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Index of Subjects Least Bittern is a very interesting vagrant, Steve. I was once given a live, but very tired, Least Bittern in the late 1980's. I took it to a marshy area by the water near Temple Church in Barrington. After taking several pictures we released it, and it flew off well. I sent the pictures to Ian McLaren, and one was published in NS birds (probably 1989?). This bird had landed on a fishing boat between Seal Island and Cape Sable Island. The only one I have seen since then was the one that stayed for some time in the Little Pond on Brier Island a few years ago. I do believe it is illegal to keep or offer dead birds except for the Museum, but I am sure others will address that. Cheers, Joan ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen Shaw" <srshaw@dal.ca> To: <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca> Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 2:24 AM Subject: [NatureNS] Possible least bittern, what to do > Question for birders in these slow times: we are not seeing much of > anything > except squirrels, at our feeders at Halifax. > Over Xmas, we visited the family of a friend of my daughter's near > Hubbards. > The friend's mum told me that earlier she had accidentally killed an > unusual > bird back in May while driving along highway 3 near a tidal salt marsh > area, > close to Boutiliers Point, approx 7200 section. The bird seemed to be > behaving > oddly, fluttering around, as she drove by and that it suddenly shot in > front of > her car and she had no chance to avoid it. She stopped and took the dead > bird > home and reckoned that it best fit the description of a least bittern, > according their Audubon bird guide. When I got home I looked this up on > the > Sibley maps and it seems that a least bittern would be only a vagrant this > far > north, but it's not clear (to me) if that makes it exceedingly rare and a > really interesting find, or merely rather irregular and of no major > interest to > birders. The point is that that the corpse still exists -- she preserved > it in > her freezer. Her question to me was what to do with it, usefully. > I commented that it might be useful first to ask people on this network > (1) > whether a possible least bittern is sufficiently interesting to get > someone > competent to check the ID, somehow; (2) is a frozen, dead (possible) least > bittern useful for anyone to have a present of -- e.g. I recall that Randy > Lauf > once collected specimens for an intro biology class at StFX. (May 2006 > probably > means past the due date for a bittern stew). > The description I have is that "it is soft black on the back and rich > golden > brown on the front and has yellow legs". Didn't see it myself. > She's just got back to me and suggested that she could photo the corpse, > and I > guess I could put up the resulting photo on the Flickr site for > inspection. Before going to this bother, I'd like to know if it is a > sufficiently > interesting bird to make this worthwhile. Anyone have suggestions or > comments? > Steve (Halifax) > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.410 / Virus Database: 268.16.8/621 - Release Date: 1/9/2007 > >
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