Don't anyone think that the red-tails will be able to reduce Central Park rats in any useful or significant way. I love red-tails and promote them any way I can. But I won't tell an ecological lie. Red-tails (nor any other hawk or owl) canÂt possibly reduce prey species to any useful or significant level. This un-truth has been used for decades as a reason to keep raptors from being shot. "Hawks control rodent populations!" is the ubiquitous cry. But in fact, they don't. They can't. How so? First, let's figure out how many rats Pale Male or Lola (or any other red-tail) could consume in a day. I keep a trained red-tail (for falconry) and I know exactly how many grams of rodent (or other) protein is needed to maintain perfect health. In the summer, when temps are high and metabolic needs low, a red-tail can easily subsist on a single nice rat each day. If Central Park has two adults and two eyasses (offspring) floating around, that's a loss of four rats a day. And just how many rats do you suppose occupy Central Park. It's not hundreds. It's multiple thousands. And they breed every few weeks or less. In short, there is no way the red-tails can make any discernable dent in the continuously abundant Norway rat population of NYC in general or Central Park proper. Even in spring, when the adults are capturing perhaps two rats a day for each eyass, with three eyasses on the nest that's six rats for the kids, and two each for the parents. That's ten rats a day, maximum. But the birds are also taking pigeons, reducing the pressure on the rat population. The same thing happens out in the countryside. My wild red-tails in rural northern Ohio have, on average, a 2-square mile hunting territory. Each adult has to capture two or three voles each day in the summer, and five or six in the winter. Let's say that's an annual average of four voles each day for each of the two resident hawks. That's 2920 voles. Round that off to an annual red-tail take of 3K voles in two square miles. Since vole populations can reach several hundred per acre, and a mile has 640 acres, it doesn't take a calculator to discern that red-tails have in their territories just a whole lot more crawling food specimens than they can ever reduce. And while the hawks are eating the voles or rats, the rodents are going about their business in rapidly reproducing. Actually, hawk predation on the rodents can facilitate the maintenance of high rodent populations, as for every rodent removed by a hawk, a new slot is opened for a new growing rodent. It might be said that the purpose of hawk predation on rodents is to provide space and food for growing, young voles and rats. Sorry to poke holes in a universal (but errant) ecological doctrine. It's all in the numbers, and they don't add up. Hawks, owls, (even cats) don't, even can't, control rodent numbers. Only rodent disease, poison, lack of food, water, or shelter can do this.

I know I stay as far away from dog poop as possible. So the theory may have some validity. But this is the twenty first century for Pete's sake!! You can probably "do" a little better than that for advice! LOL Rat's are gross and unsanitary. Maybe they should try a good old fashioned exterminator.

Thanks again, all. Well, I just spent the last two hours at yet another tile store (open late on Friday night...imagine!) and came away convinced that the tile designer person is full of finoopywater. The Motawi tiles just do NOT look right with natural stone, no matter how muted. They fight. So with your encouragement and the conviction of my own eyes, I'm sticking with ceramic tiles. Now to answer some questions/suggestions: Yes, the darkest, middle yellow tile "matches" best. The other two are lighter, but in much the same tones as the oak color in the dard hunter tiles. So, they coordinate more than match. And they aren't AS light in comparison to the other as they look in the photo, in part because that darker center tile is matte finish, while the other two reflected the camera flash. On the question of whether what I'm contemplating would have the same variation as Circuspeanut's kitchen (and yes Circuspeanut, I could see my Motawi tiles in your kitchen....) it depends on which I choose. The one I like best now is the Ann Sacks subway (the bottom, rectangular tile in the pictures. It is handpainted and has an A&C feel and I'm comfortable that the color is good. It's $12 a sf plus about $150 for shipping. Apparently you can only buy them at AS stores and they are few and far between???? But there is Florida tile in a color called Mellow Gold that is VERY, VERY close to the AS. It's about half the price, but is clearly more regular in size and color across the tile. And it is a V3 rating for variation from tile to tile and I've only been able to see one tile at a time, so I expect there will be more variation, more like Circuspeanut's kitchen. CP...what IS the tile you used? Rhome, you are right about the plan for behind the range...I'm not satisfied with it either. The problem is that the larger Dard Hunter tiles are 4X8, which just won't line up with a 3X6 subway tile. It my mind now, I'm thinking of not grouping the three together behind the range, but sprinkling them along with the 4X4 decos in the backsplash. (One reason...got feedback yesterday on the a post on a shelf /niche behind the range, which made me realize that I couldn't put everything back there...a focal point of tiles, bottles and a pot-filler and expect it to look like anything but junk!) In any case, whether grouped behind the range or sprinkled throughout , I think they'll look better with a 1" border tile around them, as I show on the plan with the 4X4 tiles. Of course that won't make them easier to work into a pattern of 3X6 subways...I'll have a 10"X 6" piece to work with. So...back to the drawing board. As for how much tile I need...well a fair amount. BEfore I came up with the idea of using oak beadboard for the backsplash in the butlers panty/scullery off the main kitchen, I thought I'd need 60 sf. Now it's down to about 45 sf. And if I frame each of the Motawi tiles (now contemplating the 6 I've got, plus 3 more small ones) with Motawi 1X4's and a 1X 1 in each corner, I'm talking 42 1X4s and 36 1X1s...paying $2.60 EXTRA for each side I need glazed because the Motawi tiles are much thicker than any of the subways I'm contemplating. Guess I'm playing with graph paper again tonight!

Milton: My husband claimed that at uni, he reached a detente with a family of racoons by giving them part of his sandwich. The family (it's always three of them with the creepy grunting in the dark at night) we now have in the yard do not seem to bother anything, not even the vegetable garden. However, I did have to boot them out from under my wood shop using---sit down for this one---bars of Irish Spring soap shoved generously throughout. The odor is unbearable even to me; and they are more sensitive to it than I am. If that had not worked, I was prepared to drill holes into the floor boards and empty bottles of the same rancid cologne/fragrance oil thing that the vet recommended for my cat who is allergic to bug bites. The substance is so vile to my sinuses, I would have needed to put on my respirator mask just approaching the shop. Kev: Yikes. They like a lot of stuff. We have squirrels here, too, but the brown ones but they only topple pots and do not seem interested in anything I am growing. Also, the tree guy once counted 4 walnut trees and 6 oak trees growing around our property so they scoff at my plants. So caging is not an option? Or drones.