Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 00:29:09 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: leslie fisher Organization: cecil bird club Subject: Need for Birding Etiquette 101 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi All: I was extremely sorry to read from Les Roslunds post that a few disrespectful birders are upsetting the good people at 1845 Hoopersville Rd and community, and thereby giving us all a bad name. I have been really upset to read of how some people can ( mis ) behave,and can`t imagine what they must be thinking, or not......!! How could anyone drive right across someones front lawn??!!! I think that in any situation where an unusual migrant has folks rushing to see it, there will always be some bad behaviour. You find it in any walk of life; for example, in the national parks, for every 10 people that behave responsibly around wildlife, there will be one who insists on hand feeding the black bears. It is discouraging. Along the lines of what Norm posted, if the folks who behaved badly in this instance could be identified, would it help to contact them privately for a little discussion? Or, post a message over MDO giving details eg " if you know the person who drove the green Outback across the lawn at 10 AM on Sunday " ? I also think a message about birding etiquette 101 might be called for in the next MD Yellowthroat, and perhaps from Chapter Presidents in their own clubs` newsletters. Maybe the etiquette aspect isn`t pushed often enough, or loudly enough. The national parks constantly EDUCATE, EDUCATE, EDUCATE the public on how to interact with wildlife. You would hope the message would have to sink in at some point. Another idea would be for the property owners to prepare a letter outlining their feelings; I would be happy to include such a message in our next Cecil newsletter. One more idea; if there are folks out there who know they are guilty of misbehaviour, it would be nice if they contacted the property owners with a heartfelt apology. Leslie Fisher Cecil Co. ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================== ==========================================================================