Paul: You have some good points below that I had not thought of in a few decades of birding. You can add pishing, owl calls whether recorded or imitated, and playing calls of the given species to attract good birds to your list below. I have rarely, if ever, seen a birder not pish or do owl calls. Taken to extremes in well known areas these can disrupt nesting of rare, highly desired, species of birds. Using recorded calls of those species is the most disruptive. All three of these can be construed as harassment of birds. That is why there are laws about such in Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo habitat. These days it would not be surprising if playing recorded calls of trogons in Arizona is now illegal.
There is not a single one of us who have good sized life lists who have seen those species entirely unaided. At the very least we all have used bird finding books. Without Mr. Eckert's book my life list would be as high as it is. In the days before statewide Internet birding discussion groups, bulletin boards, if we didn't know local contacts we spent money calling local birding club tapes in order to get up to date information on which species were being seen. In those days those of us who were ABA members and indicated in the ABA roster that we were willing to help people would get phone calls from folks from here and there wanting information when and where to go after this or that species. Some of those people would call kind of late at night. These days with the Internet discussion groups at least we don't get those late night phone calls. Last July and August the folks in South Dakota did an excellent job of getting people the Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush. They used SD-Birds to caution people when the chasers were getting too enthusiastic, vigorous in going after the third record of this species in the US. It was a pleasure to watch Jennifer Fowler engage in crowd control so that the bird would stay around. It was thanks to her efforts that others saw the bird after the first few days and I was able to record the call of that bird and add it to my life list a week or two after it was found. By contrast I have seen some very rare birds in Texas get chased off by overenthusiastic birders and/or photographers who had to get the ultimate view or photo of that bird. In some cases I got there early enough to see the bird; In other cases the bird was chased off before I tried for it. I saw the Ruddy Quail-Dove and got a few photographs of it; The Social Flycatcher was chased off a day or two before I tried for it. Such things have most probably happened elsewhere with other special species. People in all areas should emulate the South Dakotans and act as you suggest below. Thanks! Steve Stevan Hawkins San Antonio TX -----Original Message----- From: Minnesota Birds [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Paul Roisen Sent: Friday, January 21, 2011 7:53 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [mou-net] Are we overreacting? LONG! The opportunity to see wildlife up close and personal has always been exciting to me and I am sure to anyone who has a passion for birds and animals. Enter photography (I am an obsessed birder and photographer) and the desire to get a stunning photograph stirs the blood. There are techniques to get closer without harming wildlife and there are HARMFUL methods. For me the most exciting and satisfying photos are those in which I stumbled onto just by accident. Also, satisfying is being able use a known location for a bird and find a place to set up my equipment where it will not "spook" the bird so that it changes location and then WAIT PATIENTLY for a POSSIBLE opportunity. This was a hard lesson for me early in my birding/photography life. And I know that I upset others because I believed that my tremendous stalking skill (sarcasm) could certainly get me one or two steps closer without disturbing the bird. If a person has such a desire for great photos that they are willing to endanger birds by using lures, fishing line, or any other questionable method then I might suggest a rethinking of one's ego. For those who care more for the photo op than the birds I suggest you go to your nearest zoo adjust your camera setting so that any fences, people, will blur and shoot away. They you can go and show everyone what a great birder/photographer you are. NOW to the main point. There are so many ways the humans can impact wildlife--even providing food such as at feeding stations causes harm. Not reporting owl locations won't solve the problem because if someone is that driven they can certainly find other ways to accomplish this such as: 1) making friends with birders then going back and doing whatever to get the photo, 2) finding birds on their own (Sax-Zim offers excellent chances and is not that large an area), 3) put out bait and wait etc. etc. Owls are not the only species that people can cause trouble for. I mentioned earlier the Gyrfalcons in SD. How about the wolves or foxes? Putting carcasses to attract eagles and the list goes on. Pretty soon we will have to stop listing at all as we might find that photographers or birders work on Pine Grosbeaks or Prairie Falcons. EDUCATION on birding and photography etiquette. REPORT on the listserve and to law enforcement unacceptable behavior or etiquette (though there was a recent report about photographer misbehavior that turned out to be inaccurate). Mike Henderson just posted about a Northern Hawk Owl behaving very strangely. Even if we accept that a birder/photographer did use these unacceptable techniques is there any proof that the owl in question was found via MOU-NET. People could do the same thing after finding birds on there own--especially knowledgeable birders who are into photography. Have we considered it might even be someone who wish to capture a bird for themselves--like falconers do? Maybe Kim Eckert should take "A Birder's Guide to Minnesota" off the shelves to make sure people don't know were to go in Minnesota to see birds? Maybe Sparky and Mike and other guides should quit taking people out (the clients could and often do go back to locations). Truth is that the person(s) doing these things could well be members of MOU who are unethical and immoral and put on a good front when with others. Anything is possible. If this was a pervasive occurrence I would be the first to come up with a radical solution, however this does not seem to be the case. Let's see if we can work through this without punishing all birders and photographers. I really believe that we can reduce these incidents by being active conservationists, educating others (post the "MOU" ethics to the list serve periodically), and finally--take a stand and report bad behavior. Image what it would be like if no one would respond to requests for help birding in a different state or even part of our own state. Hoping my plans to visit northern Minnesota with Dave Lambeth from Fargo ND can continue on schedule. We have been looking forward to this trip for two years. God Bless, Paul Roisen Sioux City, IA Woodbury County 712-276-0371(H) 712-301-2817(C) ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
