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Black Racer Snake

26 Apr

The Racer is a black snake from New England with smooth scales. The face of the snake’s face is white or gray. It’s stomach is generally dark [gray, bluish, or black] from the throat back. The snake as a silky or stain-like because of the smooth scales. A juvenile racer is gray with large brown, black, or reddish blotches. The snake has dark eyes and the pattern on it starts to fades after it gets older. The same pattern will disappear when it reaches 25-30 inches in length. The racer is the only large, black snake in New England with smooth scales.

Racers mate in the spring and females deposit 10-12 eggs in mammal burrows under rocks, logs, mulch, or rotting logs. When they lay eggs in June or July hatch in August and September. They eat small mammals, other snakes and insects. These snakes bite very hard and often. These snakes are difficult to capture because they spray musk at the person trying to capture them.

Racer Snake

Racer Snake

How they eat?

Black racer snakes are an important link in the food chain in the natural ecosystems of the world. The typical prey of the black racer snake depends on the size of the black racer snake. It usually includes small varieties of invertebrates, such as slugs, worms and insects. They also eat fish, some varieties of amphibians, other snakes, birds, the eggs which are laid by birds, and some species of small mammals.

Some species, including the black racer snake, the black rat snake and the milk snake also consume a large number of rodents. They can be seen around barns and it is because of the fact that they eat rodents and other farm pests that they are of great help to farmers. They frequently enter the burrows of mice and rats and eat their young, and they also like slugs and other species of insects that have soft bodies.

 
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Parrot Snake

26 Apr

This snake is well camouflaged in the trees with a bright green body. The snake is found in southern Mexico, Central America, and Argentina. The snake recoils and opens its mouth to frighten predators. The snake eats amphibians, reptiles, and birds. The snake parrot snake is from the Colubridae family.
There are around six different species of parrot snakes. They are 2 meters in length. These are not venomous snakes. The snake helps keep the amphibian population in balance.

Parrot Snake

Parrot Snake

 
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Copper Head Snake

26 Apr

Habitat

Within its range it occupies a variety of different habitats. In most of its range favoring deciduous forest and mixed woodlands. They are often associated with rock outcroppings and ledges, but are also found in low-lying swampy regions. In the southern parts it can also be found in pine forests in. In the dry areas of West Texas and Mexico it is often found around watercourses.

It prefers to live in wooded areas, among rocks, or near streams or ponds because prey is more plentiful in such locations. Favorite hiding places include stone walls, sawdust, garden mulch or compost piles, and under decaying stumps, in wood piles, under abandoned building debris, and under large flat stones. This snake will be seen basking during the day when weather is cool but not cold. During the heat of summer, it will stay hidden during the day and become active at night.

In October the Copperhead retreats to its underground den to hibernate until late February or early March. Dens are most often in rocky hillsides with southern or eastern exposure to the sun. These “snake dens” will be returned to year after year and may contain a large number of snakes. In late summer through mid-October, between 1 and 14 young are born alive rather than hatched from eggs.

This common snake accounts for the largest number of snake bites in the US every year, thousands of documented cases of people injured every year, and many more pets that are bitten often many of these going unreported.

Copperheads are very common in many districts, Throughout the South Eastern states in particular; North Carolina holds the dubious title of the state with the most snakebite cases each year.

With such high numbers of Copperhead snakes in the places we live in, being the main reason for the great number of injuries.

Small copperhead snakes are notorious for getting “Everywhere” in the garden, in flower beds, in cars, coming up around porches and decks, many being so small they are an invitation to small children and pets to investigate.

Even the smallest baby copperhead is capable of inflicting a painful and dangerous bite

Baby copperhead showing its distinctive yellow tail

The Copperhead comes in several color variations, depending on the location, from bright copper and light through to very dark brown shades.

Copperheads are usually colorful and strikingly patterned snakes. The background color of the back and sides is tan to pinkish. There are darker, chestnut colored bands across the back and sides. Each hourglass shaped band is of varying width.

