Hi Tweets,

Rob Conway writes:

>3) Are there good uses for these things for birders? OH YES!!
>Anyone
>who birds with others should have one of these. It is a hell of a lot
>easier to shine the light on the ground and then follow the beam as
>someone moves it to point at that "saw-whet in the 4th fir tree in the
>mixed grove of conifers on the right-past the rocks in the middle of the
>creek-the ones that look like a nestful of eggs missing one on the
>left-about half way out on that branch that looks like a dog lifting its
>leg - right where there's no bark on the top but on the bottom".

I can see that this tool would be very useful for showing a single bird
sitting by itself or in a small, loose group, but in my mind's eye I can see
laser pointers being used to indicate single gulls or shorebirds in large
flocks, or birds in flight, and the potential for inadvertent eye-damage to
either the object or surrounding birds much increased, especially as ranges
between bird and birder widen. Let's try three examples.

First, imagine heading to the Iona Settling Ponds and finding a rare small
Calidris sandpiper such as a Little Stint C. minuta sitting in a flock of
ten thousand Western Sandpipers C. mauri. Imagine further that they're all
very active and that the stint is remaining more-or-less buried in a
concentration of Westerns in the center of the pond.

Or imagine cruising the back roads of Delta where in fields surrounding the
Vancouver BC Landfill there are massive standing roosts of thousands of
gulls, and the Slaty-backed Gull Larus schistisagus is--as often
happens--barely visible, being buried in the great mass of birds several
hundred meters away with only a bit of back or wing or head showing.

Finally, imagine that you're sitting at a football game in BC Place or the
Kingdome and you see someone that you know through your bins, but the person
is sitting hundreds of meters away surrounded closely by thousands of
people, but, hey, you've got your pointer, and--.

Perhaps I'm a person of limited imagination, but I cannot think of any way
to *safely* use a laser pointer to illuminate the target in any of those
circumstances.

I would plead the conservative position: if you are sure you can use it
safely, yes; but put the safety of the animal first. If you aren't sure, if
there's any chance of harming the animal or its surrounding neighbors, then
be conservative: don't.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net

"She's psychic....we've decided to find it charming."
--Frasier