FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] Re: Old acquaintance is Killed

["Jim Seelhorst" <jaseelhorst@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

My heart sank when I read your post.  I've followed the condor recovery
efforts with anxious hopefulness since I was a child.  I'm so disappointed.
It's appalling what some people can do. We certainly have a ways to go with
education.  An Indian understanding of both hunting and farming would help.
I want to think the person who did this is less than a hunter.  I also want
to think farmers there are beyond shooting them as well.  I see this shooter
akin to a reckless joy rider, only with a gun, whose license and gun should
be
taken away (if indeed he even has a hunting license).  Maybe as an added
touch to the jail and fine, he could be appropriately tarred and feathered!
Just a
thought...  :)>

Jim Seelhorst
Louisville, KY

----- Original Message -----
From: <OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx>
To: <birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <albirds@xxxxxxxxxxx>;
<marvdavs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2003 12:08 AM
Subject: [birdky] Old acquaintance is Killed


> A tragic loss,
>
> In the fall of 1986, I read an article in the news, they had decided to
> capture the last three wild California Condors in an effort to save the
> species. I was stuck that I might never experience these birds and
hurriedly
> got a few friends together and we journeyed out to California. We went to
the
> regular places and stood around for hours and on our last afternoon we
stood
> at an overlook with a group of students talking. Suddenly, directly above
us,
> a rustling in the wind and there in a slow glide and low enough to hear
the
> wind flowing over its wide out stretched wings was a wonderful bird, no a
> magnificent bird.
>
> A silence spread across the group as each discovered the bird and after it
> had sailed out over the valley, you could hear everyone exhale and a
nervous
> chatter spread through the group. Only then did I notice that not only I,
but
> every other soul that had a camera, never once thought to take a photo. It
> was the type of experience that happens a few times in a birders career,
you
> just stand and stare.
>
> We did manage to see all three of the wild birds that afternoon and I do
have
> a shot of three distant dots in the sky. I think of that experience time
and
> again.
>
> Today, the California Fish and Game Commission, in a press release,
disclosed
> that condor # AC8, the last condor born in the wild to wild parents, was
> found dead on Feb. 18. The bird had be re-released back into the wild
after a
> long stay in captivity. My mind raced back to a time some 17 years ago
when
> this bird had graced me with its presence and a great loss was felt. Even
> more remorse and guilt followed when I read the bird had been shot.
>
> We have a lot of work to do, we have to bring more people to the same
> understanding that some Indians had; we do not own the earth, nor its
> animals, nor its plant life, but are stewards only. We have a trust that
is
> slowly, much to slowly coming into focus for more and more each day. Will
the
> realization come too late?
>
> I have no qualms with hunters nor hunting but I would like to know just
what
> went through that persons mind, when that creature fell from the sky. He
> cannot take away the experience I had on that mountain side, years ago,
but
> there is a vacant feeling in my heart which will take time a long time to
> heal due to his callousness. I take this murder personally.
>
> Good Birding!!!
>
> Jeff R. Wilson
> OL' COOT / TLBA
> Bartlett Tenn.
>
>
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Visit the Kentucky Ornithological Society
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BIRDKY List Manager: Gary Ritchison, Richmond, KY
E-mail: gary.ritchison@xxxxxxx