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Message: <blockquote data-quote="joannec" data-source="post: 1246846" data-attributes="member: 30076">Re  hobby population changes:  So far the changes being  discussed  are over say the last 15 or so years especially.  Perhaps it goes further back than that and like other raptor species hobbies have taken a long time, but not as long as say peregrine, to recover from DDT poisoning in the sixties.  I know hobbies prey on about 50% insect and insects didn't contain the same level of pesticide  as a diet of seed eating birds would have done.  But hobbies eat birds other than hirundines and swifts so I'm wondering that with this lower level of seed eating birds as prey  this may have contributed to their decline; albiet to a lesser extent than peregrine and others.  I'm suggesting that DDTs played some kind of a role in their decline.In some areas threats came from hunting as well in the past and as migrants passing through such countries surely this contributed to their decline.  As these problems are now being reduced this imay be having an effect on population numbers and the range expansion aided by more consistantly warm summers and with more large insects.Joanne</blockquote>