Larimer Woodcock

[DAVID A LEATHERMAN]

Birders and photographers and others with binoculars and cameras,
In case it needs to be said, and apparently it does, IT IS NOT OK TO WALK DOWN THE CREEK EDGE TRYING TO FIND AND FLUSH THE AMERICAN WOODCOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This constitutes clueless, and/or rude, unethical behavior and is the kind of thing that gives us birders and photographers bad names with neighbors, enforcement rangers, and other birders.  Come on, people.  A tick mark isn't worth being idiots, to use a moderate label.

Sometimes it takes a little skill and patience to see a bird, even one that is pinned down to an area of 50 yards.  This bird evolved its special camouflage over eons and is remarkable in this respect.  If one doesn't see this bird or any bird, as often happens with ethical birding, you hope to see the next one.  This isn't like going to the zoo where you have a map, the cage has a name on it, and it is fairly reasonable to expect seeing the animal for which the cage is named.

Outdoors people usually don't give up the location of their favorite fishing hole, a morel patch, or an owl cavity.  Screwing up viewing for everybody who might follow you by stomping around for a woodcock is what leads to decreased sharing on public media about other kinds of situations like this one.  It happened with the Fountain Creek bird last year.   One guy with a lot of saliva thwarted untold others from seeing that bird, some of whom drove hundreds of miles.   I knew when this bird was beautifully discovered by Fawn Simonds that it was special enough to perhaps warrant special protocols (limited viewing times, guided group visits, or something along those lines), particularly since the parking lot at Bobcat was closed due to mud.  But the word was innocently put out on COBIRDS.  The first couple days went OK.  Things tend to come unraveled on Day 3 of a "Happening" and apparently that's what is going on.  The unraveling can cease with simple considerate behavior on the part of visitors from here on.  Please.

Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins

[Austin Hess]

Dave...I'm very sorry if posting to COBirds when I found out was not smart of me. I realize that it attracted such a large amount of people...I probably should of known better. Too bad to hear that it has gone over the line. I wish I would of thought over everything better and just kept the bird to Fawn (who is a good friend of mine) and myself. 

Austin Hess

Fort Collins 

[Fawn Simonds]

I feel terrible about this. In retrospect I would not have told anyone about the Woodcock. I care way more about the bird than being the one who found it.

[Eric DeFonso]

Austin,

Please, do NOT blame yourself for the bad behavior of others. And please do NOT begin a habit of keeping outstanding birds like this American Woodcock to yourself the next time you, Fawn, or anyone comes across one. Just because one or perhaps several people do not understand or practice ethical birding behavior should not result in a complete swing of the pendulum of openness and sharing in the other direction. That would unfortunate, perhaps tragic. (The British have a term for not reporting one's rarity sightings, but it escapes me at the moment. If someone can remind me it, please do.)

I for one do not want to bird in a community where the new norm is that no one shares their good fortunes with others. The problem in this case was not that you, as Dave put it, innocently shared the sighting on CoBirds. The problem is like Dave described, treating the habitat and the area as a zoo, or actually even worse than one (since when are you allowed to pester a hiding or secretive animal at a zoo just to see it, in the same way that some jerks bother the birds in the field?). It infests lots if not all extraordinary bird sightings in Colorado or pretty much anywhere else in the world, irrespective of the good intentions and unassailable character of people like yourself and Fawn.

I am very grateful that you and Fawn found this bird and that you reported it, and that numbers of others have continued to provide updates on its presence and location. Because of generosity of spirit, I'm going to make an effort to look for this bird tomorrow morning (my first opportunity to do so), in much the same way I went to look for the Woodcock down at Fountain Creek last year. I failed to find it there, and I sincerely hope that a few people's numbskull behavior and selfish attitudes haven't already doomed my efforts to spot it.

However, if I personally can't find this bird, I'll accept the outcome as just another example of the beauty and enigma of nature. I don't view the natural world or birds as *owing* me a tick on my lists, simply because I make an effort to look for them. When I can get that tick, sure, I'm thrilled and grateful, but if the woodcock decides to stay silent or out of view, or has moved to quieter creekbeds elsewhere, that's the breaks and I'll just have to wait until next time.

