There are certainly some idiots hunting who have no business being afield.
Of course I've seen my fair share of idiots birding who can barely tell
which end of the binocs to look through. Perhaps it's not which sport they
choose to participate in, an idiot is an idiot in any arena.

And I can't imagine how someone could mix-up a sandhill and whooping crane
in (possibly) bad lighting without binocs! I mean heck, none of *US* has
ever made a bad call on a bird id before! When a hawk blasts by me at about
40 mph *I* can certainly identify which hawk it is on the first try, without
binocs, or a field guide, in low light, when I'm excited... Bad id skills
are no excuse in my book (for birds or ungulates), if I can't id something I
keep watching until I can but sometimes mistakes do happen. That's why we
call them accidents, and *every* reader of this list is guilty of an
accident of some sort.

Yes I hunt AND bird. One of these days the folks who partake in a variety of
outdoor sports who insist on degrading the image of hunters by labeling them
with less than average intelligence will finally do a little research (try
here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/T?&report=sr495&dbname=cp106&)
and learn what hunters have silently done FOR them for decades. When the
folks who enjoy the outdoors the hunters have been preserving for so long
start to pay there own way I'll pay a little more attention to their
opinion. Until then the complainers and degraders are filed in a category
right behind the guy who doesn't know which end of the binocs to use!

Happy Birding. Happy Hunting.
Chris Ordiway
Callaway, Md.



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