After reading all the stuff about banding it seems like the main problem, if there is one, is Bad Banders. There's careful and respectful banders, and also Bad Banders.

These debates always get me thinking of solutions. With a few minutes of deep thinking, I came up with the 'BBB: banding bad banders' program. Then I realized this could be expanded to all bad birders ect. Now it's 'Banding Bad Birders' program.

Why not band bad birders ? That way we could better study their behavior, not that I personally would want to. The basis of the program is the 'Startup Program' - we start low and work our way up. The first band would be a cumbersome inflatable band (like an inner-tube) around the bad birder's ankle. This could interfere with the person's ability to drive a car, and also to walk very far and disturb birds.

For the truly Bad the next step is a very large inflatable (all these band non puncture-able of course) band around the waist. This could prevent the Bad from breeding successfully. Of course this brings up the Nature vs Nurture debates (really off the Tweeters reservation) because the scions of Bad banders could turn out to be better citizens. The way big band would also interfere with reaching a mist net.

Lastly the Last Band: another inflatable band covering the bad person's eyes. How's that for punishment- we simply deny the person the joy of seeing birds again! I think that last one may be all we need really. All the bands would be plainly visible to Good birders - sort of an Inflatable scarlet letter.

As I continued to think, I did have some concerns about this project. Who gets to decide who's bad, and how bad? How do we find these bad people? How do we keep track of em? Could be expensive, and I don't like living in a Surveillance State.

Maybe education and behaving better ourselves would work. Forget everything I just said.

Jeff Gibson
BBB
Everett Wa