Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 14:54:05 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Bill Schreitz Subject: Re: No Ringmaster at Snowy Circus MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello Mike, I saw similar activity when I saw the snowy owl last Friday. People were genuinely excited and often thoughtless. Even a ringmaster would find it awkward to admonish so many. Here's a thought that might help. Our clubs (I am in the Anne Arundel County Club) could print up these guidelines and circulate them among the observers when a rare bird visits the county. Maybe the club could empower a few of the more active birders to keep a supply of these " manner flyers" in their trunk with the other birding items. They could be passed out non-discriminately to the hordes without feeling overbearing or self-righteous. I think it would help. These are not mean spirited people we are talking about. In fact, the image that comes to mind is the early pewee soccer games - each kid knowing the rules on some level, yet mindful only of getting to touch the ball, oblivious to teammates, positions, and boundaries. WILLIAM B SCHREITZ CABINETMAKER INC 1806 VIRGINIA STREET ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21041 cabmkrwbs@erols.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================