"Jim Stewart" wrote in message
...
Ed Huntress wrote:

I have an offbeat reaction to all of this intrusion. For a large part of
my
life I lived in rural areas, and I've been a hunter most of my life. On
one
hand I love seeing the wildlife moving in. On the other hand, it feels a
little like being invaded by immigrants.

New Jersey has some perigrine falcons back here now, and some bald
eagles,
and so on. A sharp-shinned hawk hunts in my back yard. It all feels very
strange and unnatural. Wild turkeys that won't move until you
practically
kick them are unnatural. Deer running down streets are unnatural. Black
bears that have so taken over some state parks that you can't leave your
campsite are unnatural. At least, they're unnatural for New Jersey. Out
west
or in the deep south, I love to see them. Then I like to go home when
I've
had enough of coyotes keeping me awake half the night.

I know what you mean. I grew up in the Cascade Mountains
and saw far less wildlife than I do now, in the Sacramento
Valley. I've seen swenson's hawks, burrowing owls, barn
owls, unknown species of falcons, a pair of young Golden Eagles,
adult, yearling and pup coyotes, possum nests with babies,
raccoons and thousands of ground squirrels and voles.

All between my house and I-80, about 500 feet away.

Well, there ya' go. That's a good example of adaptation. We think of those
birds, particularly, as species that live in really remote areas. I had no
idea that Golden Eagles would nest that close to human activity, for
example.

Falcons seem to be very adaptable. There are a couple of nests of Peregrines
that have been living on the sides of tall buildings in New York City. The
littlest falcons, the Kestrels (they're called "sparrow hawks" here) live
all over the state. It's been some years now but I saw a Merlin (also called
a "duck hawk"), a falcon just slightly smaller than a Peregrine and
similarly colored, near the Delaware River.

You could get some numbers on overall eastern populations from the records
the birders keep at Hawk Mountain in PA, or from similar ones kept at Cape
May, NJ, which are two hotspots for the raptor migrations. There must be
something similar in the West.

--
Ed Huntress