Re: [nysbirds-l] Campaign against David?

2019-01-05 Thread Nancy Shamban
Ditto from me. Thank you to all that help especially David. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 5, 2019, at 8:18 AM, edith goren  wrote:
> 
> Thanks again to you and David Barrett and all who post any where and with 
> such frequency. 
> I too have been told as I bird or walk with binoculars questions about what 
> I’ve seen by strangers and often offer my binoculars and tell novice birders 
> of available bird walks or organizations, or good locations to go to.  I have 
> been asked not to reveal locations of Owls, but people are inquisitive if it 
> looks like I’m attentive to a spot. ( this has made me uncomfortable with the 
> ethics of Owl protection) not that I often spots Owls. I feel this is the 
> best way to promote and enhance environmental protection ethics and laws,  
> and to protect the areas of park reserved for passive recreation. I feel Gus’ 
> promotion of informative signage is essential and aids birders to reinforce 
> ethics.  I do not support suppression of information and creates a caste 
> system of birders.   Respectfully, Edith Goren
> 
> E.G.
> 
>> On Jan 4, 2019, at 8:48 PM, Gus Keri  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 sm

Re: [nysbirds-l] Campaign against David?

2019-01-05 Thread edith goren
Thanks again to you and David Barrett and all who post any where and with such 
frequency. 
I too have been told as I bird or walk with binoculars questions about what 
I’ve seen by strangers and often offer my binoculars and tell novice birders of 
available bird walks or organizations, or good locations to go to.  I have been 
asked not to reveal locations of Owls, but people are inquisitive if it looks 
like I’m attentive to a spot. ( this has made me uncomfortable with the ethics 
of Owl protection) not that I often spots Owls. I feel this is the best way to 
promote and enhance environmental protection ethics and laws,  and to protect 
the areas of park reserved for passive recreation. I feel Gus’ promotion of 
informative signage is essential and aids birders to reinforce ethics.  I do 
not support suppression of information and creates a caste system of birders.   
Respectfully, Edith Goren

E.G.

> On Jan 4, 2019, at 8:48 PM, Gus Keri  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.

Re: [nysbirds-l] Campaign against David?

2019-01-04 Thread Andrew Baksh
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 
>  wrote:
> 
> Gus, the listserv didn’t declare war on anyone.. 
> 
>> On Fri, Jan 4, 2019 at 8:49 PM Gus Keri  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 th

Re: [nysbirds-l] Campaign against David?

2019-01-04 Thread Matthew Clements
Inappropriate to lobby one way or another. All we did was start an argument. 
And I got lured in. 

Keep posts to the list serve about birds. We can all make our own decisions and 
judgements without any advisement. 

Sorry to have contributed to the thread. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 4, 2019, at 9:03 PM, Jose Ramirez-Garofalo 
>  wrote:
> 
> Gus, the listserv didn’t declare war on anyone.. 
> 
>> On Fri, Jan 4, 2019 at 8:49 PM Gus Keri  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. 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> 
>> NYSbirds-L List Info:
>> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsW

Re: [nysbirds-l] Campaign against David?

2019-01-04 Thread Jose Ramirez-Garofalo
Gus, the listserv didn’t declare war on anyone..

On Fri, Jan 4, 2019 at 8:49 PM Gus Keri  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.
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> NYSbirds-L List Info:
> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm
> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm
> http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm
>
> ARCHIVES:
> 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
> 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L
> 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01
>
> Please submit your observations to eBird:
> http://ebird.org/content/ebird/
>
> --
>
> --
Sent from my iPhone

--

NYSbirds-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/N

[nysbirds-l] Campaign against David?

2019-01-04 Thread Gus Keri
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. 




--

NYSbirds-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm

ARCHIVES:
1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L
3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01

Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/

--