FWIW, I miss reading Judy Meredith’s weekly post of her group’s sightings and
names of the participants. So sorry you caught flack for that, Judy. You are
one of my heroes among birders.
Darrel Whipple
Rainier
On Feb 25, 2021, at 2:21 PM, Karen Saxton <kcsaxton@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I for one would love to see more postings about "common" birds and where you
found them. What is common in Bandon, isn't common in Coquille, 25 minutes or
so away. The bonus of covid-19 was more people were posting where stuff was,
which gives me and my husband an idea as to where we're taking a short
drive(Thanks Tim R for the Herring run head's up). Also helpful are details
about an area - neighbor at such and such a house doesn't like birders,
whereas the one at X doesn't mind. I tend to err on the ultra cautious side
when I'm birding and have missed many a rare bird not wanting to upset the
locals, which comes from living among many really paranoid folks here in
rural coos. Was riding my horse on the logging trails and found myself on
Gateway rd, and every house had a warning, trespassers will be shot on sight.
Even though the UPS guy assured me it wasn't a private rd, I high-tailed it
out of there and didn't go back. I think some of those details, as well as
good directions, have been left off because of the criticism that it isn't
bird related. It took me 12 tries and 2 years to catch the burrowing owl at
Bandon dunes, for example. I"m still not sure how to get to some of the areas
in our county that people refer to. Yes, I can check the map on someone's
ebird(if its a rare bird - I haven't figured out how to check someone else's
ebird) but I never know if someone has been accurate or are keeping a few
details back to protect the bird from too much activity... My 2c.
On Thu, Feb 25, 2021 at 2:03 PM Teresa Hertzel <teresa.hertzel@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:teresa.hertzel@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Yes, I think we all agree that birding should be a safe activity for all,
people should never be shamed or insulted, we should be able to discuss
conservation issues related to birding, threats should not be tolerated,
newbie birders should feel welcome, no one should intimidate anyone else, but
the question is HOW do we do this? I am keeping a list of ideas generated by
this discussion, and maybe when we have expressed ourselves to exhaustion,
I'll use that list to generate a form for all OBOL-ers to give their input.
For example, do you support opening OBOL up to other topics besides birds
(example: conservation, safety, etc.).
On Thu, Feb 25, 2021 at 3:42 PM <jmeredit@xxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:jmeredit@xxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
I used to send bird lists weekly to OBOL but not any more. I got plenty of
negative comments about posting common birds on a list every week, or why did
I list participant names etc. I always thought new birders asked great
questions and I liked to get their names on the list.
I really appreciate reading about bird arrivals and departures statewide,
changes in range, habitat changes statewide etc. It can be about learning,
not just chasing rare birds. To me, those are all bird related and
appropriate. I would dislike OBOL being only for rare bird reports. I do
agree about conservation issues being more and more important but how do we
keep politics out of it?
So good to hear the many voices on this. So glad we have Boo. Judy,
jmeredit@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:jmeredit@xxxxxxxxxxx>
On 2021-02-25 21:21, Joel Geier wrote:
To draw a finer point here:
... about the scope and purpose of OBOL. What is it? It was designed to be
about birds in Oregon.
My understanding is that OBOL originally grew out of an informal e-mail
chain that was formed to share state-level rare-bird-alerts, with a
Slaty-backed Gull as one particularly formative example. So if we go by the
"founding fathers' original intent," it should only be about very rare
birds.
In the early years (around 1999 or 2000 when I was a relative newbie on the
list) there was at least one individual who took that idea seriously enough
to send threatening anonymous postcards to at least three of us. One woman
received a card saying, "Shut up, you talk too much!" The card that showed
up in my mailbox told me to stop posting about commonbirds. Another woman
got a card with a threat to drive to her house and kill her pet geese if she
ever mentioned them on OBOL again.
However, despite such opinions, OBOL quickly became a place for people to
talk about non-rare birds and topics more peripheral to birding. By the time
I joined, OBOL was already being used for coordination of the Oregon
Breeding Bird Atlas, which led to many discussions about distribution of
species as common as Spotted Towhees, and also personal experiences of
birders who volunteered on that project.
Birders also used it to discuss encounters with hostile residents. One
particularly memorable discussion in early 2001 concerned a
"pizza-box-tossing cul-de-sac resident" who vented his unhappiness at
birders who were flocking to a Summer Tanager in Beaverton, which led to a
broader discussion/argument about the rights of private residents to control
access to public rights-of-way. Impacts vs. benefits of ranching and
grass-seed farming were also frequent topics in those years.
Some prominent birders used OBOL as a soapbox to fault the EPA for limiting
manure seepage into Tillamook Bay, on the grounds that this was detrimental
to shore-birding opportunities. ODFW was criticized for letting "scrapes"
become vegetated. Even the OBA board (then called OFO) was a regular target
of criticism. One very well-known birder was fond of discussing the culinary
possibilities for waterfowl and other wild fauna, often provoking a reaction
from vegetarians on the list. Another once promoted an unsuccessful campaign
for birders to buy the whole town of Fields when it was up for sale.
There have always been a few voices who objected to these more wide-ranging
topics, but -- at least since 1998 -- it would be hard to argue that
discussions were strictly confined to just birds in Oregon.
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
