Bird Lovers Swap has started and sign up is in Nature Forum under Bird Watching. Hope you all can join us. Thanks, Susan

Ah I wish my possum had stuck around. I fed him part of my ham sandwich, well I left it on the floor for him, and it (and he) were gone the next morning, never to return. As far as unwelcome furry guests, I do seek to control the numbers of the mice in the barn, via passive/aggressive predator measures, despite the fact that I consider white-footed field mice to be one of the cutest creatures on the planet. Cats, snakes, and weasels are all enlistees in my rodent control volunteer army. There are only a few specimens of wildlife that I relentlessly exterminate. Hornets and wasps top the list and I shoot for a zero population of these stinging insects every summer. They are followed by the fleas, ticks, and internal parasites that seek to victimize myself and my family, both two and four footed. These particular unwelcome insects, arachnids, and nematodes are the only pests to provoke me into chemical warfare, as my general rule is to shun pesticides and herbicides. If my house sparrows had left with the blackbirds, they would have been no problem. Not that my blackbirds leave, they are full time residents each summer. I would have welcomed raptor sparrow predation, but I've never seen a hawk touch ground here, although they frequently circle overhead above the woods. They probably have a collective memory of being shot at unfortunately, and seek prey in distant meadows away from human habitation. The rapidly multiplying plague of house sparrows that descended on my property, bent on colonization, was something I liken to a swarm of locusts. I've never seen anything like it. I now understand why they have so many enemies, and I am generally very tolerant of invasive wildlife. I even like feral pigeons! Then there are those pests who have bested me. I sadly concede defeat to the red lily beetle. (RIP my beautiful tiger lilies.) I also see no reasonable means of eradicating the Japanese beetles, now that they have found me. Instead I am planting only those flowers this year that seemed to have resistance to the beetles last year, and giving up on those that were a sought after delicacy. Thankfully my perennials are among those with resistance, so none have become casualties. Turning to non-pests, "my" pair of tufted titmice are checking out last year's nest in my barn, thinking about refurbishing it I guess. They're next to impossible to photograph, as is their partially hidden nest up in the rafters.

I happen to have a personal friend who is a taxidermist in Virginia. Thirty years ago, when he first got his taxidermist's license, he was visited by Federal authorities, who, according to my friend, told him the folllowing: If anyone attempts to bring you a Hawk or an Owl to mount, tell them it is against the law to kill such raptors, and NEVER accept or have on your premises either of the two. If, upon inspection, either are found on these premises, your license will be revoked on the spot, and you will receive a citation to appear in Federal court. If, on the other hand, someone brings you an Osprey or an Eagle to mount, accept the Osprey or Eagle, making positively certain to get the customer's name and address and telephone number, and IMMEDIATELY notify us (and they gave him their card to post at his place of business). Federal authorities are dead serious about people who kill Ospreys and Eagles, and will spend endless time and money to see that they're prosecuted. Many states are nearly as serious about people killing Hawks and Owls, and will do the same. Someone in Maryland took an Owl to a taxidermist about 6 years ago to be mounted, saying it flew into the windshield of his car. State wildlife authorities were called, who came and got the Owl and did an autopsy of it, and found shotgun pellets. They prosecuted the person, who got a large fine and jail time.

