Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 15:11:08 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Daniel Mullarkey Subject: Re: Worn out welcome I think Laura Appelbaum's idea of offering to help repair the fence damage is a good one. Not being a MOS member (or MD resident) and not having seen the owl, I held off on commenting for a day. But I have to say I'm sad to see that no one has seconded the idea, or offered to help, at least not publicly. Hopefully something is being done off-list, but if not, that's a shame. Birders as a group seem to be very helpful and caring people (one of the things I like best about birding), but let's not rest on our laurels. I applaud efforts to prevent this kind of problem in the future, but let's not forget to try to fix this particular problem. As Laura pointed out, the effort might be rejected, but it should be made, and may have some longer term benefits. My two cents, Dan Mullarkey >>> "Laura M. Appelbaum" 01/11 2:01 PM >>> Just a thought in response to Bob Mumford's message about a particular landowner on Oland Road being really ticked off at us birders ... one of his complaints is that someone broke his fence, which surely would get anyone angry. What do y'all think about one of us contacting Mr. Crawford on behalf of MOS and offering for some of us birders to come up in the spring when the ground is soft again, and replacing the broken section of fencing/helping walk the property and mend other areas as well? I'm a long-time member of the NSS (National Speleological Society) and since many caves in the East are on private property, we try to put a special emphasis on landowner-caver relationships. This kind of situation (trespassing, broken fences, etc) comes up often, and we've found that making appeasing gestures, even in cases where the damage hasn't been done by our membership, can go a long way to rehabilitate the image of cavers in the eyes of locals. Even if a given landowner turns down an offer of assistance, it does seem to help if they feel that someone is willing to take responsibility. Sounds to me like this might be one of those cases only vis a vis birders. Laura Appelbaum Cloverly, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================