Newborn Copperheads are colored and patterned like adults, excepting the last inch of so of the tail which will be a bright, sulfur yellow color.

Virtually all adult still retain the copper color head, which gives it its name.

When adult they are moderately sized snakes, normally reaching 2–4 feet, with thick, heavy bodies.

The copperhead bite is not usually fatal in adults, but very painful and often lasting discomfort is the result.

Parents who have seen their children go through the pain and suffering a copperhead bite can cause; it is something nobody would wish to experience again.

Bite symptoms include intense pain, tingling, throbbing, swelling, and severe nausea. Damage can occur to muscle and bone tissue, especially when the bite occurs in the outer extremities such as the hands and feet, areas in which there is not a large muscle mass to absorb the venom.

 
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Black – Rat Snake

26 Apr

Rat snakes are medium to large constrictors that can be found through a great portion of the northern hemisphere. They feed primarily on rodents and birds and, with some species exceeding 10 feet, they can occupy top levels of some food chains. Many species make attractive and docile pets and one, the corn snake, is one of the most popular reptile pets in the world. Other species can be very skittish and sometimes aggressive but bites are seldom serious and no species of ratsnake is dangerous to humans. They were long thought to be completely nonvenomous, but recent studies have shown that at least some Old World species do possess small amounts of venom (amounts so small as to be negligible to humans).

Previously most ratsnakes were assigned to the genus Elaphe but many have been since renamed following mitochondrial DNA analysis performed in 2002. For the purpose of this article names will be harmonized with the TIGR Database. When searching for information on a particular species of ratsnake it might be useful to query the old name, Elaphe sp., as well as the new.

Black - Rat Snake

Black - Rat Snake

Black rat snakes will do very well on a diet consisting solely of domestic rodents. Baby rat snakes will usually start out eating a new born mouse pink without any trouble. As the snake grows, you can feed increasingly larger mice. Baby rat snakes should be fed every 4 to 6 days while adults will do well on adult mice or rat fuzzies fed every 7 to 10 days. The size of the prey item should be no larger than the maximum diameter of the snake. I like to feed my snakes until satiated.
Small prey items like mouse pinks, fuzzies, and hoppers as well as rat pinks and fuzzies can be fed alive or dead depending on what the snake will accept and what is most convenient for the owner. Larger prey items should be fed dead to eliminate any chance of the rodent injuring the snake. Some owners prefer to buy rodents frozen in bulk to save money, and this can be a very convenient supply of food items. Other keepers prefer to buy live rodents at the pet store. Rodents can be bred at home, but unless you have a number of snakes to feed this is probably more trouble than it is worth.
Several things can be tried to induce a troublesome neonate to eat its first meal. First, place a newborn mouse pink inside the snakes enclosure overnight. If the snake does not eat it, then take the snake and the pink and place them both in a much smaller container like a deli cup overnight. If this still does not work, give the snake a couple days of rest then try a split brain pink. This involves taking a DEAD pink and cutting into the head to expose the brain. Place the split brain pink and the snake into a deli cup overnight. This will often work. If not, then try again with a lizard scented pink. Anoles and house geckos work well. Cut open the abdominal cavity of a frozen lizard and rub a thawed pink into this cut and place this scented pink and the snake into a deli cup overnight. This can also be tried using a small piece of lizard skin dried onto the head of the pinky. If a humidity box is used, then try placing a live pink on the outside lid of the humidity box. If this doesn’t work, try a dead pink. These techniques and a lot of patience should get a troublesome hatchling to eat. However, it is the breeder’s responsibility to make sure that any snake that they sell is eating unscented mice before selling it.
Another thing that will sometimes work to get a troublesome baby to eat is to try a different food item. If available, a pink deer mouse will often elicit a very strong feeding response in most North American snakes of the genera Lampropeltis, Elaphe, and Pituophis. Although the information above is a bit frightening and at times gruesome, do not be discouraged as most pet owners will never have to deal with these problems, especially with a rat snake. However, if you intend to breed your snakes then you will need to be familiar with these techniques.

