Predator Attacks Spoil Spring in L.A. !!!
Falcon and Hawk attacks have reached epidemic proportions in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Fanciers living in the area south of Downtown Los Angeles and extending to Long Beach, have seen intense predator activity since last fall. Predators tend to disappear around March, but local fanciers are reporting continued and even more intense activity at this time. Because of the multitude of fanciers in the area (some areas have 2-3 fanciers per city block), predators find a continual source of food throughout the year. With a year-round food source for predators, it could be a long year for L.A. flyers. Some fanciers have already abandoned flying
Kit Competition for the remainder of the year. The emotional stress of seeing birds taken daily is just too much for some fanciers. Local L.A. club competitions have been impacted to the point that approximately one third of the flyers in each club (Including the ICRC, OLRC, WSRC, WCS, and FCRS) will not participate in the club's kit competitions this year.
The predator attacks will also affect next years' kits as many fanciers are not able to train youngsters at this time and are either selling off their young birds or holding them in --- a tactic that tends to ruin many good rollers.
Several long standing competitive fanciers have been severely hampered. Two examples include Rayvon Hall and Keith London, both of whom traditionally fly some of the best rollers in the area. Hall, who has won the ICRC Kit Competition three times, has completely eliminated all of his kit birds after repeatedly loosing birds to multiple falcon attacks (at times, two to three falcons per day!). After breeding nearly eighty birds, Rayvon has nothing to show for his breeding season.
London, who has won the ICRC Kit Competition twice and the WSRC four times, started the year with over seventy birds and is now down to just seventeen rollers! The stories are equally as horrid with members of the FCRS and OLRC.
Fanciers have been able to trap some Coopers Hawks using wire traps, but the only defense against the falcons have been "heavy artillery" (if you know what I mean). On one visit to a fancier's loft, I felt as if I was in Vietnam as he fired several shots into the air trying to hit a falcon that was ripping his kit apart. Walking near his loft, one could trip over the piles of bullet shells spread throughout the yard.
For those of you who are flying "Predator-Free", please keep your Los Angels colleagues in your prayers and enjoy your kit… "You don't know how good you've got it, until it's gone."