Starlings are the pet bird people shoold be after! They talk great and bond
well (like super glue!!!:-))) I had one that whistled Dixie!! He recited
nursery rhymes too! He also did this little piggy goes to market! Multi
talented! He fed himself out of the cats bowl and water dish! Sat on the
dog's head and only shit in his cage! He was tough on vegetation but did not
eat the furniture (like lots of Parrots) He would also groom my whiskers!
They also legal to catch and you may do the bluebirds a fAvor by keeping them
from breeding!! i recommend getting babies and raising them on wet cat food!

ALWAYS READY FOR VARIETY. Keeping the home fire burning

Good Day to you all!!

Dave Merker
Brookbend Banding Station
Vershire, VT
-32 degrees this AM

=================

From: Bill Principe <principe at ABA.ORG>

David Merker wrote:

> Starlings are the pet bird people should be after!

I agree completely! They make wonderful pets. The Eaton Canyon Nature
Center here in Pasadena had one for years, until it burned down in the
terrible fire caused last year by a vagrant (person, not bird. "Vagrant"
USED to be the word we used until "homeless person" became PC).

I also agree that you should take one from a nest, instead of
trying to capture an adult.

Remember that Starlings are in the same family with Mynahs, and have
similar mimic talents.

In the US and Canada, Eurasian Starlings are not protected, since they
are exotic imports. Susan Blais expressed concern about caging wild birds
from her location in Berlin (I assume New Hampshire, not Germany), but it is
totally legal and totally desirable. Many US birders have trouble thinking of
Starlings as "wild birds," as I have trouble thinking of them as anything
but flying rats. (Our European chatters will take issue with me on that, but
if I lived in Europe I am sure I would LOVE Starlings. They are really
quite handsome.) Taking a Starling is a great way to keep a pet, help
protect native birds, all without encouraging the exotic bird trade.

I suspect the same thing would be possible in Australia? Is that true,
Aussie chatters?
............ ... .... . . . . . . . . .
...... Bill Principe . . . . . . .. . . . . .
...... principe at aba.org .. ... . . .. . . .. . .
...... Pasadena, California .. ... . . . . . .
.......... ....... ... . .. ... . . . .. . .
...... "My heart in hiding stirred for a bird" Gerard Manley Hopkins

===============

From: "Steven M. Nunes" <smn at MATH.UMD.EDU>

It shouldn't be necessary to remove a starling from a nest. They
are very likely the most frequently orphaned birds. An observant
birdwatcher should encounter at least one orphaned starling during
the breeding season.

Steven Nunes
College Park, MD USA
smn at emmy.umd.edu

===============

From: "John Shelton - ext. 4051" <johns at UMA.OHSU.EDU>
Subject: Crows as pets

>Crows are supposed to be very crafty and as such I expect them to
>be quite interesting as pets as well as good talkers. I suspect those
>traits will also make them equally difficult to collect.

>Didn't there used to be a bounty on Crows ?
>Are they now protected ?

>Bob Neitzke CAD System Manager Miles Inc. Elkhart In.
>Voice FAX Net-addr
>219-262-7023 219-262-7966 neitzke at miles.elk.miles.com
-------------------------------------------------------
Crows make the best pets by far (I may be biased since I've never raised a
Raven). I would class them as intelligent and perhaps a little
over-affectionate rather than "crafty". By the way it's illegal to keep
one as a pet; but it's not illegal kill them at will anywhere in the US. I
may raise another crow now that I'm in the city limits and my neighbors
aren't allowed shoot at my pets.

John Shelton
johns at uma.ohsu.edu
Portland, Oregon

==============

From: Daan Sandee <sandee at CMNS.THINK.COM>

Sorry, it *is* illegal to kill crows at will. However, the MBTA allows
states to establish a hunting season for crows, and your state may well
have done so (with proper regulation, no doubt, as to where, when, by whom,
how, and how many).

Daan Sandee sandee at cmns.think.com
Mountain View, CA 94041

================

From: Jean <bickal at PILOT.NJIN.NET>

For an entertaining description of raising a Crow as a pet, see Bernd
Heinrich's book, One Man's Owl. Heinrich had a permit. One Man's Owl is
available in paper from the ABA.

Jean Bickal
bickal at pilot.njin.net
Lawrenceville, NJ

==================

From: Randy Lauff <rlauff at JULIET.STFX.CA>

He also wrote "Ravens in Winter". I haven't read "One Man's
Owl", but RiW provides insight into the absolutely wonderful behaviour of
both the ravens and the author. I highly recommend it!

