Curmudgeon

I'm no expert but I know The Nature Conservancy buys land and protects it. It does this to protect unique ecosystems or endangered species. A local "conservancy" does the same. It owns a rare fen in my town, and the surrounding watershed. Land trusts in Otsego, Chenango and Schoharie Counties own conservation easements which have been given to them by land owners. The terms of the easement is determined by the land owner who typically makes a donation for the long term monitoring and enforcement of the easement. This is done to protect the property in perpetuity in accordance with the wishes of the current owner. The land trust is actually the owner of the easement. It would seem impossible for the government to claim ownership of that private property without some form of eminent domain process. That is likely to happen - eminent domain - to the conservancy in my town if they put another high voltage line along the Marcy South corridor as is proposed. The farm that was subdivided next door to me - not my former favorite grouse cover - had conditions put in each deed stating that no further subdivision could be done. This is meaningless because there is no entity to enforce that condition. No one has standing to stop it. In jrm's case above, the town would seem to have enforcement power. I shouldn't say I wouldn't give the land trust a conservation easement on our property. I should say I haven't so far. I want to keep my options open as there are some vague plans for the future. Growalot - You put in deed restrictions. Once you are gone, who enforces them?

It sounds like a Red-tailed Hawk but a Red-shouldered Hawk also has a high pitched screech. A redtail's is lower in pitch and rougher and is often used in films as a eagle call. Red-shouldered calls are frequently imitated by Blue Jays - more often than the jays imitate retails. The first photo is a Gyrfalcon. The second photo - which is identifiable - shows the remains of a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk. The third photo is a nestling Bald Eagle that was just banded. The fourth photo is a dead juvenile Bald Eagle - ~3 years old - that landed on a power pole and was electrocuted. There were burn marks on the bottom of the feet. I've never been up a power pole. I'm guessing it's feet touched a ground wire and a wing touched a live wire. I doubt a bird that big would try to balance on a wire. Eagles are more often electrocuted this way out west where perches are few. The falcon in the second post is a Peregrine. Here's another falcon. A photo taken in the Village of Cooperstown. Any guesses?

Very good. Yes a falcon. Good call. Actually, I doubted anyone would get even the genus. Here' a second pic of the same falcon to help ID the species. This is a different kind of falcon. Photo taken near Fort Plain The young one is not a vulture.

Here are some serious ID challenges. Anyone want to guess? A bird I photographed in Deposit - The remains of a large hawk - A young bird I photographed about 10 days ago - A dead bird I was asked to ID last Christmas Day -

As the resident hawk expert, I call it a redtail without a doubt.

I wouldn't either, however, what they do is really important. I've seen what some big rural land real estate companies do to farms. They break them up into what is just a large version of the suburban model. A conservation easement should prevent the subdivision of rural lands into those 10 and 20 acre lots. These subdivisions destroy contiguous forest/wildlife habitat, and also hunting access. Even if each of those lots doesn't have a camp or some other dwelling on it, try getting permission from a dozen land owners to continue hunting that place you used for years. I lost my best grouse cover to one of those subdivisions. Around here, county level land trusts do not determine what restrictions are put in place. The land owner does that. It can be as simple or complex as you want. When a not-for-profit I was on the board of sold a property given in a bequest, we allowed one subdivision of a limited size - which could be combined with one more residence on the 100 acre property. Any future timber sales required the use of a forester. The local county land trust received several thousand dollars from the sale to enforce the easement. It was simple and straightforward. It did not delay the sale of the property.

Oh, and Ted Cruz.

I disagree. Shoot the messenger this time. He's a liar. I don't mean VJP. He just failed to fact check - something we are probably all guilty of. Shoot the original messenger. We can all gain insight into our behavior and beliefs by listening to people from different backgrounds. And, we all like to read things that support what we believe. What a great combination when we find that support from beyond our normal political/ethnic/religious group. The original poster intentionally lied to try to give his opinions more credibility. I say SHOOT HIM.

Beautiful shot wooly. If the foxes are eating the baby sedentary geese, I'm rooting for the foxes.

Beautiful animals. Can't get enough of them.

Be careful with the ditch fill. I've known a couple of people who used it and got nasty invasives - in once case Japanese knot weed. You really don't want that. You never know what seeds are in there.

Why isn't there a humor section?

http://qz.com/418472/the-truth-about-that-pakistani-spy-pigeon-arrested-by-indian-cops/ http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-32971094

Mike - I consulted with the sheep yesterday while they were doing the front lawn. They are both more compassionate and more philosophical than you. The gist of the flock's feelings is that since humans will never reach the pinnacle of evolution of a sheep, it is understandable they should imitate what sheep do and accomplish - imitation being the sincerest form of flattery. They understand humans better than I thought: knowing their competitive nature - which explains human attempts to achieve lawn perfection (perfect length, use of fertilizer and pesticides. As an aside, they also make some comments about human commuting habits also being an imitation of sheep behavior while 2 young rams butted heads.

nyatler's comment is certainly true around here. The early 2000 decade DMPs and hard winters brought 4F numbers down to the point where the population was less damaging but still too high. I never stopped filling the DMAP tags during that period. Delaware and Schoharie Counties - on the other hand - had many fewer deer and hunters were frustrated. The loss of certain areas to hunting - due either to development or land purchases by those opposed to hunting - exacerbates the localization of the problem. Surveys by the 4F Task Force found fewer deer around the State Forests - as we should expect since they are heavily hunted. I have great frustration with my anti-hunting neighbors who like to watch the deer. How can anyone with any environmental awareness maintain that deer should not be reduced in overpopulated areas? These people are strictly emotional and ecologically illiterate. They don't care about a host of species - animal and plant - that depend on habitat the deer alter dramatically.

