Hi, Tweets,

After posting, and reading other's posts, it also occurred to me that we,
the birders of this list, have a responsibility to the birds we see...that of
protecting them from others of our own species. Do you remember when a
spotted owl was seen in Everett? The papers had articles about it, along
with comments, and if I recall correctly (or perhaps I don't..I've come to
expect the following comments from the anti-environmentalists, so perhaps I'm
making this up.) some blanketyblank said "tell me where it is, I'll shoot it
and take care of the problem."

Attitudes like this abound.........it's called "Shoot, shovel and shut up."
meaning, there's people out there who will do that sort of thing, just out of
spite. Rather than live with the animal, try to compromise to allow it to
survive, they'd sooner destroy it so that they don't have to live with the
consequences of it's existence.
(Another for instance.....just recently several Mexican wolves was released
in Arizona. I believe that within a week, several had been shot. Why? Because
some blanketyblankblank with a grudge decided he didn't agree with the
decision and took matters into his own hands. No matter how many people
decide to preserve a species, it takes only one blanketyblank to kill it.)

Perhaps, then, we should be protecting the birds against our own species. Not
everyone is like us, not everyone likes birds....a lot of humans on this
planet see them as a nuisance, or worse, competition. They see no reason to
preserve wildlife and wild places. Many of them have that Newt Gingrich
attitude, that of pave every inch of the country, cut down every last tree,
kill off the animals and let's make money (and pay taxes) .And face it, most
humans are just plain old MEAN.
Michelle