I was talking to Jason Mandich of Cherry Minnesota about the Abert’s Towhees in Grand Rapids today. Jason was telling me about a guy in Blackberry Minnesota who live traps birds in Arizona and other SW state and brings them home as pets in BlackBerry. ( most likely illegal to do so ) Jason was telling me about a report of a Gambel Quail a few years back he was inform about roaming around Grand Rapids.
Jason doesn’t know the guy but heard about him. Jason doesn’t know if the guy is still doing this trapping or not. Blackberry is pretty close to Grand Rapids. So I am only sharing this discussion I had with Jason because it may or may not come into play with how a pair of SE Arizona birds may of arrived in Grand Rapids. The guy doesn’t sound like he’s banding them but just live trapping them for his own pleasure or selling them. Jason thinks the guy is up in age based on the fact Jason of heard of this guy years ago and not sure if he is currently still trapping birds in SW United States. Again it’s just a discussion we had and what Jason heard through the grape vines as a thought on how a pair of Arizona, Southern California and Nevada MIGHT of shown up in northern Minnesota. Could these birds might of escaped from this guy? So these birds may of been escapees or the real deal but the fact is there a person who once live trapped SW birds or maybe still live trapping birds and driving them up to his residence. I am not trying to sabotage this sighting but it’s something to think about. I drove up today and saw the towhees and watched one of the birds grab old thin vine vegetation in a juniper tree at 316 NE 8th Street as if he the bird wanted it for nesting. Again I found this information worth sharing because it maybe interesting for MOU members to think about when voting on this species. -- Mike Hendrickson Duluth, Minnesota ---- General information and guidelines for posting: https://moumn.org/listservice.html Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html During the pandemic, the MOU encourages you to stay safe, practice social distancing, and continue to bird responsibly.
