Hello,

I have been meaning to post this for a while, and this seems to be the
right time.

When one of my co-workers found out that I am a birder, she responded
with, "I haven't had good experiences with birders, in fact, I had one
that left a very bad feeling for them." I asked her what happened, and
she explained that one weekend morning she took her dog to a well-known
and established dog park that is also popular for birders. She was
playing and throwing a ball and laughing while the dog barked at the ball
when some "very rude people" glared at her and told her to be quiet
because she would scare the bird away.

Now I know the birding at Marymoor can be great, especially along the
river where the dog park is, and I know it can be difficult and
frustrating when a bird is scared away by a dog or by people walking by
or talking/laughing loudly, but I felt a duty to explain to her that not
all bird watchers behave that way, and that I hope she didn't let that
taint her opinion of all of us.

One of the things I try to do is to invite others to enjoy my experience
of the birds I am looking at. I let them know a little about its life
history, its habitat, its conservation status, and if possible, I let
them take a look. Yes, this has meant that I've had shorter looks at some
birds that I really wanted to see, but it also means that, hopefully, the
people I share this with will walk away with a greater appreciation of
birds and habitat and will think better of us weirdoes with binoculars
glued to our eyes.

I think that most of us are ethical and considerate birders, but one bad
experience for a non-birder with an un-ethical or inconsiderate birder
can spoil his or her opinion of all of us.

Happy and Considerate Birding,

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Natalie McNair-Huff
Birding, Gardening, and writing in Tacoma, WA; talie at whiterabbits.com

"The greater our empathy with a variety of animals, the more we can
learn." --Bernd Heinrich