Breeding:

Prebreeding Conditioning: Before beginning to breed or brumate your snakes, inspect them closely. They should be in optimal health and have good weight. They should have a minimum size of 36 inches and weigh at least 150 grams. If your snakes are smaller than this or are thin or otherwise not in optimal health, then wait until the following year to breed them. Otherwise, you may end up with a dead snake or experience problems like egg binding. The generally accepted method of breeding corn snakes involves a period of cooling called brumation which is similar to hibernation but the snakes still remain active to some extent. This involves first stopping feeding two weeks before the cooling period is to begin. This is to eliminate any remaining food still inside the snake, which could rot inside the snake during cooling and potentially kill it. After the two weeks are over, slowly decrease the temperature over several days until a temperature of about 55F to 60F is reached. Keep the snakes at this temperature for two to three months usually from December through February. Check on the snake’s health frequently, and change their water weekly. If any signs of respiratory infections are seen then warm the snake up and treat the infection. Do not feed the snakes during this time. At the end of the cooling period, slowly warm the snakes up to the normal maintenance temperatures and begin feeding. Feed the females as much as they will eat in order to fatten them up before breeding.

Breeding: After her first or sometimes second shed, the female will be ready to breed. Start to introduce the female into the male’s cage. Watch the pair closely, if the female is ready for breeding she will produce pheromones from her skin which will attract the male. The male will start to chase the female and rub his “chin” along her back. Actual breeding usually lasts about 20 minutes or so, but could last an hour or more. If they do not breed after an hour or two, separate them and try again in a day or two. If they do breed, then separate them afterward and reintroduce them every couple of days until she has been bred at least three times. This should ensure the fertility of the eggs. After the female has been bred, again start an accelerated feeding schedule. Feed the female smaller, easily digested food items every few days. She will need these nutrient reserves to produce the eggs. About six weeks after breeding, the female will undergo a shed cycle. At this time you will need to give her a nest box to lay her eggs in. This box should contain moist but not wet sphagnum moss in a closed dark container. I use a plastic storage box (shoebox) with a hole cut in the lid. Remember to cut the hole larger than normal, as she will be swollen with eggs. About 10 days after shedding, the female will become very active as she searches for the best place to lay her eggs. She will usually settle down inside the nest box and lay her eggs, from 5 to 30 depending on the size of the female, sometime over the next couple of days. If she settles into the water dish, you may want to replace it with one that is too small for her to enter and without a lid. This will encourage her to look for another place to lay her eggs. After she lays her eggs, feed her a smaller than normal prey item for the next couple of feedings. She will be weak from her pregnancy and small prey items will be easier for her to eat and digest. If a second mating and egg clutch are to be attempted, than again feed her on the accelerated feeding schedule. After her next shed, start to reintroduce the male as before. Remember though that a second clutch of fertile eggs is possible without a second breeding due to stored sperm. After the second clutch is laid, it will be even more important for the female to regain her lost weight. Feed her as much as she will eat until she has regained good weight.

Care for the eggs and babies: The eggs should be placed inside a container (plastic food containers without the lid work well) of coarse, damp vermiculite. The vermiculite should be mixed with water 1:1 by weight. This should make the vermiculite damp enough to just clump when squeezed together. The container should then be placed inside an incubator of some kind that will maintain a temperature of around 82F. Watch the eggs closely, if they begin to dimple or cave in, then add a little more water. The eggs should hatch in 6 to 8 weeks. Various incubators exist, but a good, small incubator is the Hova-bator incubator sold through pet supply dealers or at feed stores where they sell them for incubating chicken eggs. These incubators cost around $30 to $40, and are well worth the money.
When the eggs start to hatch, the baby (neonate) snake will slit open the leathery egg by means of a temporary egg tooth located on the tip of their snouts. They will often remain inside the slit egg for a day or two with just their heads sticking out of the slit. Do NOT try to force the baby out of its egg before it is ready, as it will be attached to an umbilicus and yolk sac. Forcing it out of its protective egg may result in killing the snake due to dehydration as water will be quickly lost through the yolk sac and umbilicus. Also, do not cut the umbilicus as it will cause the snake to bleed to death. The umbilicus will fall off on its own in a day or two so wait until the snake leaves its egg on its own. Set up each neonate into its own separate enclosure. I use plastic shoeboxes with many very small holes drilled into all the sides. Use paper towels as substrate and keep careful records of sheds and feedings. The baby snakes will usually start eating sometime after their first shed. Start them off on a live newborn pink mouse. If you plan to sell or give these animals to other people than provide them with these records.

