Subject: Re: Tweeters caught in apparent double-standard
Date: Feb 27 18:10:09 1996
From: Don Baccus - donb at Rational.COM


Alvaro:
>The fact that a Great Grey Owl starved to death out of range during a
>winter when there has been an incursion from the mountains/north should not
>be surprising, in fact it is predicted from what is understood about these
>movements.

>Radio marking these Great Greys on years when they move south is in
>essence a good idea as it may help to learn if these birds do make it back
>'home' safe and sound to breed after one of these stressful (in terms of
>availability of food, not birders) periods. However, one sample point does
>not make a research project. If the project has the budget to radio track 10
>to 20 owls in the coming winters (decade) and this is the first of a larger
>effort then let's back this thing and help it to get off the ground. If it
>is just one owl that is to be followed it is unlikely to achieve much or to
>tell us much, in fact you could argue that it is a waste of time and effort
>which could have been used for some other more focused project.

Well said.

This sums up my problems with it. NW Washington is not the place
a researcher would go to study great gray owls during incursion
events because this isn't where they normally go. I've read a
great book about banding and studying great gray owls during
hard winters up in Canada (I'm sure some have seen it, catching
them with fishing nets on a lure played out by a fishing pole).
These folks, in a sense, stumbled on the subject in a year when
many were around but they are in a good area to do so, because
it is predictible that they're going to see a meaningful
flucuation, and have the opportunity to study meaningful
numbers and gather a reasonable set of data. It sounds like
a great project (the book was written in the late 60s), wish
I could've been there.

This just isn't the case, here. Raptor banders already have this
"band it if it moves" reputation, and the reputation of being
infatuated with charismatic species (otherwise we'd be banding
song sparrows :), within portions of the banding community,
much less the general birding community! This kind of epsiode
just adds to that "mystique" of (dare I say it?) irresponsibility.

If it were just some 'ole great gray owl they'd run across in
the mountains, I'd have no problem with it. Most
banders are opportunistic, and "incidental catch" plays a
role in banding just as it does in fishing. At the Goshutes,
our permit allows us to band 10 goldens a year, based on
that reality - a few eagles stoop our stations each year,
so we might as well band them as it doesn't harm them,
and who knows, we may get to add a data point to the global
data set someday with a band recovery.

But this is far different than catching a highly unusual, very
visible bird in an area heavily populated by birders.

No one will drive to the Goshutes to see a golden eagle, you'll
see a couple dozen even if all you do is watch power poles on
the drive out.

The situation with this bird is quite different.

- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, more at http://www.xxxpdx.com/~dhogaza