FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Fw: More birding terrorists

["Sam Collins" <samailc@xxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sam Collins" <samailc@xxxxxxx>
To: <gene@xxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2005 5:54 PM
Subject: Re: [va-bird] More birding terrorists


> Perhaps it is time, however, to put aside our special interest for the 
> sake of security. It is easy to criticize those in authority and difficult 
> to imagine their difficult task. We all would be the first to criticize 
> them if the CBBT or other military target (yes military target - a 
> collapse of the CBBT would bottle up the entire Atlantic Fleet in port) 
> were to be bombed. They are responsible for our safety and I welcome them 
> checking out everyone who is looking at bridges and tunnels with 
> binoculars and cameras. Please wake up and learn to live in a more 
> dangerous world since 9/11. Or perhaps you haven't read of the recent 
> threats from Osama and his directive to strike at America's homeland. I've 
> birded for thirty years with many hours spent on the CBBT. I don't like 
> being prohibited from it but accept the fact that freedom has a price. I 
> also would like to applaud the police and caretakers of the CBBT and other 
> thoroughfares for their courtesy to us in the past. We have complicated 
> their task and they have been in large part supportive. I respect the 
> decision and pray that someday conditions will change enough to allow us 
> to have access.
>
> Sam Collins
> Former President
> Virginia Beach Audubon Society
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Eugene Burreson" <gene@xxxxxxxx>
> To: <>
> Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2005 2:06 PM
> Subject: [va-bird] More birding terrorists
>
>
>> Recently, as part of the Backyard Bird Count, Dave Gillett, Heidi
>> Geist and I birded the campus of the Virginia Institute of Marine
>> Science, where we work or are students.  The folks at the Coleman
>> Bridge toll booth called the county sheriff on us because we were
>> "acting suspicious and had binoculars."  After we convinced the
>> sheriff we were harmless, we walked down under the Coleman Bridge to
>> look for water birds.  On the way back up the hill to VIMS, a state
>> policeman pulled up and asked us if we had been under the bridge with
>> binoculars and cameras.  Someone had called the state police and also
>> reported us as suspicious.  We had just convinced him that we were
>> harmless birders when a second state trooper pulled up.  We've become
>> a paranoid society!
>> -- 
>> Eugene M. Burreson
>> Professor
>> Department of Environmental and Aquatic Animal Health
>> Virginia Institute of Marine Science
>> College of William and Mary
>> PO. Box 1346 (for mail)
>> Rte. 1208, Greate Road (For UPS, FedEx)
>> Gloucester Point, VA 23062 USA
>> Phone: 804-684-7015
>> Fax: 804-684-7796
>> Email: gene@xxxxxxxx
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>>
> 


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