Dave K, et. al., First, let me state that I was not a participant of either of these trips, and am only responding with my eList administrator hat on. While I don’t doubt some frustration that may have been felt by you or others in having missed the Ruff on Friday or Saturday, it is not uncommon for field leaders to have authorized or planned scouting trips ahead of schedule field trips. That being said, it is not okay to publicly call out people in this way, especially as identified by religion. Please be respectful of your fellow birders on this eList!
If you were to take a moment to review the eBird checklists from the morning of the scouting trip as compared to morning of the planned field trip, you will see very little variation in the species and abundance, with the exception of the following (Species Name #Friday AM vs #Saturday AM): Wood Duck 50 vs 5 Gadwall 0 vs 5 Mallard 150 vs 100 (estimated) American Black Duck 1 vs 0 Green-winged Teal 20 vs 12 Great Egret 35 vs 1 Green Heron 1 vs 45 Black-crowned Night-Heron 4 vs 25 Common Gallinule 6 vs 1 Sandhill Crane 3 vs 11 Semipalmated Plover 50 vs 55 Killdeer 25 vs 15 RUFF 1 vs 0 Stilt Sandpiper 1 vs 2 Least Sandpiper 100 vs 75 White-rumped Sandpiper 2 vs 1 Pectoral Sandpiper 50 vs 25 (estimated) Peep sp. 0 vs 100 (estimated) Greater Yellowlegs 3 vs 6 Lesser Yellowlegs 75 vs 150 (estimated) Ring-billed Gull 28 vs 45 (estimated) Here are the two eBird checklists these numbers were pulled from: Friday morning: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S47759874 Saturday morning: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S47787278 If one were to look at the other aspect affecting species mix and numbers, i.e., the weather, you will see that there was the passage of a cold front producing favorable migration conditions on the morning of the 10th (the day of the scouting trip) through the late evening of the 10th (the night before the field trip). It would not be unexpected to see the species mix and numbers become affected by the passage of this cold front. Given the time of year and the turnover of numbers of species, I’m not surprised, and daily variation is to be expected. It is highly unlikely that the scouting trip on the morning of the 10th caused this kind of turnover. It has been claimed that repeated human traffic near mudflat habitat would cause fewer shorebirds to use or return to that space; however, it has been arguably demonstrated that once mudflat-using shorebirds are exposed to daily routines of humans and nearby cars traveling on dikes, those mudflat-using shorebirds will become accustomed to and less skittish of humans or cars near them. Please note, this is not the same thing as the impact that humans can have upon coastal beachfront-using migratory shorebirds—that’s a completely different habitat type and scenario. In the future, if there are any concerns or complaints associated with other birders or their activities, please either contact them directly off-list, or reach out to me in private first, and not to the entire Cayugabirds-L eList community of 930 subscribers. Thank you! Sincerely, Chris T-H Listowner, Cayugabirds-L Ithaca, NY On Aug 11, 2018, at 5:17 PM, Dave K <fishwatch...@hotmail.com<mailto:fishwatch...@hotmail.com>> wrote: A group of the usuals (minus one plus an Amish guy) went on a 'scouting trip' at Knox-Marcellus on Friday preceding Saturdays 'Public Walk'. Of course, they flushed many of the birds, pushing them away from the dikes and some, including the Ruff, out of the area. How could any right minded person think this scouting adventure would have a positive impact on so many who waited until the scheduled time Saturday morning. I've only seen reports from one scout so I don't know if any of the others even bothered to show up today. But hey., they got theirs, right? Today's participants deserved better. So elitist and exclusionary. -- 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/>! -- -- Chris Tessaglia-Hymes Listowner, Cayugabirds-L Ithaca, New York c...@cornell.edu<mailto:c...@cornell.edu> Cayugabirds-L – Archives<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Cayugabirds-L – Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME.htm> Cayugabirds-L – Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES.htm> Cayugabirds-L – Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> -- 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/ --
