Well, I was thinking Red tailed hawks were "organic feeders", they want free ranging pheasants.
Anyways, how come pheasants are preferred food? These are non native birds. And are there so many pheasant farms all around US? May be the particular study that found pheasant are preferred food, happen to have been conducted in Ithaca around game farm and does not reflect true preferences of RTHA???? Just another query. Meena Meena Haribal Boyce Thompson Institute Ithaca NY 14850 Phone 607-254-1258 http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/ http://haribal.org/ http://haribal.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/wildwest+trip+August+2007+.pdf<http://www.geocities.com/asiootusloe/http:/www.geocities.com/asiootusloe/mothsofithaca.htmlhttp:/haribal.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/wildwest+trip+August+2007+.pdf> From: bounce-8671320-3493...@list.cornell.edu [mailto:bounce-8671320-3493...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of John Confer Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2011 1:05 PM To: Candace Cornell Cc: cayugabirds-l Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Why don't RTHA eat all the pheasants at the game farm? Hi Folks, I have talked with the Game Farm manager. He told me that they try to release about 130,000 pheasant each fall, that the captive flock starts in fall at about 35,000, and that they loose about 7000 to predation every year. Since the potential for the weight of snow and ice on the screen prohibit the use of screen on top for about 200 days of the year, that means about 35 eaten per day. This winter the count may be higher. There is the mega-number of hawks now, but when the first remove the over-the-top screen in early fall there aren't as many predators around, and before they but it back in spring, there aren't as many hawks then either. So, even though there may be more than 35 eaten per day now, an average of 35 per day for the entire period of no-screen seems reasonable to me. I must admit that I get some satisfaction from seeking hunting license dollars going to feed red-tails. After all, we birders loose the pleasure of seeing so many things due to hunting, it is nice to have some turn around. I wonder how many owls eat there? I wonder if juvenile red-tails have a lower efficiency of capture than the adults? Cheers, John On 3/3/2011 12:22 PM, Candace Cornell wrote: This may be a naive question, but why don't the large number of Red-tailed Hawks (15-60+), which keep vigil at the Ring-necked Pheasant pens on Game Farm Road in Ithaca, decimate the pheasant population? According to the BNA, Ring-necked Pheasant is one of their preferred foods and I've seen them eating what looks pheasant entrails within the pens. Candace Cornell -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
