Dear Tweeters,

Kathy Andrich's post about magpies' being kept illegally as pets made me think. I didn't get the pirate allusion, though--I think pirates traditionally have parrots on their shoulders, if I remember aright. Actually, nowadays they have rocket-propelled grenade launchers on their shoulders. Much more practical.

Anyhow, this magpie-as-pet business takes me back to my beginning birder days. Some time in the early or mid 1970's, I saw a pet magpie at a meeting of the Rockland Audubon Society (Rockland County, New York). I was still too young to drive, so my mom always had to drive me to the Dutch Reformed Church where R.A.S. had their chapter meetings.

One night, the presentation was given by a charismatic middle-aged man who had birded all over North America. He showed us many wonderful slides from places I figured I'd never be able to visit, all featuring birds I figured I'd never get to see. The guy lived out of the back of a Karmann Ghia, to which he referred quite lovingly as "The Galloping Ghia." All the while during the presentation, a magpie perched on his shoulder. He told us that he'd had this companion for many years.

I have always assumed that keeping a pet crow or magpie was legal at that time. "Corvid, schmorvid," the authorities would presumably have grunted, no? Or was this man in violation of the law, even back then?

If anyone out there in Tweeterland knows who the man was, I'd love to find out.

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch? ?? Near Lyman, Washington (Skagit County), USA? ?? garybletsch at yahoo.com? ?? ?


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