We don’t live in France
where a Revolution gave everybody the 'right’ to walk on anybody's land. Nor do we live in the USA where
a Constitution gave them the right to shoot anyone on their
land. I guess we are somewhere in between.
I also have never seen ‘twitcher’ listed as an
occupation allowing ‘access to all areas’, nor is it even listed as an
occupation for a witness on a Statutory Declaration form, and I haven’t heard John Howard mention the
reason he couldn’t meet the Dalai Lama was because he had to meet a birder.
Incredible I know!
If twitchers believe they deserve the right to
‘access all areas’ or intrude on the space (both sight and through sound) of
endangered/migratory bird species then I think they should demonstrate that they
can do so responsibly.
I am a birder, and I am no angel
either. But some recent events have
given birders a bit of a bad name. I think we can all improve by
respecting birds (particularly
rare species )(by not
getting too close, being noisy, and intimidating through eg ‘flushing’ or throwing sticks) and gaining permission
before accessing areas (or at least entering super-sneakily, heh
heh).
Benj
Not
so-Super-sneaky Birder
ps My stories
are: being held at gun point in rural Bolivia by Military while on the
trail of emperor tamarins, ending up in a Rastafarian farmers hut near Mt Kenya
during a thunderstorm while searching for Grenadier waxbills (I think I am still
stoned), and being roused out at gun point from what we thought was a nature
park (but was a military base) while looking for marmosets in Brazil. I guess 2
of those are not birds, oh well.
