JACK MINER’S WATERFOWL COME HOME

Forest and Bird, Issue 52, 1 May 1939, Page 6

JACK MINER’S WATERFOWL COME HOME

WANTED MORE JACK MINERS IN NEW ZEALAND

WITHIN a few short miles of Detroit and Windsor on the old Miner homestead of Kingsville, Ontario, this self-taught naturalist, in some magical way, has established and developed a bird sanctuary that is world-famous. A Mecca for birds of all kinds, it holds a special fascination for ducks and geese. Thousands and thousands of them return to it in the spring and fall of each year as they complete their annual pilgrimage from south to north and back south again, and, during their brief stay, consume all the corn the Miner acres have been able to produce for them. Possibly, these Jack Miner birds are responsible for the expression “A Little Bird Told Me.” In any case, whether they have spread the word or not, the fame of his Kingsville sanctuary has spread in some miraculous way and many sanctuaries in Europe have been patterned after it.

His objects are twofold: First, by means of tagging ducks and geese, as he has been doing since 1904, to collect scientific data regarding their habits, etc., which he turns over to the Government and to the various universities. His second object has a more universal appeal: it is to promote a love for and understanding of wild life amongst adults and children, and to help conserve it for the enjoyment of generations to come. His books, his lectures and his radio work have already accomplished much, hut much remains to be done, and one of his

most pressing oroblems is to perpetuate the work he has started. Jack Miner is a poor man. He has already passed his alloted “three score years and ten.” He has no money of his own with which his plans can be carried through. To solve this problem, he has had the Jack Miner Migratory Bird Foundation incorporated in the State of Michigan and the Province of Ontario. He is giving his home and his sanctuary of thirty acres to the Foundation. Gifts are being solicited, and all moneys received will be held in trust, the interest to be used to maintain the bird sanctuary and to carry on his work.