[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Cat solution; Waterfowl origins; Irvin Farm (TLC)



Hi Carolinabirders,

So, did anyone catch the Sargents on A&E? My girlfriend had guests, and 
they weren't in a TV-watching mood... I attended a pretty rowdy birthday 
party later Saturday night. Driving home at 3 AM, I flushed a HUGE bird 
from the roadside near the intersection of Academy (751) and Duke 
University roads. Great Horned Owl, I'd guess, or maybe a large Barred.

Next morning (after about 3 hours' sleep) I and two friends, founders of 
the Duke Natural History Society, were given a tour of Irvin Farm. It's 
an old farm near Carrboro. It is not yet open to the public; however, the 
owner is very ill, and has left the land to the Triangle Land Conservancy 
(along with a generous amount of money) in her will. Nice lady, sorry to 
see her in such bad shape. The land was very nice: old overgrown fields 
LOADED with sparrows, mainly White-throated. Mixed woodland, more piney 
up high, more deciduous down by the creek, with Winter Wren, both 
kinglets, and all the other usual winter characters. One stand of big 
pines must have been infected by bark beetles and then hit with a 
tornado, or maybe Fran: the deciduous trees were all still standing, but 
there were large dead pines scattered on the ground like toothpicks! 
Heard Pileated, Downy, Red-bellied, and maybe Hairy Woodpeckers in the 
area around there, and saw Sapsucker marks on an old Magnolia near the 
barns. No Barn Owls inside yet... If I hear that TLC has opened the land 
to public access, I'll let y'all know.

Pasted at the bottom of today's message is the result of some research 
done by a birder to our north on the subject of private waterfowl 
collections. Food for thought.

On Sun, 28 Jan 2001, John Argentati wrote:
>
> I had a problem with a neighbor's cat who was killing the birds at our
> feeders.  I contacted the owner, but she claimed that the cat was just a
> stray she'd been feeding, i.e. she wasn't willing to accept full
> responsibility for the animal.  I then contacted Wake County Animal Control
> who came out and set up a have-a-heart trap.  On Friday, the cat was caught
> and turned in.
>
> My neighbor proceeded to pass out flyers to all of the people who live in my
> subdivision vilifying me for putting her cat on "death row."  Now many of my
> neighbors think I'm a horrible person...  Any ideas?

I suggest counter-publicity. John's neighbor wanted all of the benefits 
of a pet - companionship, etc. - but none of the responsibility. If she 
had given this cat a collar, immunizations, a REAL home, gotten it spayed 
or neutered, done anything else besides leave out a little food, she 
might even have grounds for legal action against John. We have a word for 
people who want benefits without any responsibility: immature. We could 
also call them freeloaders. The person at Mason Farm who feeds the strays 
there is guilty of the same bad behavior.

So here's what John, people at Mason Farm, and anyone else with a similar 
problem should do: visit the website of the American Bird Conservancy's 
"Cats Indoors!" campaign at 
http://www.umd.umich.edu/dept/rouge_river/cats.html and web-search for 
others with similar content.

Then pass out flyers of your own, with statistics like how much longer 
indoor cats live than outdoor, and especially how much longer cats with 
appropriate veterinary care live than strays being fed by well-meaning 
but ignorant people. You can also add the large number of birds, 
squirrels, lizards, and other innocent wildlife which is slaughtered 
every year by stray cats and outdoor pets, and the number treated by 
wildlife rehabilitators after cat attacks. Basically, turn the tables: 
John isn't the horrible person here, it's his neighbor who is horrible 
for selfishly treating this cat like a pet without thought of either the 
cat's true health or welfare or the health of any other living creature 
in the area. By removing this one cat, John has not only rescued the 
hundreds of critters this cat would have killed, but also rescued the 
kittens it undoubtedly would have had from cold, hunger, predators, 
diseases, and other hazards that strays face (but indoor cats don't). 
Cats Indoors! May even have such flyers that they can share with you, or 
may be willing to come up with some, or you could just print out their 
web-site and add a few choice comments of your own. Or a few of us around 
here who care about this issue could collaborate and come up with 
something.

Good birding, and good luck,

Josh

Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Re: SMEW and aviculture
From: Todd Day <BlkVulture@AOL.COM>
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 17:40:17 EST

Having a bit of free time, I looked into aviculture a little today. The 
topic of rare waterfowl has been of interest to me for a long time, and 
frankly, I don't really know where I stand on it.  While I think many of 
the vagrant birds reported occur naturally, I also think that they could 
be coming from collections.

There is a web site out there [www.rarebird.com] that lists four breeders 
of waterfowl. I followed a few links from there and found several other 
breeders, zoos, and university collections.  I even called a couple of 
the breeders.

While virtually every species of waterfowl is kept in a collection 
somewhere, some are more common than others.  One of the breeders I 
spoke to today claims that smew is commonly kept in private collections, 
not to mention zoo and university collections.  He has ten pair today 
[for $550 and probably a permit, I could have bought a pair].  I found a 
couple collectors that listed smew as birds in their collection.  The 
zoos and universities that I looked at didn't list specifically all of 
their birds.

Out of curiosity, I looked at the prices posted on the web of some of the 
other rare waterfowl that birders struggle to determine origin (all 
prices are for a male/female pair):

Eurasian Wigeon:  All breeders list them for $70.

Cinnamon Teal:  A bargain at $45.  Considered "hardy and good birds for 
the beginner," and easy to keep in collections.  Commonly kept in 
collections.

Garganey.  They range from $110 to $125.

Smew.  Could only find one price quote online, $550.  They are considered 
by aviculturists as "hardy birds able to withstand many climates."  
Sometimes it is difficult to get the young to eat live food. Mealworms 
and minnows are suggested for that situation.

Tufted Duck.  Pretty cheap at $60 a pair.

Barnacle Goose.  Commonly kept in collections, and most breeders list 
them, all for $125.  Seems like there might be some price fixing going 
on here.

I asked the two breeders about marking birds, and escapees.  One was a 
bit more candid with me, the other was a tad cagey.  I think he might 
have thought I was a fed.  Both of them band their birds, and cut off 
the back toe on the right foot of any full winged bird in their 
collection. They both admitted to losing birds from their collections, 
though not often. I didn't ask if they were missing a smew. Both breeders 
said that aside from the absent toe, there is no way that they could tell 
by looking at a bird whether it was wild or from a collection, by plumage 
or behavior.

All that said, birds that were raised by hand and escape collections have 
a tough road ahead of them.  One of the breeders guessed that fifty 
percent of them would die out of captivity, the other thought the 
survival rate was even less than that.  So who knows.

Cheers...

Todd

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Todd Day
Jeffersonton, VA
Culpeper County
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -