Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 06:25:27 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Ben Poscover Subject: Fw: [de-birds] Open season on Horsheshoe Crabs - and birders? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Just got this. Thought it would be of interest to MDOsprey. On our trip, we witnessed the transfer of HC into containers at the Mispillion Light as we reported. But we had no trouble like these people. Ben and Ruth Poscover Towson MD bposcove@bcpl.net ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 4:15 PM Subject: [de-birds] Open season on Horsheshoe Crabs - and birders? > I experienced a disturbing act of intimidation the other day and felt I > needed to warn other birders. > > I stopped in at Mispillion Light with Eric Molho, a birder visiting from > Albany on Monday May 19. After we had been there a few minutes we were > approached by an individual who wanted to know if we had permission to be > there. It turns out that we were 6 - 8 feet onto private property. A thick > layer of rain and tide washed mud had obscured any potential boundaries. We > apologized for trespassing and moved back 8 feet. > > The individual then told us we were not welcome there. Apparently he is a > horseshoe crab harvester. We were inadvertantly stepping upon his neighbor's > mud - his neighbor was out in the river harvesting crabs. "Since we are > having a hard time making a living", he told us, "some of the bad feelings > are going to be spread around." I told him that I had nothing to do with any > horseshoe crab regulations, and I was only here to watch the birds. "It > doesn't matter", he said. "If you have a tripod and a long lens, you are part > of the war." > > At this point, he was standing very close behind us while we peered through > our telescopes. It quickly became clear that the smartest move would be to > leave. As we packed up our tripods he told us that birders were disturbing > the crabs, not fisherman. He started to rant about all the rules he needed to > follow, in terms of when he was allowed to harvest, set up a dock, and launch > a boat. I told him that it would be nice if the birds and the fisherman could > co-exist. "Not likely" was his response. He was standing in between me and my > car at this point, and there was no motion to move aside. I circled around > the car to the far side, and we left. > > I hope people don't feel that I am creating an unnecessary controversy, but > the harsh rhetoric and obvious intimidation maneuvers have induced me to warn > others. If you bird there, I would exercise appropriate caution. It would > seem that one individual is "at war" with us. > > Jim Lenhard > Hockessin, DE > > PS. The best bird we had time to view was a horned grebe, in spectacular full > breeding plumage. It had it's "ears" prominently raised. The red knot numbers > seemed low, easily less than 100. > > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================