Canada Birding Photography Locations & Reports

Writen by Mark Nash, Canadian Peregrine Foundation

Just received an announcement from the US Fish and Wildlife Service concerning its plans to allow the harvest / take of northern wild peregrine produced falcons while on migration in the USA, and now is the time for public comment on the issue!!!

You have now been invited by the USFW to comment on the proposed  harvest of northern peregrine falcons while on migration in the USA.

Your comments can be sent electronically to the USFW at:   FalconryDEA@fws.gov   as indicated on their web site.

Peregrine falcon HARVEST - public comment period.

United States Fish Wildlife Peregrine Harvest / trapping of northern Peregrine Falcons while on migration in the USA

Copies of the DEA and Draft Management Plan for the harvest and take of wild northern produced peregrine falcons can be obtained from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Division of Migratory Bird Management, 4401 North Fairfax Drive, Mail Stop 4107, Arlington, VA 22203-1610.

Your written comments on the DEA harvest plan can be sent to:  - Attention - Migrant Peregrine EA to the same address.

The Proposed harvest plan is also available at <http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/>.
Comments on the Peregrine harvest - DEA also may be submitted electronically via the Division of Migratory Bird Management web site at <http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/>, where a link for comments is available – you can e-mail your comments to:  FalconryDEA@fws.gov

The due date for comments is February 11, 2008.

It may also be useful to know that:

• This will be an annual / yearly harvest of northern produced migratory peregrine falcons while in the USA.
• This harvest will clearly identified migration routes in area’s in the bordering U.S. Great Lakes States where the take & trapping will be permitted.
• This harvest will specifically target those peregrines which have been hatched and produced in Ontario, Quebec, the Northwest Territories and the Maritime provinces that will pass through these targeted harvest areas each year during their fall migration . 
• This proposed harvest will exclude the take / harvest of state resident U.S. hatched /produced peregrines. (state populations are simply too low).
• The average biologist has no way of telling the difference between the three sub species of peregrines, nor could they determine with any certainty where the trapped peregrine was actually produced, (rendering its sub species identification impossible), thus threatening the ongoing recovery efforts of  other US resident state peregrine populations.

This proposed plan ignores the fact that the peregrine falcon is federally listed & protected by law in both countries, in addition to being protected by state laws in the proposed US states where the trapping will be permitted. The peregrine falcon is ALSO a listed species in Canada, and is also protected by both federal and provincial legislation.

Ontario’s peregrine population remains at fewer than 80 occupied territories, despite more than 25 years of on-going recovery efforts on a national scale in Canada.   More than 90% of Ontario’s peregrines will migrate south to the US during the proposed fall harvest time frames.  100% of the Canadian Maritimes peregrine population will migrate to the south.  This proposed US harvest of Canadian produced migrant / passage peregrines will have no scientific or biological benefits for the peregrine populations in either countries, and the sole purpose for this harvest will be for the private take of these wild birds. 

The USFW’s planned harvest is being proposed despite the fact that hundreds of licensed falcon breeders on both sides of the boarder typically have an excess of un-sold captive produced stock of peregrines at the end of each year, (a surplus of un-sold peregrines).

 Sincerely

Postmaster

The Canadian Peregrine Foundation

www.peregrine-foundation.ca

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