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. > > > > > -- > > 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/[email protected]/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/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/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/ --
