Subject: [Tweeters] Good reasons to travel in search of birds
Date: Feb 6 13:49:40 2010
From: Guttman,Burt - GuttmanB at evergreen.edu


Just to say that Rachel makes a very good point in promoting eco-tourism; the interest of the local people in employment is probably a very important factor in promoting the preservation of natural areas. And to add a point to Adam's note about wearing binoculars: This is a good practice for the reasons he states, but consider, also, that your binoculars are probably the most valuable thing you're carrying on your birding trip and the item most difficult to replace in case of loss, and that if you were to lose them, much of your pleasure in birding would go with them. So wearing binoculars is a way of keeping them safe. I say this primarily because of my experience in Spain where one of the cars of our birding group was broken into within hours of our arrival and a lot of stuff was stolen. I lost my spotting scope, and some other people lost their binocs; luckily, the tour leader was able to get some binoculars for them pretty quickly from his home base, but it was a very sad situation.

Burt Guttman
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 guttmanb at evergreen.edu <mailto:guttmanb at evergreen.edu>
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S. E., Olympia, 98503