[mou] WEVI tape discussion

[douglas chapman]

Well said.

The Cassin's Sparrows which have been found (and confirmed breeding)  
here in South Dakota have not been posted for this reason. It's a bit  
too bad, but understandable since even the ABA magazine "Birding" now  
calls bird finding a "sport."

It seems that tapes are our steroids.


Doug Chapman
Sioux Falls, SD

On Jul 29, 2008, at 7:51 AM, Richard Wood wrote:

> It seems to me that this discussion took place last year about the  
> Yellow-breasted Chat that was at Black Dog Lake, and at the time, I  
> wondered what was the point of everyone getting all upset, because  
> it's just going to happen again.
>
> The fact is, it's "human nature" for people to act the way that they  
> do.  People are going to want to see a bird that is "rare" when it's  
> posted, and some of them are going to take any means necessary to  
> see it, whether it be to drive their vehicle where they shouldn't  
> (which happened in Maryland recently) or to play tapes, or to throw  
> a rock at a rail and kill it.
>
> I wish we could put an end to this, "we can end this behavior if  
> enough of us post ethics "rules"", because it just isn't going to  
> stop someone from seeing a bird once it has been posted.  As I told  
> a person in Maryland last year that was complaining about birders  
> turning the location of a pair of Long-eared Owls into a circus, "if  
> the original poster didn't want it to come to this, he shouldn't  
> have posted the bird's location".  Maybe we should do that instead  
> of citing "birding ethics" and then having everyone and his brother  
> posting asking us to "go by the rules"?  In my almost 10 years as a  
> birder, I've seen that asking others to "go by the rules" doesn't  
> work.  It doesn't work in other parts of life, so why do we think it  
> will work here?
>
> Richard
>
> Richard L. Wood, Ph. D.
> Hastings, MN
> rwoodphd at yahoo.com
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Diana Doyle <diana at managingthewaterway.com>
> To: mattjim at earthlink.net; mou-net at moumn.org; mnbird at lists.mnbird.net
> Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 8:22:11 PM
> Subject: Re: [mou] WEVI tape discussion
>
> Are birders also destined to fall victim to Garrett Hardin's tragedy  
> of the commons? It would seem that there is no such thing as "little  
> tape playing" when it is multiplied over all the birders who want to  
> see a particular bird.
>
> I agree with Jim. It's a disservice to the bird and to the person  
> who then regrets sharing their excitement of an unusual bird with  
> the broader birding community.
>
> We must ask ourselves what our priorities are--if we are first and  
> foremost advocates for birds, their well-being, and their habitat.  
> Ultimately that's what being a birder is all about.
>
> Diana Doyle
> S. Minneapolis
>
> -------------
>
> On Jul 28, 2008, at 16:09 , James Mattsson wrote:
>
> THIS IS A RARE BIRD THAT IS ON TERRITORY WHERE MANY BIRDERS HAVE A  
> CHANCE TO HEAR AND SEE IT !!!!   TAPES SHOULD NOT BE USED  
> "SPARINGLY" OR ANY OTHER WAY !! TAPES CAN ONLY BE HARMFUL TO THE  
> BIRD WHICH MIGHT BE MATED (PREDATION, ENERGY USED TO DEFEND AGAINST  
> NON-EXISTENT NEIGHBORS, ETC), AND MAY PRECLUDE OTHER BIRDERS FROM  
> SEEING/HEARING THE BIRD.
>
> THIS IS WHY I NO LONGER POST BIRDS I FIND THAT I FEEL THAT ARE  
> SUSCEPTIBLE TO TAPE PLAYING.
>
> HERE IS THE COMPLETE ABA CODE OF ETHICS.
>
> http://www.americanbirding.org/abaethics.htm
>
> Jim
>
>
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