Maybe it is my technical training but in this topic and so many others what I notice first is a failure to look at the big picture. A few observations: Many posters have said that the cat should have been trapped and turned over to an animal shelter. Lets get one thing straight. This already happens with countless cats, who frequently get euthanized because no one claims or adopts them. Yes there is a system in place to capture and place stray cats but like every other system devised by man it has its limits and unfortunately due to the fecundity of cats and the irresponsibility of many so called pet owners there are more cats than can be dealt with. The existence of shelters does not mean the cats won't die. The only thing that has any realistic hope of ensuring the safety of a domestic cat in the US is a comitted and competent owner who shelters and feeds the cat, provides medical care including spaying or neutering, and doesn't ever let the cat roam outside or reproduce at will. Consistancy is important. Logic doesn't work without it. If animal shelters could handle the feral cat population then there would be no argument for Trap, Neuter, and Release (TNR) programs that maintain feral cat colonies. The hypothesis is that if you removed the existing feral cats they would only be replaced by other feral cats moving in so it is better to maintain sterile cats in these available urban niches. The logic of this is totally lost on me because if there are other feral cats out there in the shadows, then THEY are starving and pushed around by the comparatively well fed and healthy TNR colony cats. If on the other hand there aren't that many feral cats out there on the fringes then it would be better to trap them, find homes for all that you can, and do what needs to be done with the rest. As for the fools who suggest "relocating" cats, you mean dumping them on someone else? Where they have to violently reestablish their place in the pecking order all over again, in an environment that all groups agree is overcrouded? Would any of us like to be "relocated"? Perhaps to some of the more colorful areas of LA, NY City, Detroit? Who thinks it would be any better for a cat? The people on the front lines know there aren't enough beds in the shelters. As much as I think the TNR programs are dodging the issue, I don't think they are making things worse as long as they do what they claim, sterilize the cats and feed them. Feeding them makes them somewhat less likely to hunt and makes them able to out compete the non-sterile cats. Not what cat lovers would like to hear, I'm sure. People should obey gun laws. Did this guy break any gun laws? Probably. It is hard to shoot a gun these days without breaking a law. Was he 500 feet from the nearest road? No. His target was under a road. Prosecute him for that. Did he break any wildlife laws? One post said it was legal to shoot cats at that time. Don't prosecute him for that. The guard claimed ownership of the cat, which was completely outside of his control. The moment the guard claimed ownership he should have been nailed for cruelty to animals, letting his cat live like that, and for property damage done by the feral cats in that area including his cat. I say his cat although that is a joke, but he claims it is true. Personally I don't see any difference between cats and rats. My brother's kids have some pet rats and they are sweet little things, totally unlike wild rats. Same with cats. This unfortunately is almost entirely a battle for hearts and minds without any logic to it. If cat lovers really want to secure the high ground they should be the ones insisting that that guard be prosecuted. People are the greatest invasive species, depending on your point of view. I personally want to have adequate food, water, shelter, safety, etc. If any other organism threatens to interfere with that it is in my opinion a pest. Here's where it gets complicated. According to this definition most of the "pests" in the world are other people. I can not justify defining other people as pests. If you want to be consistant and logical you just can't call people pests, in the grand scheme of things. Sure, it would be a load off of the world if half the population died. Who? Half my family, determined by lottery? Or perhaps we could decide by skin color or religion, like the Nazis did? You see where I am going. Don't waste any time talkng about how people are the problem, even though they are. There is nowhere useful to go with this argument. Now that that is off the table, understand that while habitat preservation is desireable, it is linked to population. Personally I think we ultimately need to talk about population but not in a polite forum like this. That belongs in a knock down drag out forum on doomsday scenarios, which this isn't. If we go there we would be talking about poisoning feral animals wholesale like we do rats. I have read alot about the pressure that feral cats put on bird populations. I think that it may be true that they prey more on rodents than birds because rodents can't fly and are easier prey. I imagine that some birds are much more vulnerable than others. To do this right we would have to evaluate each prey species individually. I'll bet that the seabirds that the ornithologist was allegedly protecting are among the more vulnerable species. My take is that I can see why a sane person would do what this ornithologist did. He had a vested interest in the welfare of these particular birds just as a farmer does in his livestock He would have understood the particular threat that feral cats would pose to a threatened population. He would understand population dynamics. He would have seen that the population of feral cats was doomed to remain at dangerously high levels due to the inability of society to come to grips with the problem, as is shown by how many posters naiively propose ineffective alternatives even as overwhelmed local health authorities throw up their hands and cave in to assorted cat fanatics who were feeding the cats anyway. Prosecute the guy for any gun violations if you must, but to do any more is fiddling while Rome burns.