Robert and Tweeters,

I too am dismayed to hear this report. I had several personal and positive interactions with the rangers, even chatting with them about hikers who would not stay on the trails. During the several times I was there this summer I saw only a very few people off the trail, and none of them birders. Since it's "my park too" I spoke to each voilater and all but one complied. I think it just points to the obvious fact that it only takes a very few insensitive types to give a whole group a bad name. We must to all we can to police ourselves or we'll start finding more and more access closed to us!

-Rolan

Robert Cleland <cleland at u.washington.edu> wrote:

We just returned from 3 days at Mt. Rainier. Everthing from warm
sun and glorious views, to snow yesterday morning. Birds were not
abundant, but great views of a PRAIRIE FALCON, hovering motionless in the
wind, just overhead, and an encounter between and immature GOLDEN EAGLE
and a couple of RAVENS. I had forgotten how much bigger the eagle is!

One disquieting experience. We met a ranger on the trail and
asked if they had seen the Ptarmigans recently. The answer was, not very
about 3 weeks. The ranger said that this was not a surprise, as the
vegetation in the Panorama Pt area had been trampled down by birders,
looking for the birds. The birders are in low esteem with the rangers
over their behaviour. Apparently a number of them refused to return to
the trails when asked, and were downright rude to the rangers!

I would hope that any Tweeter would not be guilty of such
behaviour, and would discourage any other person they see from doing such
things. I hate to see birders getting a bad reputation with people such
as the park rangers!

************************
Robert Cleland

Professor (Emeritus), Biology Dept. Box 355325
Univ. of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-5325
Phone (206) 543-6105; FAX (206) 685-1728


Rolan Nelson
Burley, WA
rnbuffle at yahoo.com

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