 
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Anaconda

26 Apr

Anacondas are large, nonvenomous boas of the genus Eunectes. They are found in tropical South America.

The most familiar species is the green anaconda, “Eunectes murinus”, notable for being one of the world’s largest snakes. Green anacondas can grow to be 29 feet long and 550 pounds. They are found east of the Andes in Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, and on the island of Trinidad.

Other anacondas are the yellow anaconda, Eunectes notaeus, a smaller species found in eastern Bolivia, southern Brazil, Paraguay and northeastern Argentina; and the dark-spotted anaconda, “Eunectes deschauenseei”, a rare species found in northeastern Brazil, coastal French Guiana and Guyana.

All three species are aquatic snakes that prey on other aquatic animals, including fish, river fowl, caiman, and capybaras. Some accounts exist of anacondas preying on domestic animals such as goats and ponies that venture too close to the water.

While encounters between people and anacondas may be dangerous, they do not regularly hunt humans. Nevertheless, threat from anacondas is a familiar trope in comics, movies and adventure stories set in the Amazon jungle. Anacondas have also figured prominently in South American folklore, where they are sometimes depicted as shapeshifting mythical creatures called encantados. Local communities and some European explorers have given accounts of giant anacondas, legendary snakes of much greater proportion than any confirmed specimen.

Applied loosely, the term “anaconda” may also refer to any large snake that “crushes” its prey by constricting.

Anaconda

Anaconda

Anacondas are the strongest snakes in the world of snakes. Anacondas kill their prey by squeezing them until they die and then they eat them hole. They also can be up to 18 to 35 feet long and can weigh up to 500 pounds. Anacondas eat up to 40 pounds a day. Anacondas are the heaviest snakes in the world of all snakes. Another name for an anaconda is Eunectes murinus which is a scientific name for it. Some people thought that anacondas where some kind of sea monster. Anacondas are carnivorous.
Anacondas swallow their meal hole and when the meal is in their body their bones crush the meal. Anacondas feed on deer, pigs caiman( a creature that looks like a small crocodile). Anaconda are very amazing snakes.

 
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Octopus

26 Apr
The octopus is a cephalopod that inhabits many diverse regions of the ocean, especially coral reefs. Octopuses are characterized by their eight arms, usually with sucker cups on them. They are highly intelligent, but have a very short life span.
Octopus

Octopus

Cephalopods:

Cephalopods are invertebrates. Their inside organs are protected by a mantle, which consists of a thick covering of skin and muscle. Cephalopod means “head foot.” Other cephalopods include squids, cuttlefishes and chambered nautiluses.

Anatomy:

Octopuses have a soft body and eight arms. Each arm has two rows of suction cups. An octopus uses its mantle to breathe. It has ‘mantle slits’ behind the eyes. It draws in water through the slits into the mantle. Two gills remove the oxygen from the water, then the slits close and the water is released through a tube called the “siphon.”

Moving About:

Octopuses use their mantle to swim. They tighten all the mantle muscles at once, squeezing a blast of water from the siphon, causing the octopus to launch forward. It can control its speed by controlling the force of the water. They can also control the direction they go. Some octopuses also use their arms to crawl across the ocean floor.