Randy Lauff, Biology
St. Francis Xavier University
Antigonish, NS
rlauff at juliet.stfx.ca

=================

From: "Rebecca Kingery fgapc002 at sivm.si.edu" <FGAPC002 at SIVM.SI.EDU>

"Ravens in Winter" is one of my favorite books & I second the
recommendation. I understand that there is a new book by Heinrich "A
Year in the Maine Woods" which includes his pet crow. I'm still looking
for a copy. Also, to change the subject, I will be in the Vero Beach
area of Fla. next week and would appreciate any tips for mid-coastal
birding. Thanks.

Rebecca Kingery__fgapc002 at sivm.si.edu
Freer Gallery of Art
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 20560

================

From: Hank Burchard <burchard at TWP.COM>

Amen. "Ravens" tells more about the birds than just about all the
other literature put together--and it tells even more about how real
science is done.

Speaking of ravens, I saw one perched in a tree alongside Route 28
in Centreville VA yesterday. There was no mistaking the size, the heavy
crested head and the massive beak. It apparently had been feeding on a
road-killed opossum on the shoulder of the four-lane, high-speed highway.
But all the authorities say ravens are rare and local, shy wilderness
birds in the Appalachians, so I won't report it. When I stopped the car
to look at it with field glasses it gronked at me a couple of times, but
never left the low branch it was perched on, even when I got out of the
car about fifty feet away. It was beautifully feathered and appeared as
robust as the ones that fly over my deer stands in Rockbridge County VA.
But don't tell anyone I told you about it, lest the authorities get on
our case.

+ + + + +

Hank Burchard * Weekend Section * The Washington Post
1150 15th Street NW * Washington DC USA 20071-0001
VoiceMail (202) 334-7243 * Email: burchard at twp.com

=================

From: "D. Goble" <gobled at UIDAHO.EDU>

I attended a writing-and-the-natural-world conference a few years ago and
Murray Gell-Mann recommended *Ravens in Winter* as the best book ever
written on the scientific method.

Dale Goble
University of Idaho
College of Law
Moscow, Idaho 83843
gobled at uidaho.edu

=====================

From: BARNARD%NORWICH.BITNET at vm1.nodak.edu

I feel compelled to set the record straight regarding Vermont's laws on
crow shooting. Dave Merker was incorrect in his recent posting. There is
a season on crow shooting. In 1995, the dates are March 14-April 30, and
August 16-October 29. You cannot shoot them "any old time." There are,
however, no bag limits.

Several years ago, it was determined that crows fell under the Migratory
Bird Act and were thus afforded protection under that law.

____________________________________________________________
| William Barnard Phone: 802-485-4691 |
| Biology Department FAX: 802-485-2580 |
| Norwich University E-MAIL:barnard at norwich.bitnet |
| Northfield, Vermont USA |
| 05663 |
------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Barnard

===============

From: Bill Perkins <wkp at WORLD.STD.COM>

Rebecca, if Vero Beach is just north of Palm Beach (can't remember at the
moment--oldtimers disease), you can try Dickenson Park. All kinds of
birds there, even Bald Eagles. At the camping area in the north end are
Scrub Jays; but to lure them out you must have a bag of Fritos. Once you
bait them, they'll come within three or four feet of you.

Another good location is the Loxahatchie NWR, south of West Palm on Rt 441.

Bill Perkins, wkp at world.std.com
Franklin, MA

================

From: Hank Burchard <burchard at TWP.COM>
Subject: Re: Raven Sightings (was "Crows as pets")

On Sat, 11 Feb 1995, Susan Blais wrote:

> Your talk of ravens interests me. Are they rare in your part of the
> country? I was out on snowshoes today when this very large bird came
> swooping towards me on the trail. As it flew up, I heard the
> characteristic call of the raven. On I went, catching sight of something
> furry in the crook of a tree ahead. It was a dead rabbit (apparently a
> hunter put it there), so I'm sure the raven was after it. Anyhow, these
> sightings are not all that un common (sorry about the typo) here in the
> north woods of New Hampshire.

Ravens until relatively recently have been rare and local in an
extended oval area of the south-central Appalachians, but their range
clearly is expanding. Not so long ago they were unusual in your part of
the country too; my earlier bird books show them only in northern Maine,
while the later ones show that their range now includes northern New
England, with increasingly

frequent sightings in southern New England and northern New York.

Hank Burchard * Weekend Section * The Washington Post
1150 15th Street NW * Washington DC USA 20071-0001
VoiceMail (202) 334-7243 * Email: burchard at twp.com