I say this without rancor. The situation just is.
The situation posted by Joel tells me that the "Oregon birding community"
and Oregon Birders on Line is not a community of equals. It says that some
birders are more worthy than others. It says the rest of us cannot be
trusted to behave properly.
That is a sorry statement.
I don't even know what birds I'm being denied by those who judge me
unworthy. I can't say that I am aggrieved.
Paul Sullivan
---------------------------
Subject: Re: ebird throws out the baby with the bath water...
Date: Thu Jan 11 2018 21:57 pm
From: joel.geier AT peak.org
As luck might have it, another species that comes under this recent
"protection" for sensitive species by eBird was found in Corvallis a few
days ago, after a local resident tipped off a local birder who shared it
with their own personal network of friends.
Sightings of the bird were masked but if you looked at the list of
"recent visits" in Benton County, you'd see that there was suddenly an
awful lot of activity in a neighborhood that seldom gets much attention.
The bird was excluded from all of those ebird lists but still, by my
count, at least 14 birders who were in the loop thanks to personal
connections went to that location to twitch the bird, within the space
of 3 or 4 hours.
A long-time local birder who lives on the same street as where this bird
was seen saw another birder walking by, who didn't stop to share this
information, but later posted a photo of the bird on the Macaulay
library (which turns out to be a bit of a loophole in the system).
The bird apparently has not been seen since around 4 pm that afternoon.
Hard to say if the sudden attention by 14+ birders with binoculars and
cameras was the cause, or if it was something else. But if the purpose
of the new ebird "protections" for sensitive species is to protect these
species from excessive attention, apparently that purpose was defeated
by word-of-mouth in this case.
The system might need some work.
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
