would you mind relating your cassowary confrontation? Sounds like an interesting story and I just heard they are considered the most dangerous bird. They're huge.

thanks

susan anderegg at hotmail dot com
> Message: 14> Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2007 07:39:50 -0800> From: Andy Papadatos <apmf at msn.com>> Subject: [Tweeters] My controversial post on pheasant hunting> To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>> Message-ID: <BLU107-W31143D9745DCF081B469F4DF570 at phx.gbl>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"> > > Hello Tweeters. It appears my posting on pheasant hunting stirred up a bit of controversy. My apologies. I usually refrain from mentioning my hunting experiences when in the company of birders. But the experiences with the Gyrfalcon I've had I thought would be interesting to birders since it is a highly sought after bird in our community.> > I spent a few months in Australia a while back. The anti-gun law in Australia a strong and hunting is an uncommon> sport. There are however approximately 2000 professional hunters who are> contracted by the government who collectively harvest 10 million red> and grey kangaroo a year to maintain the population at 20 million. And> that is just the tip of the iceberg of their environmental problems.> Wild pigs, feral cats, introduced birds and reptiles are out of control> and the government doesn't have the funds to deal with it. They have fire ants now.> > While there I quickly got in with the birding community to increase my life list as quickly as possible (440+ species in 10 weeks-my cassowary confrontation is the highlight of all my birdwatching experiences). It seems ironic, but most of the birders I met (all non-hunters) are advocates for a large hunting community in their homeland. They see the U.S. as a success story in conservation, whereby the hunters and all the related associates pay for about 80% for all conservation. And many (like myself) consider Teddy Roosevelt a saint.> > > I would like to continue posting my observations while hunting. Many of> my wildlife experiences would have been missed by just passively bird> watching: Harbor seals doubling as retrievers; a young harrier feasting on teal; eagles stealing your salmon; kittiwakes robbing bait; and how about a parasitic jaeger taking a crippled dove in Quincy, WA!> > Thanks> > Andy Papadatos> Snohomish, WA> -------------- next part --------------> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...> URL: https://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/private/tweeters/attachments/20071230/43a61228/attachment-0001.htm
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