Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 15:34:01 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Tom Stock Subject: Re: Snakes vs. Birds? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In a message dated 7/9/2003 12:56:27 PM Eastern Standard Time, Gabboon@AOL.COM writes: >>>> It is a complex problem and furthered by the simplistic opinions of >>>> people like yourself. >>> I guess my request to tone things down fell on deaf ears... For the record: 1) To quote a Monty Python (sorry) line, "I fart in your general direction." Seriously, though, I join you in condemning anyone who would actually kill a snake. I also join you in a love of snakes - in fact, I'm a snake lover, spider hater. My favorite snake around here is the hognose - though sadly haven't seen one huffing and puffing at me, then playing dead in at least 20 years. I also love insects and other arthropods (especially butterflies), mammals (especially marine mammals, but not feral or roaming cats), any reptile or amphibian when encountered (alas, all too rarely) - hell, I even appreciate plants, though my skills at botany are on a par with George Bush's skills at finding WMDs. 2) I did not "compare rat snakes to feral cats or mute swans." Instead, I raised a wholly separate issue, i.e. looking at the totality of predatory pressures birds face, including snakes. The fact is that a bird that once faced predation just from rat snakes now faces pressure from the snake AND cats. I raised an open ended question of how to address this - and did not offer any answers. How can you characterize my opinions as simplistic when I didn't offer many, if any opinions? 3) You wrote: "There is far more to this world than just birds and yourself. ... Try looking down while you're out birding - and keep count of the snakes you encounter." Like I asked the first time, can you please tone it down? What are basically some pretty good points in your messages are obscured by over-heated rhetoric, condescension, sanctimony, and preachiness. Give it a rest! (Threw in the spider hating comment just for fun. Hope it doesn't cause more problems.) Tom Stock Silver Spring ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================