On Sun, 1 Aug 1999, steve rothboeck wrote:

> Pointing out the precise location of a bird, like the Great Gray Owl is
> exciting to birders, myself included. But is such reporting in the best
> interests of the bird? I would be curious to have the thoughts of others,
> especially any trained professionals, as to whether the exuberant and well
> intentioned enthusiasm of birders can be detrimental to some of these
> species or whether I need to find more important things to worry about.
>
>
Steve et al--

This is an interesting question..thanks up front for raising
it for general discussion by the group. This kind of challenge
is really suited to a forum like this..and even though many
of us will go merrily on our way doing what we always do
(letting the cats out, etc.. Oops! different thread) it's
good to hear the opinions of others about this.

as an aside, I had a friend in San Diego tell me he had an
Eastern Blue Jay on his property..positive ID.. BUT, he
did not report it as he didn't want a horde of people
stomping all over his petunias to get a view of it.. so I
suppose a sub text of this question of yours, may well be
whether someone might not want to report a rare bird sighting
in order to obviate the inconvenience of too much traffic in
the area.

Your question is more about the welfare of the observed bird
and that, I think, should always be a prime consideration.

I guess I'd have to qualify my response and say that it would
depend on the location of the bird and what it was doing. i.e.,
a Questar on a nesting Redtail may not pose any inconvenience to
the bird. However, traipsing through the underbrush to observe
nesting birds I think is disruptive to their reproducing and
Boy, do we need them to reproduce!.. I had a nesting Winter
Wren and a Pacific Slope flycatcher right under my deck within
3 feet of each other and after I discovered them, I never went
back under there to observe them. The first time I went under
there I startled the flycatcher off the nest, so I decided that
they needed to do their thing without me doing the heavy looking
on.

so, I'd say it depends on the location of the bird and what
it's doing.. case in point.. there was a Caracara observed
in Neah Bay, but it wasn't nesting and it was sort of hanging
out. I never went to see it as I'm not a twitcher (no reflection
on those who do that..I just prefer to observe the same old birds
doing different things...occasionally.. like the crows I caught
fishing last week. That was very interesting to me and I
watched them for a long time as I had never seen this before)
so I don't know if those who went to Neah Bay impinged on the
bird in any way.

that's pretty much how I see it..

Tom