Yet the government all but winks at coming over the border illegally.
Posted on 12/22/2004 1:19:46 PM PST by Rastus
Kerhonkson – John Iorio is an out-of work, ex-Schrade guy who lives with his girlfriend, Sue, in a little house on Route 44/55.
He never thought the federal government would spoil his Christmas because he wanted to raise a little money for presents by selling a hummingbird nest on eBay. He was wrong.
It started as a lark. He spotted a guy selling nothing, literally, on eBay. Before the joke ended, the bidding soared to $18,000, Iorio said. An idea took flight.
Why not him? Christmas was coming. Money was tight.
From a cardboard box, he pulled a hollow pouch of gossamer thread and fibers dangling from a twig. This was his nest egg in disguise.
Three years ago, a Central Hudson utility crew had sliced out pieces of the four pine trees in his front yard. The nest tumbled to the ground. Two tiny eggs within shattered.
Iorio said he figured it had to be the nest of the hummingbirds that frequent his front yard. Brilliant flashes of red mark their flittings from summer flower to feeder and into the sheltering branches of the pines.
When he complained to environmental officials back then about the damage the utility crews had done to the nest, nothing happened, he said.
He took the nest inside and kept it until he got the idea to place it for sale on eBay.
"I don't really want to part with it, but times are tough right now. [I'm unemployed at the moment]," he wrote in the description to the listing. "I just hope someone else can get all the enjoyment like we do from looking at it."
The bidding was slow at first. But by Friday it climbed to more than $200. The closing high bid on Saturday was $330, more than enough to buy his girlfriend a present he had in mind.
But Iorio, 47, and Sue got different e-mails, too. One writer said the sale was illegal and threatened to turn Iorio in. He did.
"The sale or offer for sale of this nest is a violation of federal law," Robert Garabedian, a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Albany, wrote to Iorio.
It's illegal to even take a feather of a covered migratory bird if it is lying on the ground in the woods. The same is true of dead owls, hawks or eagles.
"You can't do that," Garabedian said yesterday. "You have to have a permit."
The maximum penalty is up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine, he said.
Iorio spoke with Garabedian by telephone yesterday. "I told him I ain't going to argue with you. If it's against the law, it's against the law."
Iorio said he plans to donate the nest to a Pennsylvania state park near where the winning bidder lives. The law allows that.
Ironically, two experts told Iorio the nest may not be that of a hummingbird after all. With his luck, though, it would turn out to be some other restricted bird, he said.
In the meantime, he has no money for Sue's present. "I don't know how, but I will pay for it," he said. "It will come from somewhere."
What a birdbrain!!!!!
Good thing we have all those government employees looking out for feathers and such...I'll sleep a little safer tonight...
Pretty rediculous...it's not like the guy went out and poached a bunch of humming birds...
Poached? Yuck. Taking a few dozen and making an omlet is much better.
I think the reason for this law is to prevent the "I just found it" defense when the game warden catches you with a stuffed bald eagle.
Yet the government all but winks at coming over the border illegally.
Actually, the feather prohibition is rooted in the protection of native american pagan worship.
Birds know no borders.
Oh, you meant illegal immigrants. The gov't has pretty much passed the winking stage and gone straight to begging them to come.
Its crazy, the Migratory Bird Act is one of the stupidest pieces of legislation ever!
Can you believe this?
I wonder if it is legal to let our cat catch hummingbirds?
And it does nothing to encourage birds to migrate to the USA
BECAUSE BIRDS CANNOT READ;)
True, but I used to live on an Island and eagle's were frequently at the shore...We also had a breading pair at my friends house at the beach and they always tossed the runt out of the nest so it was quite easy to find feathers and eagle skulls...or a live eagle if you were keeping an eye on the nest.
MD
The Bit-h probably STILL has it hanging in her home!
That is fine for the breasts & thighs, but...
If you are very careful, you can also stuff their tongues with pate, then spiral-wrap them around boiled quail eggs for hors d'oeuvres. You may need a few tiny dots of aspic to hold them in place.
To keep the eggs upright on the tray, place them, large end down, in the hole of a thick center-cut from a ripe, extra-large black olive.
An alternative is to pass the tongue through the egg, so it sticks out on either side, then place a slice of green olive as a "hat" if you want to be really cutesy about it...voila; quail-egg holiday snowmen!
That is crazy!!
I don't really know if matters if animals (such as our cat or any other domestic animal) catch them, but why does it matter? did PETA throw some sort of raging demonical fit AGAIN? :)
These are Federal Agents enforcing the Migratory Bird Act!!! These are Fish / Wildlife agents empowered to engage the FBI to determine who is peddling in the trade of ILLEGAL HUMMINGBIRD NESTS !!!
Hummingbirds migrate, dontchano?
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