1 So cool. I always root for predators to return. Never seen a cougar, bobcat, lynx...although in twenty years of living in a relatively urban/suburban mix, I have twice seen foxes at around 3am. Thrilling. And bald eagles nest nearby, and I've seen those. Eagles and other predators are vital to the eco-system. There should be more wolf-re-introduction.

2 I only have one Bobcat story. Several years ago Mission Control (my wife) and I took a group of cub scouts to the zoo. There's a place in the zoo with kiddie play thingies right next to some cages containing wildcats, including the bobcat. While waiting for Mission Control to finish up at one of the kiddie play areas, the cub scouts were admiring the bobcat across the way. Suddenly, the bobcat jumped up and bit the head off a bird that had perched in its fence, head on the inside and body on the outside. The bobcat got a nice snack and the remainder of the bird fell outside the cage. To this day, the boys still talk about it.

3 Oh, and if you see a bald eagle, remember to hug an enviro-wacko, tree-hugging liberal. The comeback of the bald eagle is one of the great achievements of the environmental movement (although the removal of DDT has been a mixed bag for the third world). And yeah, a lot of Republicans like the late great John Chafee deserve credit. %%%%%% The number of bald eagles in the lower 48 states reached an all-time low in 1963 when there were only 417 documented nesting pairs. The decline began with the arrival of the Europeans and the settlement of the continent. The bald eagle faired poorly against man's enormous consumption of natural resources. The dwindling food supply and scarce undisturbed roosting areas resulted in reduced bald eagle survival rates. To make matters worse, the birds were being shot and poisoned by ignorant ranchers who thought eagles were killing their livestock. By the 1950s, even eagles that had survived man's direct assault by inhabiting remote areas began to exhibit alarmingly low reproductive rates. Eagle watchers determined that a high percentage of mated pairs were not nesting. Even when eggs were laid they seldom hatched. The National Audubon Society initiated a census and study of bald eagles in 1960 to assess the impact of the declining reproductive rates. Research studies conducted during the early 1960s indicated that the cause of the bald eagle's rapid decline was the overuse of insecticides such as DDT. Poisons used to kill insects at the lower end of the food chain accumulated and increased in toxicity at the upper end of the food chain. The effect on eagles depended on the level of toxicity. For the higher levels the birds became infertile or were too sick to nest. For lower levels the laid eggshells were so thin that the weight of the bird during incubation crushed them. In 1972 the Environmental Protection Agency banned almost all uses of DDT in the United States.

4 A few million kids dead from malaria is a "mixed bag"?

5 I have yet to see a bobcat or lynx, but maybe soon. Last weekend Mrs. fluffy and I saw a wild turkey strut through the backyard. We had a mild winter, which I suspect saw a lot more birds survive to spring.