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I disagree with the comment that there is very
little potential in beautiful downtown Manhattan for disturbance of the birds at
"close range". On a Summer day there are thousands of people walking
across the Brooklyn Bridge, directly under the nest site - perhaps 30m below
it. Also 8 lanes of New York traffic a few feet further down. Add to this
the noise of sirens and ghetto blasters, flashing lights from neon signs,
unsilenced speedboats and helicopters zapping down the East River and the myriad
other components of day to day life in a huge city and the sensory overload is
pronounced.
Further, judging by the way a huge peregrine didn't
veer 1 degree off course as it zapped past a group of 30 birders (excitedly
jumping up and down at the sight) at Jamaica Bay a couple of weekends back they
don't seem to be particularly worried about human shapes per se.
From what I know of the cliffs along the Molonglo
no houses could be built closer to falcon nest sites than the walkway of the
Brooklyn Bridge is to the nest on the tower there. Houses on the opposite
side of the Molonglo would be much further away. I would suspect that
a Canberra suburb - even in peak leaf blower season - would be quieter and have
less obvious signs of human activity than the Brooklyn Bridge environs at any
time of any day (except possibly 3am during a blizzard).
If the problem is people deliberately getting
extremely close to the nest (what distance is this -
10m? - the red-tails nest on 5th Avenue is a lot closer than this to people's
windows and patios) then some of the chain link fences beloved of the ACT
Government would seem to be one solution.
I'd stress that I am not arguing for the housing to
be built: I'd like to see the population of Canberra frozen!
Martin
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