Dear Barb and Tweeters,

I admit it: when the Grey Jays get close enough for me to feed them, and I have something to feed them, I feed 'em! Of course, I'm not often in a National Park when that happens, but I think I have done so in a National Park before, and I would most likely do so again.

I think this would come under the heading of tempest-in-a-teacup. It probably makes relatively little difference in the big scheme of things if some populations of Grey Jays get used to handouts. In the off-season, they'd still have to forage. Meanwhile, across great stretches of habitat that is still not visited much by humans, the birds will continue to feed themselves.

Feeding a Grey Jay by hand is part of the charm of visiting our great western parks. How often does anybody get to feed a wild bird by hand? However, if a ranger is standing right there, I wouldn't do it.

Similarly, if I am eating an apple or a plum in my car, and I am driving along some country road, of course I chuck the core or the pit out the window. It'll be gone in a couple of days. If a police car is right there, of course the core or pit goes in my state-mandated litter bag!

I would not necessarily apply this sort of reasoning to bigger questions of ethics--stealing something because nobody's looking, for example--but for little stuff, I'd guess that old Ralph Waldo E. would back me, even if Immanuel K. would grumble a bit.

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch ? Near Lyman, Washington (Skagit County), USA ? garybletsch at yahoo.com ? ?


--- Barbara Miller <bmill07 at comcast.net> schrieb am Do, 18.9.2008:

> Von: Barbara Miller <bmill07 at comcast.net>
> Betreff: [Tweeters] FW: Feeding gray jays?
> An: tweeters at u.washington.edu
> Datum: Donnerstag, 18. September 2008, 2:43
> During the a hike on the High Lakes Trail on Mt. Rainier
> yesterday, when I
> sat down to rest, I noticed a gray jay looking down at me
> from a (very)
> nearby branch. Since I can't resist these fellows
> (and, I confess, because
> I knew it would impress my hiking companion), I got some of
> my snacking nuts
> out and put one in my outstretched hand; sure enough the
> bird landed on my
> fingers and took the nut. We did a few more of these at
> the next stop and
> immensely enjoyed the interaction with the birds.
>
>
>
> Then I remembered the Park's stern injunction not to
> feed the wildlife.
> While I would certainly never intentionally feed a bear,
> and wouldn't
> particularly care to feed a ground squirrel, somehow the
> boldness of these
> "camp robbers" seems like so much a part of their
> nature, that it doesn't
> seem like the same thing, although of course it is.
>
>
>
> I'd be interested in what members of the group think
> about this. I
> justified it to myself at the time by saying that I was
> giving them dry
> roasted, unsalted nuts that would give them good nutrition
> and that I was
> not inducing them to behave in a way that was not
> "natural" for them. I
> guess the question is: am I wrong to make this kind of
> rationalized
> exception to what I think is a very reasonable rule?
>
>
>
> Barb Miller
>
> Bellevue, WA
>
> Bmill07(AT) Comcast (DOT) net
>
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