Pigeon hawk, 1 
Cowbird, 6
Sparrow hawk, 20 
Cardinal, 1
Bob-white, 78 
Purple finch, 1
Ring-neck pheasant, 85                                                Pine 
siskin, 6
Clapper rail, 1 
Goldfinch, 118
Virginia rail, 1 
Towhee, 2
Killdeer, 23 
Savannah sparrow, 39
Woodcock, 23 
Sharp-tailed sparrow, 1
Wilson's snipe, 6 
Slate-colored junco, 560
Purple sandpiper, 4 
Tree sparrow, 1050
Iceland gull, 1 
Field sparrow, 48
Great black-backed gull, 34 
White-crowned sparrow, 1
Herring gull, 15000 
White-throated sparrow, 113
Ring-billed gull, 270 
Fox sparrow, 19
Bonaparte's gull, 17 
Swamp sparrow, 29
Screech-owl, 5 
Song sparrow, 330
Barred owl, 3 
Snow bunting, 9
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