Mr Price, much as I laud the RSPB and other European conversation groups,
just because they have rules in place doesn't mean the wild bird populations
are treated well. You have only to googlebing "raptors gamekeepers" to
learn that large raptors, rare as they are, are routinely shot, trapped,
and/or poisoned inside and outside of game preserves set up for grouse
shooting, or find articles on how the authorities admittedly poor attempts
to track down and stop people who gather wild bird nests and bird eggs for
their hobby collections or dinner tables.

there are stupid people on all sides of this argument, around the world.
let's educate those who require education. i can't fathom how publicly
flinging dung at an entire group for the behaviours of a few is at all
productive.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/12/gamekeeper-live-pigeon-trap
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/7971788/Gamekeepers-attack-ministers-over-raptor-control.html
https://raptorpersecutionscotland.wordpress.com/2011/01/12/hen-harriers-and-gamekeepers-damning-evidence-soon-to-be-published/
http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/policy/wildbirdslaw/wildbirdcrime/egg_collection.aspx

00 caren
http://www.ParkGallery.org
george davis creek, north fork


On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 01:20, Michael Price <loblollyboy at gmail.com> wrote:

> >Could Ted and Michael please take it outside?
>
> No.
>
> You see, that's the problem with North American birders: when it arises,
> it's mis-labelled as a personal-opinion issue.
>
> It is emphatically not a personal issue. Bad birder/photographer behavior
> has been a problem for wildlife at least as big as the ballooning
> off-leash-dog problem for as long as I've been birding, some, dear god,
> five decades. The Brits and the Europeans have addressed this problem for
> at least the last twenty years and their organisations have well-developed
> protocols in place to prevent bad birder/bad photographer behavior, and the
> birders and photographers there mainly follow the rules.
>
> No such rules here. Why do North Americans have nothing similar in place
> which prevents harassment of birds? This is such an incredible no-brainer, I
> cannot fathom why North American birding organisations at any level are
> apparently powerless to stop bad birder/bad photographer behavior. Is it
> simple lack of similar courage to confront this issue at the organisational
> level? Or, sadly, maybe it's never occurred to those who could actually do
> something about this, that there is any need? Or just too busy chasing
> rarities to think this one through? Might be time then to think about
> thinking about this one, yeah?
>
> >Thanks a bunch! I have birds to watch!!
>
> Joe. Hope you don't find something so rare it's harassed out of the area as
> some of the Great Gray owls here in Vancouver BC. I know of two which were
> so badly harassed by photographers that they left the area and other birders
> didn't get to see them. Or Snowy Owls out on the Boundary Bay foreshore
> which were so pursued by a full-frame fanatic that a burly (British) member
> of my field trip roared out that if this guy didn't stop flushing the owls
> from the foreshore, he'd be wearing his 400mm lens as an anal suppository.
> Thank God for the Brits. They know how to protect birds. Anyway, that
> stopped this jackass. Simplest solutions may sometimes be best when
> encountering bad photographer/nad birder behavior. In the Morth American
> absence of the RSPB model, anything to get them house-trained when around
> birds. So, good luck, Joe.
>
> And keep in mind, that within in the term 'conservationist', lies the
> concept of 'the protector'. "Birder' is recreational, therefore doesn't
> include this.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Michael Price
> Vancouver BC Canada
> loblollyboy at gmail.com
>
> Every answer deepens the mystery.
> - E.O. Wilson
>
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>
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