I'm new here and should probably keep my mouth shut, but that has never been easy for me :-)
I think sharing the localities is a good thing because it offers an opportunity to remind newbies - like me - to abide by some guidelines. For instance, one might give the location of a particular bird then add something like, "Newbies: this is a rare and easily disturbed species so please stay on the road" or "The feeders are on private property so please respect that". The list and this community aren't really served by reporting a certain species at a certain park, for instance, without specific locality info. Why play that game? So species X has been sighted at State Park Y...great. Its more than likely a species that has been at the park every year for 50 years - so why even bother reporting it? There is no doubt problems with some birders / photographers behavior, but welcome to planet earth. It comes with the territory. I think there is greater good that comes from sharing locality info and feeling free to preach a little about ethical behavior, keeping an eye out for those who are not respectful of the habitat and wildlife or even reporting what you may see as disturbing a protected species. But policing the info shared on a community list is not tenable in my opinion. Imagine if everyone posting had to worry about whether they were giving away too much info. I think a better solution is for posters to use there own best judgement and do as they see in the best interest of the birds and the community of birders. Joe On Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 4:48 PM, Fr. Paul Kammen <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>Whatever happened to the joy of discovering your own birds? Long-eared, > Northern-saw-whet, and Short-eared owls likely occur seasonally in almost any > Minnesota county and I recall at least one article in the Loon in how to find > your own Long-eared Owls. > > The thing of it is, not all of us are experts. I love birds and am an avid > photographer; my vocation is a Catholic priest and birding is a hobby. I enjoy > going out and trying to find a bird on my own; I do all the time on my day > off. > But there are people with much more experience with me. I'd rather not have > to pay a fee to have someone show me where something is all of the time, but > hope that we could share this information. Birds are hard to find, and > knowing a > vicinity of where one is located would be very helpful. I have a telephoto > lens, > I stay at a distance, and obey all the laws. > > I must admit, I am quite perplexed. I have no idea what the point would even > be of saying someone saw something in a general area - we're happy for you, > but how about sharing that for those of us who'd like to see it too? That's > what has happened with this list, and I love it. It's allowed me to see new > birds. It would be very aggravating to have someone just post and keep the > secret to themselves, especially if it's public lands. We are not talking > about > going on private land without asking, but public areas that are open to > everyone in state parks, back roads, trails, etc. Private property, sure, a > homeowner might not want 10 people with telephoto lenses and scopes in his > yard, but public land? I just don't get it. > > Fr. Paul > > ---- > 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
