Thanks Dave for noting Matt Young's efforts. He had sent some detailed e-mail regarding George Pond a few years ago. In fact, as for preserving habitats, as a sole person, Matt Young has done great job. He has played key role in preserving some bog habitats in our locations including McIllroy Preserve and one of the Cornell Plantations natural areas. So if you are interested in preservation you don't need whole jingbang, one person can do a lot. If more people are involved it is great and sometimes not great. So don't feel that nobody else is doing anything. You go ahead do what has to be done! Changes begin with one person behaving differently.
As for ethics, there definitely has been change in birders behaviors and attitude. All the past references of harming or not harming are no more applicable. Modern gadgets have definitely played a role. Then very few people used to play playbacks now everyone wants to use that technique to see the birds. I have myself have seen in SFO class in last few years, as soon as some bird is heard, some of the students who carry around their gadgets immediately want to do playback so that they can see the bird clearly and up close. So there is sharp rise in birders who want dirty and quick way to see the birds. Also, as Marie mentioned number of photographers who want to get good photos have started using playbacks. There is a quite rise in people who use playbacks and will be rising further in next few years. And there are evidences in many cases where the birds are stressed in instances such as Punta Tumbo penguins that are being continuously visited by tourists is making them nervous. The park people have done variety of things to reduce stress to the birds. I watched one penguin, seeing some people walk by, to reach the safety he climbed the stairs used by humans. When the danger passed, meaning the human walked away, then he could not figure out how to get down as he could not see the land. He was so nervous spent 10 minutes figuring out how to climb down. After he climbed down, he walked very fast away from that location. A recent paper did conclude that birds were stressed when people were around. In last two three years there are quite a few studies to show stress in birds when humans, including scientists interfere with them. So it is not necessary use play back just to tick a bird as sport. Often people do some things unknowingly as they are not educated enough to understand the complexities. So if birders are educated correctly right from the beginning with the reasoning, they will behave correctly. Of course there are always exceptions. Or as one of my friends used to call them "yahoos". One more thing, all individual birds are not same. Like us some are bolder and others are nervous wreck. So one glove does not fit all hands. So if one bird at one location was fine at a given point may not necessarily mean this would be the case next time. If people have some patience and wait for things to happen quietly, one can hear or see all kinds of things. One day I spent almost whole day at Marten's tract, I heard Sora, Virginia rail, bittern and Sandhill cranes within an hour or so. I myself have been stressed by continuous sphishing by my fellow birders on some of the trips, and have been irritated by this. So if I get irritated, I am sure birds also feel the same. Bird watching itself is stressful to birds as we are watching them, they are aware we are watching them. Many of them take off or others hide behind branches so they do not see you. So why should we stress them more by adding additional stressors? Therefore, there should be judicious use of playbacks, spishing or whatever methods people are using to get the attraction of birds just because they want to see them better and get an id on them. Think of it as how you would feel when someone comes to your neighborhood and screams their heads off or spishes continuously in front of your window, wont you get annoyed? May be you will come out with a gun to shoot the nuisance maker. So I don't agree with the justification that we are stressing them for a short time only. Stress is stress. So all that is needed is educating themselves why one should do something or not do something. Cheers Meena PS: I did not want to get into this discussion, well, but now I am deep into it! From: bounce-46827082-3493...@list.cornell.edu [mailto:bounce-46827082-3493...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Dave Nutter Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2012 8:59 AM To: CAYUGABIRDS-L Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] George Pond I think the William George Agency (a.k.a. George Junior Republic) owns not only the fields/pond in question, but also much of the length of the abandoned railroad bed in the area. Matt Young may know more about people to talk to or institutional policies, as I believe he once worked there. If the William George Agency is working with the Town of Dryden to open parts of the railroad bed to the public, they are to be commended, and they may be happy to know of the value to wildlife and birders of those fields being flooded. I hope we can find out whether allowing the beavers to remake their dam, or otherwise raising or controlling the water level, even seasonally as I think was the case a few years ago, is an option amenable to this private landowner. Maybe the Cayuga Bird Club would have a role here. If the railroad bed is to be open to the public, that could be great for viewing, as it is on the south side, closer to some of the most interesting habitat and with the sun from behind. It would be good if there were a couple of small openings in the brush along the north edge of the railroad bed - ideally even blinds - to look through. I certainly hope the brush/tree strip alongside the railroad bed is left otherwise intact, however, both as wildlife habitat and as a screen so wildlife is not generally disturbed by people or dogs and remains comfortable on the south side of the fields/pond. This may be an issue for the Town or whoever is designing and building the path. I also hope that there is signage to ask dog owners to keep dogs on leash to minimize disturbance to wildlife and people. Parking on Springhouse Road, even though it involves a walk, will be better in many ways than the current options: park on NYS-38 by the corral and walk or stand on the road shoulder alongside 55mph traffic; park on George Rd by field gates and stand on narrower road shoulder; park on or near the end of Hart Rd. The latter 2 options aren't great in terms of visibility to traffic coming over the rises. All of the current options are far enough away from the pond and wet areas as to almost require a scope. --Dave Nutter On Apr 09, 2012, at 10:15 PM, Linda Orkin <wingmagi...@gmail.com<mailto:wingmagi...@gmail.com>> wrote: Thanks Carl. Let us all know and if there is a role the Cayuga Bird Club can play in this I would like to have us step forward. I think this was here for longer than a couple of years though. Linda. Sent from my iPhone On Apr 9, 2012, at 9:41 PM, Carl Steckler <c...@cornell.edu<mailto:c...@cornell.edu>> wrote: > FYI the "George Pond" was never a declared wetland. It was and is private > property owned by the William George agency. It became a pond a couple of > years ago when during a very rainy season beavers built a dam on the creek > and flooded the area. Last week the town of Dryden crews working on the > walking trail, the old Lehigh Valley Railroad right of way, removed the > beaver dam in order to repair a damaged drainage culvert which resulted in > draining the pond. > > At this time it is unknown what is planned for the future. I plan on making > an appointment with the Dryden Town Supervisor to inquire as to whether there > are any plans and what they are. I will report what I find out. > > Carl Steckler > > > "For those who fought for it, Freedom has a flavor the protected will never > know" > > > -- > > Cayugabirds-L List Info: > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm > > ARCHIVES: > 1) > cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu<http://www.mail-archive.com/%3ca%20href=>/maillist.html'>http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu<mailto:cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu>/maillist.html > 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds > 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html > > Please submit your observations to eBird: > http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ > > -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu<http://www.mail-archive.com/%3ca%20href=>/maillist.html'>http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu<mailto:cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu>/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds<http://www.surfbirdscom/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
