(Fwd) hunting at Great Falls
Norm Saunders (osprey@ARI.Net)
Thu, 11 Feb 1999 17:45:34 -0500
If anyone has any thoughts on this fellow's requests, please respond
directly to him.
Norm
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent: Mon, 08 Feb 1999 13:41:02 +0000
From: William Majoros <William.Majoros@thomson.com>
Send reply to: William.Majoros@thomson.com
Organization: Thomson Labs
Subject: hunting at Great Falls
Dear MOS,
Hi, I was wondering if any of you at the MOS are interested in knowing
about the hunting that has been taking place at Great Falls park in
Maryland. Last Friday I observed several groups of hunters shooting
Canada Geese in front of the Bald Eagle nest on Conn Island. They were
also dumping their beer cans in the water (filling them with water first
so that they would sink). The park rangers were informed, but seemed
unable to stop them, as the rangers apparently had no boat, no
megaphone,
and no guns. Park police may also have been involved, but I have heard
reports that the hunters were not reprimanded.
I know some of you go birding in this region, and thought you may find it
a little disturbing to know that hunters are shooting the birds in this
area. The bald eagles, currently starting their nesting season and about
to lay eggs, were scared off by all the shooting; neither eagle was
harmed, and both returned to the nest at dusk.
The rangers seemed only mildly concerned about the situation.
If you know the e-mail address of the local audubon chapter, could you
please share that with me, because I believe they may be interested in
these developments; some political pressure of some sort may be in order
here, in order to motivate the park service to exert more effort the next
time this occurs.
Thanks!
Bill Majoros
Researcher and amateur ornithologist
Rockville, MD
William.Majoros@thomson.com