Thanks,

Eric

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Eric DeFonso
Boulder, CO

[Ira Sanders]

Well said Dave and Eric.  

I think that the numbskulls need to be outed and treated as the pariahs they deserve to be.  If I'm doing something stupid like that I expect to be called on it.  I hope the morons who are doing it here and other places get called out in public.

Ira Sanders

Golden, CO

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Ira Sanders

Golden, CO

[Connie Kogler]

I absolutely agree 100% with Eric on this one. Well written, my friend. When I had the privilege of an extremely rare bird in my yard in 2007, I had over 400 people visit my home to view the Streak-backed Oriole under pretty strict conditions. Still, there was a select group that chose to not abide by the requested protocol, unfortunately. But I would do it again in a hearbeat because those kind of birds need to be shared.

Connie Kogler
Kingfisher Cabin, Loveland, CO
Sent from my iPad

[The "Nunn Guy"]

Hi all

I must say I am always surprised at the ugly discourse that follows when informal rules are violated.  Mirroring the likes of our Congressional leaders--by "name calling", etc--is not the way to correct any problem.  I think setting our emotions aside and using a sense of civility and thoughtfulness in how we might want to resolve these type problems might get us closer to the "birding nirvana" we all desire. 

How might we better educate and reinforce good birder behavior on what birding ethics are and the importance of them?

Thanks Gary Lefko, Nunn
http://coloradobirder.ning.com/
Mobile:  http://coloradobirder.ning.com/m

On Sunday, January 18, 2015 at 3:40:46 PM UTC-7, Dave Leatherman wrote:

[Deborah Carstensen]

Educating is helpful knowing that many people will make the right choice when they understand the repercussions of their actions. Unfortunately, this isn't always true. 

     When I reported a saw-whet owl in Littleton, I only gave the location info to a few people after getting permission from the owner.  They were to call the owner if they wanted to come over. 

     Ultimately, certain experienced birders came back repeatedly for pictures without asking the owner and the bird left after having been there for months. 

    I, too, felt responsible and wondered what I should have done...

Deb Carstensen, Littleton , Arapahoe county
         
Sent from my iPhone

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[The "Nunn Guy"]

Hi Deb and all

So, I think we all know we will never solve this problem 100%--people have their own ethics to merge with expected, informal birding ethics norms.  We also have diverse groups of people to consider in our problem solving:

• Birder (subsets)
• Beginner
• Intermediate
• Advanced
• Photographers
• Birders
• Non-birders
• "Lookyloos"
• "Hey, I saw this rare bird posted on web ..."
• "Hey, I saw a story about a rare bird ..."
• I think I'll tell my other non-birder friends
• Generation mindsets of birders
• Millennials (aka Gen Y, people born between 1977 and 1997), Generation X (since 1965), Baby Boomers (since 1943), and the traditionalists (since 1930)--each of which work from a different set of values
  
• Others?

I would think the best we could ever be satisfied with is the 'ol "80/20" rule (80% doing it "right") knowing we only have the ability to control messaging and education to the larger segment of the groups defined above associated with birding.  We could reach the broader segment of the groups via various media with consistent messaging about wildlife viewing (social technologies, DOW, NPR, TV, RADIO, NEWSPAPER,etc).

Dave L. already mentioned a few ideas -- "special protocols (limited viewing times, guided group visits, or something along those lines)" -- again keep in mind we could have all the special protocols you can create they still have to meld with the ethical values of a human.

Thanks Gary Lefko, Nunn

http://coloradobirder.ning.com/

Mobile:  http://coloradobirder.ning.com/m

[Mark Obmascik]

In most of its home range, the American woodcock is considered a game species and is legally hunted. The Larimer County bird may be lucky to be visiting Colorado.

Good birding,

Mark Obmascik

Denver, CO

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From: 'Deborah Carstensen' via Colorado Birds <cob...@googlegroups.com>
To: "colorad...@gmail.com" <colorad...@gmail.com>
Cc: "cob...@googlegroups.com" <cob...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2015 10:46 AM
Subject: Re: [cobirds] Re: Larimer Woodcock

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