Hi Ruth and Tweeters!



Pat Toth, here. My friend, Barbara Petersen and I were in Olympia this
morning around 8:30 a.m. on the way to a workshop and had time to stop
by Thomas street. Thanks to you, Ruth, I was able to get a glimpse of
the redwing before it flew off - Barbara set up her own scope on the
corner and got a good look at it, too.

So, thanks and thanks for sending the pictures out as it helped us know
what we were looking for.



-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Ruth
Sullivan
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 5:05 PM
To: Tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] Redwing Incident



Hello Tweets,



I am writing to try to clear up what I think has been a very unfortunate
few days. When I saw someone standing where I thought he was too close
to where the Redwing often showed up, I asked him to come over to the
other side of the street to avoid possibly scaring the bird. He must not
have appreciated whatever I said, as he turned to me and said what
sounded like "f**k you" several times. Patrick, who was with me, thought
he said the same thing. This offended me so much that I said something
like "why don't you go home?"



Everyone who knows me knows I have a loud voice, and as I was angry it
must have sounded like screaming to this person and to the people who
were with them in the quiet of the morning. I don't remember screaming.
We noticed they had a BC license, but that had nothing to do with my
getting upset. I certainly have nothing against Canadians.



It seems that this interaction grew to an international incident. I am
writing to apologize to the people involved if they got the wrong idea.
I am not always tactful, but I have good relations with most people.
Patrick and I have helped hundreds of people see the Redwing, and I have
got many, many thank you notes from all over. This is the first time
that I have heard of anyone who came to see this bird being unhappy with
me.


I did get mad at the time, but I felt it was justified because of how
this person spoke to me. If I misunderstood that, I am very sorry. I
would like to forgive and forget if the other people involved can. I
didn't even know their names before the e-mail started coming.



So please let us put this behind us.




Sincerely,



Ruth Sullivan