I like that. The sheep are doing the Front Lawn today. I'll mention it to them. It isn't the human waste that is the problem. It's all the stuff the normal person dumps down the drain without even thinking about it. Ever read the list of chemicals on household products - including those for use on our skin and hair. I just read that on busy beaches, the amount of sunscreen in the water is having ecological affects. My daughter went through a teen-aged hair-dying phase. We battled but she ended up doing all her dying at friends house. None of that stuff went into my system.

Sorry if my brain makes leaps that aren't easy to follow. The point is that things we observe - that might on the surface appear to be connected - are not always. Things like: more coyote sign, fewer turkeys. More fishers, fewer turkeys. The interactions of wildlife, habitat and weather are very complicated. That both of these predators help control nest predators makes it even more complicated. The decrease in Rusty Blackbird numbers is just like the decrease in turkeys but more severe. Should we draw similar conclusions on their decline. The increasing range of fishers is very similar to the increasing range of Merlins. Heck, I found a Common Loon skull directly under an active Merlin nest on a ADK island. I could easily draw a conclusion that Merlins - one of our smallest raptors - are killing Common Loons (almost impossible but how do you explain the skull?). We - all of us - become biased by our observations. For instance, I have great Eastern Towhee habitat. I usually have 5-7 singing males on the property. One year, I had none. This was a tragedy. I thought that something terrible had happened on the wintering grounds. The next year I had 5-7 singing males. That lesson taught me a lot about drawing conclusions about short term observations in a small area.

I've seen Black Vultures a couple of times in NY in Rockland County, and once at a hawkwatch site in Otsego. They are rare north of the Catskills. They are moving north like a lot of species and have been confirmed nesting in the Gunks.

Yes it is interesting. This too is interesting - http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations- sometimes things seem to be connected when they aren't.

Turkey Vulture is 1 of 2 species of vulture that occur in New York. The other is Black Vulture which is mostly limited to the southern parts of the state, and is fewer in number. Our vultures eat carrion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_vulture

As many have noted, spring weather is probably the most important factor in turkey recruitment. We've had a couple of bad years. Reread Berniez's comments. No one is arguing that coyotes do not kill turkeys. Coyotes will come to turkey calls, so will Great-horned Owls and Northern Goshawks - albeit for different reasons. Everything with young is pressed to feed its brood right now. I had a hunting fox in the yard last evening - brought to my attention by the crows who must have had a fledgling nearby. It was stalking a rabbit. Owls are hunting during the day. There isn't enough dark time for nocturnal/crepuscular predators to accomplish the mission. My question is, why blame coyotes when they have always killed turkeys and their numbers are stable? Why blame coyotes when they help control the mesopredators - the major nest predators? Does anyone have ANY evidence that fishers affect turkey populations? Consider - what do your local turkeys have to eat during snowy winters? Here in Otsego and surrounding counties, the number of dairy farms has declined dramatically in recent years. We used to see flocks of Wild Turkeys come out of cover when a tractor headed out with a manure spreader - running after it. Even the few farms that are left had trouble spreading manure this winter due to the snow pack.

It is a really tough balancing act. Hunter numbers are dropping. How do you keep hunters happy and recruit new hunters without providing good opportunities? How do you control deer numbers without hunters? How do you please all the interests that want fewer deer?

Working last weekend, I bumped a fourth hen off a nest on my property. The one nest I was monitoring failed. The eggs are gone, carried off - not a piece of shell in sight. She is probably one of the hens I've been seeing with the three remaining toms. They regularly renest. Grouse are not drumming often here either but that varies from year to year. I have flushed a bunch and found one nest. Considering all the variables over the past 30 years, why is the default position on any negative change in game numbers always coyotes? Coyote populations haven't changed much in the time of the turkey decline. I can understand SPECULATING about fishers. They are a new variable. Does anyone have any data on fisher impacts to turkeys or is this just one more species to add to the "usual suspects"? Even if fishers kill some turkeys, there is another predator/scavenger that has spread across even more of the state in the past 20 years. A species that eats turkey eggs. No one speculates about that protected species being the cause. From that sage Mark Twain: "For every complex problem, there is a simple answer...and it is wrong."

The fawns are still small and probably aren't crossing the highway. I almost stepped on one yesterday. I traveled 17 from Harriman to Deposit just after snow melt. Scores of deer that had been packed into the snow banks by the plows had melted out. It was a Turkey Vulture buffet for a hundred miles.

Wildcat's light is on - I've seen it. And, someone is home!