[mou] Released Game bird frequency

[Andrew D. Bicek]

With the recent discussion about released and escaped birds, I felt I should
contribute.  I always see people saying that they are unaware of a game farm
nearby.  Well there doesn't need to be a game farm nearby.  Let me explain.
While I am a birder, I am also an upland game hunter and I run my dogs in
field trial competitions.  To train a hunting dog to compete in field trials
and hunt tests, requires the use of live birds in training.  Dog trainers
form training groups all over the state and the country, where we get
together and train our dogs usually on a weekly basis or more frequently
throughout the year.  In MN you need a free training permit from the DNR to
train dogs on live birds.  To get live birds for training, most people
either buy them from a Game farm or raise their own.  They are relatively
cheap.  Quail and chukar cost about 4-5 dollars a piece and pheasants cost
about 5-9 dollars a piece.  Pigeons are also used, but these are trapped
birds.  If you buy them from a game farm, they give you a receipt so that
the birds are accounted for, and you are legal if stopped by DNR personnel.
My point is that there are probably thousands of Dog trainers throughout the
state that regularly train with live birds by releasing them.  This means
that hundreds to thousands of birds are probably released by dog trainers on
a daily to weekly basis throughout MN.  Now, many of those birds are not
found by the dogs, so they are free to try and survive in the wild.  Some do
for a while.the ones that people see.  Most perish quickly.  We used to have
a red-tailed hawk that got conditioned to our training groups one summer,
and everytime it heard the blast of a shotgun, it came soaring.  We had to
work quickly, because after we would release the birds, the hawk would
usually spot one in the field and swoop down and get it.  It's appetite was
usually full after one bird so it was not a big deal, but fun to watch.

 

So what I'm saying is that it is more of a wonder that birders do not see
more released birds, and that chukars and quail don't form populations in
the wild near big training sites.  I certainly agree with the records
committee on this that 99% of quail and chukar in MN are released.  BTW,
there is a good article from a couple months ago in the MN conservation
volunteer magazine about bobwhite quail conservation in SE MN.

 

Andy Bicek

Elk River

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