Well said. The Cassin's Sparrows which have been found (and confirmed breeding) here in South Dakota have not been posted for this reason. It's a bit too bad, but understandable since even the ABA magazine "Birding" now calls bird finding a "sport."
It seems that tapes are our steroids. Doug Chapman Sioux Falls, SD On Jul 29, 2008, at 7:51 AM, Richard Wood wrote: > It seems to me that this discussion took place last year about the > Yellow-breasted Chat that was at Black Dog Lake, and at the time, I > wondered what was the point of everyone getting all upset, because > it's just going to happen again. > > The fact is, it's "human nature" for people to act the way that they > do. People are going to want to see a bird that is "rare" when it's > posted, and some of them are going to take any means necessary to > see it, whether it be to drive their vehicle where they shouldn't > (which happened in Maryland recently) or to play tapes, or to throw > a rock at a rail and kill it. > > I wish we could put an end to this, "we can end this behavior if > enough of us post ethics "rules"", because it just isn't going to > stop someone from seeing a bird once it has been posted. As I told > a person in Maryland last year that was complaining about birders > turning the location of a pair of Long-eared Owls into a circus, "if > the original poster didn't want it to come to this, he shouldn't > have posted the bird's location". Maybe we should do that instead > of citing "birding ethics" and then having everyone and his brother > posting asking us to "go by the rules"? In my almost 10 years as a > birder, I've seen that asking others to "go by the rules" doesn't > work. It doesn't work in other parts of life, so why do we think it > will work here? > > Richard > > Richard L. Wood, Ph. D. > Hastings, MN > rwoodphd at yahoo.com > > > ----- Original Message ---- > From: Diana Doyle <diana at managingthewaterway.com> > To: mattjim at earthlink.net; mou-net at moumn.org; mnbird at lists.mnbird.net > Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 8:22:11 PM > Subject: Re: [mou] WEVI tape discussion > > Are birders also destined to fall victim to Garrett Hardin's tragedy > of the commons? It would seem that there is no such thing as "little > tape playing" when it is multiplied over all the birders who want to > see a particular bird. > > I agree with Jim. It's a disservice to the bird and to the person > who then regrets sharing their excitement of an unusual bird with > the broader birding community. > > We must ask ourselves what our priorities are--if we are first and > foremost advocates for birds, their well-being, and their habitat. > Ultimately that's what being a birder is all about. > > Diana Doyle > S. Minneapolis > > ------------- > > On Jul 28, 2008, at 16:09 , James Mattsson wrote: > > THIS IS A RARE BIRD THAT IS ON TERRITORY WHERE MANY BIRDERS HAVE A > CHANCE TO HEAR AND SEE IT !!!! TAPES SHOULD NOT BE USED > "SPARINGLY" OR ANY OTHER WAY !! TAPES CAN ONLY BE HARMFUL TO THE > BIRD WHICH MIGHT BE MATED (PREDATION, ENERGY USED TO DEFEND AGAINST > NON-EXISTENT NEIGHBORS, ETC), AND MAY PRECLUDE OTHER BIRDERS FROM > SEEING/HEARING THE BIRD. > > THIS IS WHY I NO LONGER POST BIRDS I FIND THAT I FEEL THAT ARE > SUSCEPTIBLE TO TAPE PLAYING. > > HERE IS THE COMPLETE ABA CODE OF ETHICS. > > http://www.americanbirding.org/abaethics.htm > > Jim > > > --- > This mailing list is sponsored by the Minnesota Ornithologists' > Union. Mailing list membership available on-line at > http://moumn.org/subscribe.html > . > ----- > To unsubscribe send a blank email to mou-net-request at moumn.org with > a subject of unsubscribe. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20080729/f60e28af/attachment.html
