In a message dated 10/14/2002 10:02:33 PM Mountain Standard Time, NJ-MEMORIES-D-request@rootsweb.com writes: > WE HAVE > AMERICAN KESTRALS > MERINS > PERGRINES > One place to see peregrine falcons in NJ is along the Palisades. The birds nest along the cliffs, in cracks and crannies. We've seen them occasionally while hiking in that area. Out our way, the Air Force Academy sponsors a falcon-breeding program that's getting the birds established along the Rampart Range, the mountains that the Academy backs up against. And at home games during the half-time festivities, the cadets put on a falcon show, with those beautiful birds swooping high into the air over the stadium and then dropping back down. It's a real treat to watch them. We also have kestrels around here, and Northern harriers and red-tailed hawks as well. Back in California I'd occasionally see red-shouldered hawks, but not very often. My own favorite hawk story happened while Bill and I were engaged, going on 38 years ago. Bill had taken me up to visit his mother in Chatham, NY, over Easter weekend, and on Sunday afternoon we drove over to Pittsfield State Forest in Massachusetts, a favorite spot of his. We took a really nice hike along a hiking trail that had been used for cross-country skiing only a few weeks before and which still had a few snow-and-ice patches on it. We didn't have any problems on the way out, but on the way back we accidentally disturbed a pair of goshawks that were setting up housekeeping only about a hundred feet or so from the trail. Those two birds dive-bombed us for about two or three hundred yards, and only quick running behind trees at the last possible instant kept us from getting our scalps ripped. About a year later we were hiking in the same area and got almost the same reception again, probably from the same pair of birds. Doris in Colorado (Up2Nutrix@aol.com) "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." -- Jim Elliot, missionary and martyr