Comments on: USDA and Better Golfing By Shooting Hawks

By: Shooting

Shooting — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:54:23 +0000

Or in the German version of South Park:

“Es kommt direkt auf uns zu” Bang! :)

By: Austringer

Austringer — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:53:53 +0000

It’s coming right for us!

BANG!

By: Cincinnati

Cincinnati — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:59:33 +0000

I suppose the “threat to human health and safety” rule is inacted when the birds are a threat to the completion of a golf course. Obviously the birds would have been no threat if they did not have to be removed to build such.

By: Karen

Karen — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 14:13:36 +0000

Golf courses aren’t exactly known for being nature-friendly. You should turn 10,000 moles loose on their property. And maybe some giant Canadian geese (they make millions of giant slimy turds).

btw Wesley, this month’s (5/2006) issue of Natural History magazine has an article about aplomado falcons in the Southwest.

By: Austringer

Austringer — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 03:55:35 +0000

Yeah, if the birds are supposedly so ferocious, they’d be simple to trap. I’m still frothing over the report that the USDA guys somehow figured out how to get up to the nest two days after the shooting. It seems to me that two days of downtime for a particular walkway would not have been an overwhelming inconvenience for the golf resort. I sure hope the Audubon and birder recommended boycott gives them a memorable reminder of their short-sighted approach to wildlife interactions.

By: Tree Crocodile

Tree Crocodile — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 03:28:50 +0000

Naturally these clowns would have never heard of a dho gaza, nor would they have the humility or sense to ask an austringer who might have mentioned that technique, or caught both birds for them in about 15 minutes. Any hawk that will swoop a prey item, decoy or person can be quite easily caught in a section of mist net supported between two collapsing poles.

I also suspect that being caught and handled, then released on-site, would have greatly reduced the birds’ interest in bombing golfers. A year or two back I had an especially enthusiastic male crow who owned my front yard around his nest, and who began making divots in the top of my head. While I would never defend capturing or harassing such a songbird, somehow this crow found himself with 8 brightly-painted pink toenails, which amazed him for days. After that, he stayed a good 10′ overhead.

Dart gun, brilliant.

By: Austringer

Austringer — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 20:33:46 +0000

I think what is most disturbing is the steadfast refusal to admit that the decision was a mistake.

By: jason

jason — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 20:22:04 +0000

Amazingly, I just received the same form e-mail on this issue. And I agree: I don’t buy it. This whole situation is more than upsetting and disappointing, including their recent theft of a red-shouldered chick from the nest of another pair who were also found to be inconvenient.