It's the binocs, Joanne.  Some of the wiser old birds out there have come to recognize that a person with binocs acting quietly won't do them any harm, but otherwise, it's get the heck out of Dodge.....

No, that isn't a serious observations....yet....but it actually wouldn't surprise me.  I've had to chase deer off the trails in Shenandoah National Park in order to get by, they won't move off the trail when you are 10 feet from them on occasion, so you have to cause some type of commotion to make them get off the trail.

A couple of weeks ago on the C&O canal towpath, same thing happened to me with two barred owls.  First one was on a branch over the canal itself, which where we were is dry.  Didn't move, but looked at us most of the time.  Second one was actually on the canal "floor," I don't think it had caught anything.  It did fly up, but again only to a branch above the canal, and like the first one, only 30 feet from us.  This one looked around at other things, only occasionally at us.  In my experience, at least, this is the least skittish I've seen barred owls.  Can't really generalize from this one data point....

Maybe others can share about whether certain birds might be becoming more accustomed to the presence of birders, vs. more raucous people in general?  

Tom Grahame


On Nov 25, 2011, at 1:06 AM, Joanne Howl wrote:

> Headed to the Eastern Shore for some birding Thanksgiving morning and ended up at Assateague about 2:30 in the afternoon.  Somewhere around 3:30 pm Jon and I were at Life of the Marsh and low and behold - two hen wild turkeys were walking up the boardwalk, coming straight at us, slowly foraging.   Unlike every other wild turkey I've ever seen, they seemed unfazed by our presence.  I even gobbled at them (incredibly poorly) and they ignored me!  
> 
> We snapped pictures of them - our Thanksgiving Turkeys!  They kept slowly making their way towards us, and we started thinking they must be tame and that we wouldn't be able to count them (first of year in Maryland for us, believe it or not!).   So then we started talking to the turkeys, asking them what the deal was, and how was THEIR Thanksgiving?  One looked at us for awhile, eyed the brush nearby, but then put her head down again and kept foraging.   
> 
> Tame dang turkeys. 
> 
> Well, about that time a small family appeared on the boardwalk, well behind the turkeys.  Those birds did a bonafide wild-turkey disappearing act, and were gone in micro seconds.  
> 
> Wild Turkeys.  I'm counting them.  
> 
> Why they ignored us, I dunno.  Maybe because they were approaching us?   Or maybe because they thought a pair of folks out on Thanksgiving, holding binoculars and sayin' stuff like "wow, another yellow-rump over there!", instead of gathering around a feast table could be considered bonafide turkeys, too.  
> 
> 
> Joanne
> 
> Joanne Howl, DVM
> 
> West River, MD
> 
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