Subject: [Tweeters] The impact of birding on birds
Date: Dec 12 12:17:31 2011
From: Rob Sandelin - nwnature1 at gmail.com


Its cool Snowy owls are around this winter. I saw one myself yesterday in a
field. I expect, based upon the reports, that there will be several dozen
in the state this year.
Every once and awhile I find an interesting bird, and on a couple of
occasions, a fairly rare one. I keep these sightings to myself because I
have seen birds get overrun by inconsiderate people, not just general people
but birding people, identifiable as such by binoculars, scopes and big
cameras. In discussions with other birders I find there are others with my
same issue. The very nature of this list is part of the problem and many
people here have experienced the circus-like crowds at a rare bird sighting
reported on this list. Birders are a friendly lot in general, and almost all
of us mean well. We are nice people, in my opinion, often nicer than the
general population. We share a passion in common and this unites us. Many
of us are part of efforts to help preserve places for birds. Yes, birds
are beautiful and interesting. They are also struggling, especially in the
winter, and while I can't show positive evidence that a bird being called
out by artificial calls, chased, bothered and disturbed is hurting any
particular bird, It seems logical that the lack of such disturbances will
cause no harm.

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer, Teacher
Snohomish