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Hear the sound of a Merlin Falcon when it sings. This falcon also has killed chickens and has been called a chicken hawk but is really a falcon. This falcon is a very majestic and beautiful bird of prey.

Hear the sound of a Merlin Falcon when it sings. This falcon also has killed chickens and has been called a chicken hawk but is really a falcon.

A jackrabbit found throughout much of the West has disappeared from the Yellowstone area, although the reason why remains a mystery, a new study concludes. Whatever the cause, the study suggests the white-tailed jackrabbit's disappearance has wrought major changes to Yellowstone's food chain. Coyotes and wolves, which could have depended on the rabbit as a significant food source, apparently turned their attention instead to larger prey including young elk, pronghorn antelope -- even domestic livestock. However, because the rabbit's decline went relatively unnoticed until now, quantifying that shift is virtually impossible, said the study's lead author, Joel Berger with the...

What Should Society Do With Its “Tookie Monsters” ? The “ Tookie Williams Saga “ has finally ended. After decades of appeals and delays , and more appeals and more delays; after vast agitation by a wide variety of people : ranging from sincere opponents of the death penalty, to shameless self-advocates looking for more media “face time”, Tookie Williams – the convicted murderer of four people finally got the justice a jury of his peers had decreed. There are many who say the death penalty is “barbaric” ; or that it serves no useful purpose. I tend to agree...

I have not read Dracula ever again. I was ashamed of myself. Here I was, a 2nd lieutenant of Marines, fresh out of OCS, going to fight those Japanese SOB's, and just think, I let a book of fiction scare me like that.

Germany is stepping up its battle against 'Nazi' racoons after they ruined much of this year's wine harvest. The racoons were released into the German countryside in 1934 under the orders of Hermann Goering. Goering thought they would "enrich" the local wildlife - but they have spread throughout Central Europe, from the Low Countries to the Urals, according to conservationists. The nocturnal mammals have become a health hazard in many cities, where they rummage through garbage bins and invade homeowners' attics and cellars. Now, they are becoming a threat to agriculture as well, according to farmers. "Racoons wiped out almost...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The first deep sea red-light district - glowing appendages on a newly discovered jellyfish relative - appear to flash their come-hither message to lure prey. Jellyfish and other types of sea creatures are known to produce light, but this is the first deep ocean invertebrate known to use red fluorescent light, said Steven H. D. Haddock of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, Calif. Three of the animals were found by scientists using a remote controlled research vehicle at depths of between 5,200 feet and 7,500 feet off the coast of California. The discovery...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4472521.stm Trap-building ants torture prey   With cunning and patience, the ants cut hairs from the stem of the plant they inhabit, and use the tiny fibres to build a spongy platform. The elaborate trap snares its prey, which is then stretched like a victim on a mediaeval rack before being hacked to pieces. The ants divide labour according to age, with the oldest individuals being trap builders   A fierce species of Amazonian ant has been seen building elaborate traps on which hapless prey are stretched like medieval torture victims, before being slowly hacked to pieces.With cunning and patience,...

When a friend told coach Stu Gorski in 1995 that Mount Adams School District had hired "a phenomenal wrestling coach," Gorski froze. "Tell me you didn't hire Randy Deming," he pleaded. The district had. Gorski, a football and golf coach in Whatcom County, knew Deming for years as a rival coach at nearby Blaine High School. Gorski also knew of Deming's reputation as a groper of girls who had even been charged with child molestation. When Gorski learned Deming would also be teaching girls, he warned: "You're putting him back into the fire." GORDON KING / YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC Randy Deming...

Jill Slevin didn't want to tell her kids Wednesday that she had pretty much given up hope of finding their dog Freddie alive. The Pekingese mix had disappeared a week earlier. And an extensive search over the course of several below-zero nights had proved futile. "We had a lot of weepy eyes over the New Year's weekend," Slevin said Wednesday of her three children. But then, miraculously, Freddie showed up at the door of their home north of Bozeman at noon Wednesday -- one week after he had disappeared. He was covered with ice, riddled with bug bites and had...

A long day got longer as we headed north on the Point Reyes Peninsula. We all suffered from “scope-eye,” that strange affliction known to birders and photographers who spend inordinate amounts of time staring with one eye through a spotting scope or viewfinder. Afternoon birding can be slow, but we hoped a visit to Teal Pond would perk things up a bit. Maybe we would see Blue-winged Teal loafing at the water’s edge or Wilson’s Snipe probing the muddy shoreline....(snip) We instantly pulled off the paved road and fixed our eyes on this scene of utter chaos in the adjacent...

The extent of street crime in London is revealed in new figures showing there are 164 muggings in the capital every day. A report by independent watchdogs shows that, although street crime has come down from its record high levels of early 2002, it is still higher than at any other time in recent history. It will say that the massive effort to reduce muggings and robberies, involving hundreds of thousands of hours of police time, has produced only a 15 per cent reduction in London. Scotland Yard figures show that Lambeth is the worst of the 32 boroughs for...

The Arab nations continue to whine and complain that America has unfairly deprived them of their victory over Israel since 1948. Somehow, in their fertile imagination where Arabs wander about in their fantasy land, they believe they are not to blame for losing six wars of intended annihilation to their hated enemy, the Jews. They claim that "It wasn't the Jews who met each attack with courage and fighting skills that beat them on the field of battle." Clearly, 'they' didn't lose to the despised Jews who, for centuries the Arab Muslims had designated as lowly habitants of most Arab...

Men of PreyScientists peer into the dark world of sex offenders Bruce Bower From inner-city mean streets to serene suburban cul-de-sacs, from bar stools to pulpits, and from state houses to the state prisons, sex offenders uniformly inspire fear and loathing. On occasion, rapists, child molesters, and their ilk also stir up unexpected irony. Consider this turn of events. On June 9, scientists and clinicians from throughout North America ended a 3-day meeting in Washington, D.C., where they discussed the state of knowledge about sexually coercive acts. Although intriguing lines of research were described, conference participants readily admitted their ignorance...