A friend asked me to post this to tweeters for him.

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From: Alan Grenon
subject: locating Boreal Owls

People again have been reported playing tapes as they search for Boreal Owls in the Sunrise area of Mount Rainier National Park. This is inappropriate for at least the following reasons:

1. If playing tapes does have negative impacts on birds, those impacts will most likely affect birds in areas where birders play tapes at the same birds repeatedly, whether due to ease of access or to rarity (desirability) of the birds.
2. Playing tapes to influence wildlife is prohibited at Mount Rainier National Park. The National Park Service has sole jurisdiction for law enforcement within the park?s boundaries. In other words, playing tapes at owls there is illegal.
3. On a more general note, if birders leave trails in the Sunrise area to seek birds, they are breaking another park regulation, which exists to protect the highly fragile vegetation and soils of the subalpine communities of the area. These habitats cannot resist the impacts of the many thousands of visitors to the area annually if those visitors leave hardened trails.

The American Birding Association code of birding ethics:
1. "Limit the use of recordings
and never use such methods in heavily birded areas or for attracting any species that is
rare in your local area."
2. "Follow all laws, rules, and regulations governing use of roads and public areas."
3. "Stay on roads, trails, and paths where they exist; otherwise keep habitat disturbance to a minimum."

Alan Grenon
pan at mailandnews.com