Subject: "Ornithogolfing" or Recreational vs. Conservation-based Birding
Date: Feb 25 16:44:35 1997
From: David Beatty - djbeatty at techline.com


>
>Jerry Blinn quotes, approvingly: "It's all such a pile of petrel doodoo."
>
>Yep.
>
>I hear it's called the ACADEMIC PETREL, by the way.
>Highly competetive and very conscious of its place in the pecking order.
>Unlike other petrel species it does quite well at feathering its own nest.
>Apparently there is a resident flock in the Puget Sound basin.
>
>Chapter 2:

The doodoo of the ACADEMIC PETREL can be toxic when spread beyond the
species' home territory (usually cloistered, ivy-covered grounds). This is
especially the case when the bird is suffused with the puffery associated
with competition among its peers for territorial domination.

Some birds become disoriented and make foul-smelling deposits, far from
their home territories, that appear to some like overripe nougats, but
others mistake for kernels of wisdom. A few humans collect and even cherish
this odious material, unaware that it was produced to foster inter-species
hegemony.

David Beatty
>
DJ Beatty