Tweets,
My wife and I are the couple referred to in Penny's post. The warden confirmed that birders are not REQUIRED to wear orange. However, he was very uncomfortable with the number of birders, including us, not wearing orange. Especially since hunting season had just opened and there were LOTS of hunters about. We also were concerned while we walked the dike looking unsuccessfully for the Northern Waterthrush but seeing, and hearing, many hunters.

Our discomfort was heightened when another couple said they shared the dike trail for a ways with a pheasant. One time they were NOT pleased to get great looks at this bird. Nothing like taking a stroll with the target species during hunting season!

Common sense would say to wear orange, especially if hunters think we have to. If that is their expectation, they're less likely to "notice" that the movement through the thick vegetation is a person if he/she is not wearing orange. Better safe than sorry.

Good, and safe, birding.

Bruce "The Caboose" Jones
Shoreline, WA