Pt. Richmond and Brickyard Cove, though in an urban setting, are blessed to have hawks soaring overhead, osprey families making new homes on the waterfront, owls nesting in the hills behind the marina, and occasional sightings of foxes, coyotes, even bobcats.
Unfortunately our wildlife is endangered from an insidious method of poisoning rats and mice with anti-coagulant rodenticides that cause internal bleeding in rats and other rodents, leading to a slow death over several days. Slow moving and dying rats are prime targets of hawks, owls, cats, and other scavengers who will eat the poisoned animal or return with the carcass to feed the kids in the nest.
This is called "secondary poisoning" and is lethal when the rat poison is ingested. I know this, as my beloved kitty Sequoia died of secondary poisoning. I have also watched (on a web cam) a nest of barn owl youngsters die a slow death inside their owl box alongside the rat carcasses the parents brought in at night. This is no bueno.
AB 1788, a new state law protecting animals from super toxic rat poisons, took effect this past January, 2021.
But few seem to know, or even care what is in the sealed black rat bait boxes with an entrance and exit passage past the internal "feeding station."
For several weeks I have been attempting to alert the powers that be at Richmond Yacht Club that two rat bait boxes recently placed outside the doorways to D Dock restrooms (and possibly other places on campus) is really not a good idea and there are other more effective and humane methods of dealing with the problem, if there even is one. So far, no joy, in my attempts at communication.
If you are a RYC member and love seeing hawks and other raptors in the skies, I urge you to contact the appropriate person or committee (Grounds?) and ask the question, "why are we poisoning wildlife in our backyard with rat poison when these beautiful birds are the very animals that control rat and mice populations?" Thank you. ~skip allan 831-475-0278 (not a RYC member, but occasional guest.)
https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/ne...21-2020-12-29/