Diet and Digestion:

Octopuses eat many different kinds of sea creatures. They like oysters and clams. They use their suction cups to pull the shells apart and get the food inside. They also like lobsters and crabs. Octopuses have a sharp beak. They use it to break through an animal’s shell. Then it kills the animal with poison that the octopus makes in its mouth.

Reproduction:

The octopus mother lays thousands of eggs. She guards them for weeks. When the baby octopuses are born, the eggs burst open and the tiny octopuses swim out. The mother octopus will die soon after her eggs hatch. She will never see her babies again. Many babies will be eaten by fish, birds or other creatures.

Defending Themselves:

Octopuses face many dangers in the sea, but they do have ways of protecting themselves:

  • Camouflage – They have special coloring to help them blend in with their surroundings.
  • Hiding – The octopus can change colors which can confuse their enemies. They can also hide in holes in the rocks.
  • Ink cloud – The octopus squirts a dark, inky liquid into the water and then swims away to safety.
 
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Panther

25 Apr

A black panther is a large black cat. Black panthers are melanistic colour variants of several species of larger cat. Wild black panthers in Latin America are black jaguars (Panthera onca), in Asia and Africa black leopards (Panthera pardus), and in North America may be black jaguars or possibly black cougars (Puma concolor – although this has not been proven to have a black variant), or smaller cats.

Black panthers are also reported as cryptids in areas such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, and for these (if they do exist) the species is not known. Captive black panthers may be black jaguars, or more commonly black leopards. Black panthers have sometimes been regarded as forming different species from their normally-colored relatives.

The name “panther” is often limited to the black variants of the species, but is also used to refer to those which are normally-colored for the species (tawny or spotted), or to white color variants: white panthers.

Black Panther

Black Panther

 
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Vulture

25 Apr


Turkey Vulture

Turkey Vulture

 

What is the Difference between New World and Old World Vultures?
Vultures are all large, carrion-eating birds.  For years, it was believed that all vultures were raptors, members of the order Falconiformes.  In 1994, however, it was discovered that the vultures inhabiting the American continents share a common ancestor with storks and ibises.  Now, American vultures, or New World vultures, are recognized as Ciconiiformes, in the family Cathartidae.  European, African, and Asian vultures are recognized as Old World vultures (family Accipitridae, subfamily Aegypiinae).  There are 15 species of Old World Vultures and 7 Species of New World Vultures.

 



General Information
I’m sure you’ve gazed at one of those noble, graceful figures soaring in the sky on a mild day… Well, what you are seeing is probably not a hawk.  It is a vulture.  Vultures are one of very few creatures capable of soaring for hours at a time.  And it is effortless.  For years, superstitious individuals have claimed that the sight of soaring vultures is a sure signal that a dead animal can be found nearby.  This is not true.  Vultures are highly intelligent creatures who love to play as much as humans.  When a vulture discovers a thermal (warm pocket of air), the bird is able to hold its wings motionless, and allow the warm air to carry it in large, sweeping circles, toward the sky.
Ugly Animal?
The vulture’s bald head is one feature that appears revolting to many people, but it is a brilliant physiological property that allows the creature to plunge into all sorts of carcasses, and come out clean.  Without feathers to serve as a habitat for all the bacteria that infests their meals, vultures soar through their lives disease-free.  After eating, vultures can often be seen perched in the heat of the sun.  Here, whatever has managed to cling to the few bits of fuzz on their head will be baked off once and for all.Many of the behavioral traits of the vulture have brought it considerable (and unfair) attention as an unsanitary creature.  However, each habit of the vulture is an adaptation, evolved to help it survive under the conditions in which it lives.  First of all, a diet of dead and decaying flesh would turn our stomachs inside out.  But think of how our landscape would look without the help of the vulture.  Serving as nature’s janitors, these wonderful birds fly about, stomaching the most revolting of cuisine, and ridding our ecosystem of maggots and disease-carrying viruses in the process.  With 100 times the botulism of a human, the stomach of a vulture can digest meat in advanced stages of decay, a favor to every other creature in the world.
 
