FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Re: Birding Ethics

[Icepeep@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 3/5/2006 10:58:40 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
KurtCapt87@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
I
also believe that personal opinions should be directed in private messages
and not to this listserve.

Kurt Gaskill
Is that your personal opinion?

Sorry Kurt. I couldn't resist. I'm just trying to ease the tension a bit. I 
agree with the premise but I think fora and listserves are a place people go to 
express their opinions. I know that you mean that we should not get personal 
with each other. What Val did was express a concern that the actions of one 
birder may jeopardize the privileges (not rights) of other birders. Some think 
that she overspoke and that the birder she was talking about did nothing 
intrinsically wrong. I have done the same thing he did. It is a wide open space 
and 
there are no Keep Out or No Trespassing or Private Property signs. At least 
there were none when I last visited the site. So I strolled over and took a 
quick look at the pole barn and found some nice owl pellets under the beams. 
Then 
I moved off and that was that. 

But recently my wife and I had pulled off of the road in the Remington area 
at sunset in a wide open space with nothing but a distant silo and old barn in 
sight. We were in the middle of nowhere on the shoulder of a lonely country 
road. A woman in a pick-up stopped in the middle of the road and asked what we 
wanted. I told her we were just looking for owls and she was really pissed off 
that we were trespassing on her land without permission. I bowed and scraped 
my way around the desire to tell her that we were on a public road and she 
should go shove off. But after all, maybe she did own the shoulder of that 
road. I 
don't know the rules that well and any resistance would have gotten her 
madder. I kissed her butt and got permission on the spot to stay where I was 
parked 
"For now" she said. "In the future ask permission" was her command. She asked 
for and got my name and even my phone number. I don't know why she wanted it. 
(Maybe she is thinking of driving up to McLean and walking around my yard. I 
hope she brings a rake.) 

So anyway, I think peoples personal opinions are fine on a listserve but 
personal attacks or reprimands are not. They can get downright personal. I 
would 
have liked to have gotten personal with that woman in the pick-up, but I was a 
good little soldier in the birding Army and kept my sarcastic mouth shut. 
Probably saved myself a beating.

Bob Abrams
McLean, Virginia