This wonderful group is full of very caring bird (and animal) lovers!

Here is an excerpt from a National Wildlife Federation article:

Ironically, deadly but short-lived poisons such as carbofuran have come into use largely to replace less acutely toxic but lingering pesticides such as DDT. The devastating effect those earlier pesticides had on birds--especially predatory species such as the bald eagle--inspired Rachel Carson's 1962 manifesto Silent Spring, which in turn helped spur creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970 and passage of the Endangered Species Act three years later.

Yet today, three decades after the act was passed, pesticides remain a threat to the recovery of the nation's endangered plants and animals. The crueler irony, perhaps, is that EPA, the agency charged with assessing pesticide hazards, has no estimate of how many of more than 700 pesticides it has registered pose a hazard to more than 1,260 species listed as threatened or endangered. By its own admission, the agency has not even tackled a backlog of pesticides that initial studies red-flagged as potentially harmful; these chemicals remain in use pending further evaluation. The number of pesticide victims is equally unknown. "We don't come close to having a handle on all the mortality," says Stroud. "While a dead eagle dropping in a barnyard is hard to miss, most pesticide victims simply disappear."

I'm also familiar with the struggle to keep NYC's red tail hawks away from poisoned rats, etc.

The Environmental Protection Agency is the government contact, should anyone want to write to them....a tough assignment during the lovely summer idyll....

Unfortunately, 'politics' must indeed play a role here, if we are to protest against the lifting of the ban on DDE's and PCB's. I rarely rise to the occasion of contacting my congressmen and exploring the particular government agency responsible for reinstating the ban, but Cadence and the New Jersey peregrines are worth my attempts. I realize that the oil refineries also play a huge role but we can't 'move that mountain'!
Thank you for being proactive in this situation....our growing children are also affected!

I love the name 'big clutch' but I'm not sure where it came from!!
Ginkgi (Elizabeth in Connecticut)

Egg 4: Wed. at 6:30 am!!!!!

I think Egg #3 will arrive on Sunday at noontime!

I also called The American Museum of Natural History and got through, as well as The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The latter staff member, Linda, gave me her email so that she could compile these statements about using safe alternative rodenticide:
linda.forchetti@metmuseum.org

Just a note: I continue to be so grateful to all the watchers and worriers through this roller-coaster season: Carol, MAK, well...all of you enrich my life!

Elizabeth A.

I cannot locate Harlie's webcam on our website...have looked all over...might someone help me? Thanks,
Elizabeth

Ah, 364 days until the Big 30! Thanks for the tip, Lisa!!!!

..want to add my deep gratitude to all who helped in Jemison's rescue..we need to make them all honorary members of our group and acknowledge them in some small way!
Now might there be some bulletin which could be issued to downtown businesses, asking them to instruct workers to contact one of the watchers instead of using a broom, etc. to fend off a fiercesome fledgling?

I saw a picture of a ' Wind Over Wings' demonstration at the Lebanon, CT library in the paper on June 4. The trainer was holding a peregrine named Isis. Could this be our Isis of 2002?

I felt that when I wrote to FL Fish & Wildlife earlier this year (they'd asked for comments about a future falcon 'harvest'), that their minds were already made up to allow this event.

How can we continue to put pressure on these states which trap peregrines so that they return banded birds, at the very least?