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Hawk | Kites

25 Apr

Kites are raptors with long wings and weak legs which spend a great deal of time soaring. Most feed mostly on carrion but some take various amounts of live prey.

They are birds of prey which, along with hawks and eagles, are from the family Accipitridae.

Red Kites

Red Kites are distinctive because of their forked tail and striking colour – predominantly chestnut red with white patches under the wings and a pale grey head.
They have a wingspan of nearly two metres (about five-and-a-half-feet), but a relatively small body weight of 2 – 3 Ibs.
This means the bird is incredibly agile, and can stay in the air for many hours with hardly a beat of its wings.

Red Kite

Red Kite

Red Kites are neither particularly strong nor aggressive despite being large birds.
Primarily a scavenger and an opportunist; it profits from sheep carrion but is not capable of opening up sheep or lamb carcasses by itself and has to wait until more powerful birds such as ravens or buzzards have made the first inroads before it will attempt to feed.
Red Kites are however predators and take a wide variety of live prey, ranging from earthworms to small mammals, amphibians and birds.

Red Kites usually breed for the first time at 2 or 3 years old. They usually pair for life, although this is thought to be more because of a mutual attachment to the same territory and nest sites rather than any great attachment to each other.

There are a few recorded cases of ‘divorces’ where both members of the original pair were later found breeding with different partners.
Nests are built almost exclusively in trees – mostly in hardwoods, such as oaks, and are usually built at a height of between 4 and 30 metres above the ground. They are usually fairly flat, untidy structures of sticks about 2 feet in width.

For established pairs, courtship and nest-building usually start in earnest during March, about 2 – 4 weeks before the first egg is laid, but first-time breeders may not start until April.

Eggs are normally laid at three-day intervals. Between one and four are usually laid, two being by far the most usual number. Incubation is carried out by the female, who is fed at the nest by the male. Males will incubate for very short periods (usually less than 30 minutes) while the female goes off to feed, hunt or preen. Each egg will hatch between 31 and 35 days after incubation, resulting in chicks hatching at two or three day intervals.

Because of this, sibling aggression is common and the larger chick will peck vigorously at its younger nest-mates if they attempt to get food before it has had its fill. In nests where food is in short supply the size difference between the chicks will increase with the smaller one(s) ultimately dying of starvation or being killed by the larger chick(s).

 
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Hawk | Falcon

25 Apr

The falcons of the world are fascinating to many people, both birders and non-birders. They can be found almost anywhere on earth (except Antarctica) and some species coexist well with humans. The sport of falconry (using falcons to hunt gamebirds) goes back many centuries. I suppose the fascination for many is the combination of speed and elegant lines in a lethal predator.

I never quite caught this special fascination with falcons although I think they are very impressive and beautiful to observe (but I can say the same for many other types of birds). Perhaps my “most memorable” falcon is the bird at left, a spectacular Lanner Falcon at the tip of the Sinai Peninsula in November 1981 (the Sinai was then Israeli occupied; it is now part of Egypt). It is particularly memorable because although I took this photo, I have no memory of it. A week before I had tumbled from a second-floor balcony and been knocked unconscious; I was apparently air-lifted to a hospital by the army. There is an entire blank week in my memory here, but I took extensively field notes of my birding during the days after I returned. I also took rolls of film. One roll starts with a close-up of a Bar-tailed Godwit, then the next shot is a blur of brown feathers hitting to godwit, and then a series of the falcon carrying it off to be devoured. Some of my best stuff — and my only recollections are these photos. Its a weird feeling.

