From: toby@stein.u.washington.edu (Toby Bradshaw)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: BLUEBIRDS, RI, USA
Date: 8 Jan 1993 22:57:22 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
NNTP-Posting-Host: stein.u.washington.edu
Keywords: Bluebirds

In article <1iktl4INNrn4@matt.ksu.ksu.edu> drintoul@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (David A Rintoul) writes:
>andrewt@watson.ibm.com (Andrew Taylor) opines:
>
>>Are Brown-headed Cowbirds inherently lesser birds than Kirtland's Warblers?
>
>>The Eastern Bluebird has suffered a serious decline which is what at least
>>some nest box makers are attempting to remedy.  House Wrens have not.
>>I think its quite reasonable, even if it is illegal, to deter House Wrens from
>>nesting in these boxes by removing their nesting material.
>
>
>I, for one, am glad that Mr. Taylor is not in charge of overseeing the
>recovery of any avian species.  The simplistic comparison between the
>cowbird/warbler situation and the bluebird/wren situation is
>misleading, to wit:
>
>1. Kirtland's warbler populations are critically low in the one and
>only breeding site; Eastern Bluebird populations are low in some
>places, but reasonable in many others.  Population management at a
>single breeding site is not the same as population management at a
>variety of sites.  Removal of cowbird eggs at the Kirtland's warbler
>site still required a special permit from USFWS, since the BHC is
>a native North American species.

Peregrine populations were low east of the Rockies, but stable in other
areas of the world.  Should Great Horned Owl killings have been prohibited
and depredation of young peregrines at hack sites in the eastern U.S.
allowed to continue, since peregrines were not rare everywhere?  Mr.
Taylor recognizes the fact that legal != right and illegal != wrong.  Just
as a for-instance, a mourning dove crossing a state line in the U.S. can
go from protected "songbird" to main dish, but I suspect that we could get
a(nother) good argument going on the morality of dove hunting while
agreeing that the legal status is arbitrary. 

Personally, I would as soon have a house wren as a bluebird
in my nest boxes.  I wouldn't give a hearty damn if someone
else wants to evict a house wren's material from his/her boxes
prior to egg laying, though, which is all I understood Mr. Taylor
to be advocating.

>3. Simple expedients (such as providing more than one next box) allow
>the simultaneous nesting of both bluebirds and house wrens.  As is well
>known, there is no simple solution to the cowbird problem.

Alexander Wetmore had one.  Every year on his birthday, he shot
one cowbird for each year of his life.  I used to skin them when
I worked at the museum.  As you can see, he wasn't totally successful,
but he did his part.

>Hopefully some bluebird enthusiasts will read this, think about it,
>and act accordingly.  Hopefully Mr. Taylor will never be in charge of
>a bluebird trail.

And, God forbid he should put up a bird feeder that defeats
squirrel feeding, or discriminates heavy blue jays from lighter
cardinals, or dispenses seeds preferred by goldfinches over
house finches.  Or, we could pass a law...

Toby Bradshaw                       |
Department of Biochemistry          |  Will make genetic linkage maps
and College of Forest Resources     |            for food.
University of Washington, Seattle   |
toby@u.washington.edu               |



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