[mou] WEVI tape discussion

[Richard Wood]

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

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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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