While the big falcons are glamorous and get all the ink, I am more emotional about the story of the Mauritius Kestrel (right). Over the sorry history of man’s destruction of birds and their habitats, this is one of the best success stories going. When I first began birding at a more active pace and my thoughts first turned to world birding in 1974, this was considered the rarest bird in the world. There were only two nesting pairs but two unmated individuals — a total of just six birds — left in the world. But conservationists, spearheaded by Tom Cade, Stanley Temple, C. G. Jones and others, got international backing just in time. They developed a captive breeding program and a public awareness campaign. By the publication of Cade’s (1982) Falcons of the World there were 15 in the wild; 1983 ten of those were captured for breeding (see Jones 1980 for more details). The government of Mauritius also increased the sizes of reserves. When I visited ten years later (1992) the program was going so well there were 250 in the wild and many still being raised in captivity. I understand the wild population is now up to 500 or so and all available habitats on the island have been recolonized. Given this dramatic history — an escape from extinction that passed through a genetic bottleneck when numbers were so low — I still consider the Mauritius Kestrel of the “best birds in the world,” even though today’s birder need only visit Mauritius briefly to see one.

Among the falcons, some 13 species are called “kestrels” but all of these are still retained in the genus Falco that includes all the large hunting falcons; together the genus Falco comprises 38 species, or 60% of the Falconidae.

The other species within the Falconidae are scattered among the caracaras — long-legged neotropical birds, some of which include carrion in their diet, the unique Laughing Falcon Herpetotheres cachinnans and the forest-falcons of the Neotropics (many of them secretive), and the pygmy-falcons and falconets of the Old World tropics. The latter are tiny species like this Pygmy Falcon (below; photo by Dale & Marion Zimmerman) of the open plains of East Africa. The small falconets hunt the forests of Southeast Asia, Borneo and the Philippines.

In the New World, the caracaras can be conspicuous. Birds in the “Crested Caracara” group are prime examples. They are very much an open country bird and readily willing to take carrion. This Southern Caracara (above left) on the Brazilian Pantanal has just recently been split from the Northern Caracara Caracara plancus which ranges from south Texas and Florida to northern South America (Dove & Banks 1999). Their ranges are divided by the Amazon River, and the southern species has a uniformly barred back, rump and tail (and breast) unlike the white-chested, black-backed birds north of the river. Other caracaras are forest edge species, often following the rivers through the lowlands and hunting along the banks. The Black Caracara (below) is such a bird. It is widespread in the South American lowlands; here it uses driftwood on a Napo River islet as a hunting post.



The best known falcon is the Peregrine (above in a fine photo by Ed Greaves) which, if I’m not mistaken, has the most extensive range of any bird species in the world. It is a magnificent hunter, dropping from the skies at high speeds on its prey. This photographed Peregrine has just taken, plucked, and eaten a shorebird on a beach in northern California but Peregrines also prey heavily on waterfowl and, in cities around North America, the prey is mostly introduced Rock Doves (feral pigeons). There the Peregrine has adapted to city life by nesting on skyscraper ledges or bridge girders which replicate the conditions of the steep, inaccessible cliffs it uses for breeding in the wilderness.

In the United States, Peregrines were once more widespread and reasonably common but the species suffered precipitous continental declines in the 1960s and early 1970s due to pesticides, shooting, and nest-robbing for falconry. The widespread use of the pesticide DDT caused eggshell thinning; thin eggs easily broke and eventually nest sites were abandoned. By the early 1970s only one pair was known to nest in the California. In my home county (Monterey) Peregrines had historically been known at some 24 nest sites but the last site was abandoned in the mid-1960s. Fortunately the banning of DDT and governmental listing as an Endangered species, aided tremendously by a hands-on recovery program, have returned the Peregrine to a stable healthy population. The recovery effort was spearheaded in the late 1970s and 1980s by the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group who removed thin-shelled eggs from nests for safe hatching in captivity, returned young to nests and then closely monitored their success. The Ventana Wilderness Society also released captive-reared birds from a hack site above the Big Sur coast beginning in 1986. By 1980 there were again five Monterey County nests occupied that fledged 4 young. The active intervention phase of Peregrine Falcon management ended in my county about 1990. With these management efforts the local breeding population has rebounded; today there are 6-9 nests from Hurricane Pt. south to the San Luis Obispo Co. line, and it is possible that traditional interior sites have been or will be reclaimed.

 
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