Stated very well Mike. Paul & Koni Fank Dassel MN Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID
Michael Hendrickson <mlhendrick...@yahoo.com> wrote: >Hello > >Ever since Boreal Owls and Great >Gray Owls have be > > >Hello > >Ever since Boreal Owls and Great >Gray Owls have been moving around the north shore of Lake Superior I been >getting a lot of requests from birders from all over Minnesota and elsewhere >about helping them locate these owls. Many times they leave me their cell >phone numbers to me so when I do >locate a Boreal Owl or a Great Gray Owl they ask that I call them and give them >directions to the exact location of the owl. All winter season I have been >sharing owl locations to these people and >also to everyone on the MOU listserv. NEVER once would I ever think to say >“you could always go out and find >one on your own, that’s what other people do”. Also this “that’s what other >people do” is a bunch of BS. Birders share exact locations on many birds >such as this weekend we were sharing exact bird locations to a lot of birders >who wanted to see a King Eider, Saw Whet Owl, Boreal Owl, Great Gray Owl and >Snowy Owls. Never once did any of the local birders or guides say to anyone to >go find your own owls because that is what everyone else does. > >Also it is very sad to see that >the very same Long-eared Owl that Brian Byrne was asking about to see was >photographed >and posted on Facebook. I know a lot of >the serious bird photographers in the Twin Cities area and they highly protect >their Long-eared Owl locations and they also highly protect their Eastern >Screech >Owl locations as well. It is maddening >that all of us local guides and local birders have put these very same people >on owls they probably could not find on their own without our help but yet they >cannot share to the MOU community their “secret” owl locations for others to >enjoy. Yes, we risked putting these roosting >Boreal Owls endangered from all the attention from all the birders and >photographers who came in large numbers to view these owls but, those risks >were ours to risk to deal with and so far there were only a few minor issues >with a few. Also Boreal Owls are a >threaten species in Minnesota unlike the Long-eared Owls but yet there are a >few photographers out there who only want to share these owl locations among >themselves. Good Lord maybe that should >have been our goal was to keep these Boreal Owl sightings hidden and make >people find their own owls but that type of selfishness doesn’t occur up here >in the Duluth birding community and we have been proudly catering to many >visiting >birders for years on where to find owls and other birds that maybe of interest >to them. Too bad birders like Scott >Meyer who I have helped in the past and gave exact bird locations with, cannot >do the same to those who are not in the loop to know where certain birds can be >found. > >I am sure anytime one of the MOU >listserv moderators will be coming on soon to end this thread but I think this >topic should be talked about to some length because I think there are a lot of >birders who feel out of the loop from others in the birding community who would >like to be included on where to find owls and other types of bird species that >maybe of interest to them. I am just a member of the MOU organization and I >believe the MOU listserv is a tool for MOU members and non-members to learn >about exact bird locations in Minnesota. That is why there are three MOU RBAs >that come out each week telling >people where they can go to see certain bird species. I also believe that is >why people post bird >sightings on the MOU listserv so others can find the bird too. Yes, even if >the bird was submitted to ebird >and that bird was sighted in Minnesota and if you know the location where the >bird can be found then share the sighting. If you want me to share birds with >you, then I expect you to share bird >sightings with others including owl sightings. > >Mike Hendrickson >Duluth, Minnesota >MikeHendricksonGuiding.com >Sax-ZimBog.com > >---- >Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net >Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
