Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 19:24:15 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Bill Ellis Subject: Re: Snakes and Birds etc. In-Reply-To: <3F0DC79A.B44A691B@mindspring.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cheers for you, Laura - I applaud your perceptive point of view, and your non-contribution to our burgeoning population. too. Bill Ellis Eldersburg Carroll County MD, USA The World -----Original Message----- On Behalf Of Laura M. Appelbaum Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 4:08 PM The snake was eating eggs/nestlings *in a bird house.* It wasn't a snake eating a bird in the "natural environment" (which sadly doesn't, IMO, really exist anymore), it was a snake doing what comes naturally only in someone's backyard, in the nest box they put up, to what then become "their" birds. ... So when some interloper, be it a snake, a bird, a cat, a child, enters that idyllic world and starts munching on YOUR birds, well, you're not going to respond in the same way you might if you saw the same thing happening in a National Forest. To say that anyone who responds in such an unscientific, emotional way is somehow no longer "worthy" of being respected as a birder is to deny their humanity. ... ... who has consciously and intentionally chosen *not* to reproduce. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================