Fossil Fuels and such ....

Darius Ecker (dariuse@abs.net)
Tue, 19 Jan 1999 20:56:45 -0500


I believe that the positive in learning about understanding bird distribution, and the positive in just observing and learning more about birds in general far outweighs the negative that a few of us (myself included) may cause by using a little more fossil fuel to observe birds.  Birding means different things to different people.  The act of actively pursuing the birds for yearly County and State lists has done more to improve and expand my knowledge of birds than any other single act. I strongly recommend it for anyone wishing to expand on their knowledge of birds. I'm proud to be a "lister". Listers don't just tick off a bird and move on.  They embrace every chance possible to observe every species, in every habitat and notice every new behavior trait. They get excited when they see a bird they've seen hundreds of times before when they find it in a new area. This is what birding means to me.  I thoroughly enjoy it and I hope it never changes.

Everyone walks when they can. You just see more birds!  Most of my birding is done in a area that I can walk to from my home.  But in winter, I'll take to my car, as Marshall, Jim and others have to bird southern Maryland, or the eastern shore, or perhaps the eastern shore of Virginia. For my vacation I'll travel to another part of the country, rent a car and seek out the birds of the region. It's a personal choice I make, and I won't lose any sleep over the consequences. The driving we do is no worse than someone going shopping, or taking a drive to look at the fall leaf colors, or driving to look for antiques, or driving to attend a dog show, or driving to take the kids to the little league game, or driving in a road rally, etc., etc.  I could probably think of ten or fifteen other examples of unnecessary driving. In any case, my chosen form of recreation is birding and I will drive from time to time.  It's not something negotiable for me, and I suspect others agree.  I'll make up for the negative by contributing positively to the environment in another way.

Birding from the road,

Darius Ecker (dariuse@abs.net)

Columbia, Maryland.