José,
I believe Gus, is referring to a discussion taking place on social media which
I wish he would respond to there, so that folks would have a crack at
responding appropriately.
I am enjoying all the bird reports coming through on the list serves and would
like to keep it that way.
Cheers,
--------
"I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of
others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence." ~ Frederick
Douglass
風 Swift as the wind
林 Quiet as the forest
火 Conquer like the fire
山 Steady as the mountain
Sun Tzu The Art of War
> (\__/)
> (= '.'=)
> (") _ (")
> Sent from somewhere in the field using my mobile device!
Andrew Baksh
www.birdingdude.blogspot.com
> On Jan 4, 2019, at 9:03 PM, Jose Ramirez-Garofalo
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Gus, the listserv didn’t declare war on anyone..
>
>> On Fri, Jan 4, 2019 at 8:49 PM Gus Keri <[email protected]> wrote:
>> It seems there is a campaign against David Barrett’s twitter accounts,
>> especially the Manhattan Bird alert, trying to discredit him and encouraging
>> people to stay away from his account. I find this campaign totally unfair to
>> David.
>>
>> In a recent internet article, the author mentioned 4 reasons for boycott the
>> alert. I will talk about each one separately.
>>
>> 1- “Started advertising T-Shirts.”
>> To the best of my knowledge, all the non-rare-bird-related tweets are added
>> after sunset, so it would not bother birders, most of whom turn off the
>> alert notification at night anyway. He also posts photos and videos of birds
>> after sunset for the same reason.
>> What is wrong with promoting T-shirt that has a photo of a bird on a birding
>> site? It has to be a good idea to raise awareness for the world of birds
>> anyhow.
>> Beside, I read in one of the tweets that for each T-shirt sold, the seller
>> offers few dollars as a donation to one of the birding organization. This is
>> a good deed.
>>
>> 2- “Promoted commercial Owl Walks that point flashlights at owls and uses
>> excessive audio playback.”
>> The ethics of bird watching is very controversial and the birding community
>> is deeply divided over these issues. I am not going to discuss them here.
>> But to criticize David for promoting Birding Bob’s walks seems unreasonable
>> to me.
>> Birding Bob is responsible for most of the rare birds alert on Manhattan
>> Bird Alert, especially the tweets about owls in the last couple of months.
>> On some days, I only read his tweets about rare birds and none else.
>> He goes on birding walks almost every day and finds things himself. He
>> doesn’t need Manhattan Bird alert more than Manhattan bird alert needs him.
>> I have never gone on any of Bob’s walks and my encounters with him last only
>> for few seconds where we exchange Hello’s only. We never talk birding
>> politics. But I heard a lot from other birders about his walks and they do
>> appreciate what he offers the birding community.
>>
>> 3- “Reported owls with exact locations, which resulted in the over birding
>> of some owls, especially a specific Northern Saw-whet Owl. David's
>> guidelines say post about any bird including all owls.”
>> Another controversial issue and it happened that I disagree strongly with
>> it. I believe the birding experts (including eBird experts) had this policy
>> wrong. I believe every birder have the right to see owls. Our focus should
>> not be focused on hiding the location. It should be on educating the public
>> on the proper viewing protocol.
>> When rare or vagrant bird appears anywhere, the birding experts list the
>> exact location and remind each other of the protocol. It has happened last
>> few days with the Golden-crowned Sparrow and last year with the Great Gray
>> Owl.
>> It seems the experts would do all they can to get on rare birds they have
>> not seen before even if it means to do things slightly different from what
>> the code of ethics stated.
>> Well, those new birders who have never seen any owl are like the experts who
>> have never seen a Great Gray owl or Golden-crowned Sparrow. The birding
>> community should help them get on those owls and educate them how to view
>> them. This is a double standard in my opinion.
>>
>> 4- “Promoted the feeding of ducks on The Pond.”
>> This is another example of where education went wrong.
>> Many people (non-birders) love to feed birds in the park but they are not
>> aware of the danger of giving birds the wrong food. These people will
>> continue to do so regardless of what the birding community thinks of them.
>> When I see a post in the park saying “don’t feed ducks” I laugh, because I
>> know people will not follow such order.
>> The park department came up with a smarter idea. They started putting post
>> on what the proper food to feed ducks and other birds, so people can enjoy
>> feeding birds without hurting them. This is a great idea.
>> Manhattan Bird alert simply did that. It is the smart way.
>>
>> Finally, none of these reasons are valid one to declare war on any of
>> David’s twitter accounts. I believe these accounts are the best thing that
>> happened to NYC area birders in a long time. And the fact that the numbers
>> of followers to each account keep rising is an indication of their
>> importance to the birding community.
>>
>>
>>
>>
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