[obol] About not reporting a bird on a birding list
- From: Alan Contreras <acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OBOL <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2013 12:36:22 -0800
ODFW asked me some years ago not to post specific locations for Harlequin
Ducks because they, at the time, had a problem with people going out in
small boats and shooting them as trophies. Weird. That's not even
"hunting."
--
Alan Contreras
acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
Eugene, Oregon
From: Tim Rodenkirk <garbledmodwit@xxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: Tim Rodenkirk <garbledmodwit@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Monday, December 30, 2013 12:30 PM
To: Brandon Green <brandon.green18@xxxxxxxxx>, OBOL <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [obol] Re: About not reporting a bird on a birding list
Hi Brandon et al.
Just a word of note, at least for rare waterfowl. OBOL is routinely
monitored by trophy duck hunters. What is a trophy duck hunter? It is
basically a hunter that likes to harvest rare waterfowl, including
interesting hybrid ducks which they like to mount. A for instance, a male
Barrow's Goldeneye (rare around here) found on the Coos Bay CBC a few years
back was harvested within a week of being found and announced on OBOL. I
heard about it through the local grapevine which was fortunate, so I didn't
spend all winter trying to relocate it. Actually, most trophy duck hunters
usually know about interesting ducks way before birders do, and most do not
trust birders in general, so locations of such birds are not shared with
birders.
Not a problem with Burrowing Owls of course, but nonetheless of interest to
some maybe.
Happing CBCing all,
Tim R
Coos Bay
On Monday, December 30, 2013 10:35 AM, Brandon Green
<brandon.green18@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm dismayed to see Stephanie's very reasonable request for photographers to
give the Linn County Burrowing Owl a little space morph into a "Whaddya mean
we can't post bird sightings on OBOL?!" post. Yes, you can post bird
sightings and directions on OBOL. The OBOL Guidelines clearly encourage
this ("Give directions to notable birds.")
http://www.orbirds.org/obolguidelines.html
And while Paul is absolutely correct that Rich's post was appropriate and
that he has nothing to apologize for, there's a glaring lack of attention to
the gray area in this discussion. No sane birder would object to somebody
reporting a vagrant warbler at a suet feeder in a public area. However, for
obvious reasons, one would incur the wrath of many by posting detailed
directions to an active Spotted Owl nest. A nuanced discussion of this
topic would account for the fact that some species are more sensitive to
human activity and/or are in more sensitive situations than others.
OBOL's "membership" are *not* the only ones who have access to the
information posted here. OBOL posts are available to the general public via
the ABA web site and via the archive page on the OBA web site. Thus, all
OBOL posts are available for public consumption. One can debate how often
the general public reads OBOL but, if I were a non-birder with a vested
interest in locating rare birds, it wouldn't take me long to find OBOL.
While I do not begrudge those who post directions to the roosts/nests of
sensitive species, my personal feeling is that it may be best to first post
the general location and then invite interested parties to e-mail for
detailed directions. That way, you have some control over the information.
Just my $0.02.
Brandon
Eugene
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