Re: Security (Real or Perceived) Issues Relative To Recording In Tod

["Steve Pelikan" pelikan45224]

Scott et. al.

I've always believed in the "ounce of prevention" approach so, as much
as possible I tell and show people what I'm up to. By now most of the
park employees and rangers know who I am and what I'm doing. They tell
me that they sometimes they do get calls from park visitors who report
a spy or "creepy guy..." But it has never been a problem for me.

My best story about avoiding possible problems by avoiding detection
is from late one May when I was trying to record a Connecticut Warbler
in a bramble patch at the edge of a play area in a park. I'd slowly
worked myself pretty close to the bird, and was hidden in the middle
of a batch of blackberry shrubs (ouch!) when a guy walked over to the
edge of the play area --- about 4 meters from me --- to take a leak. 

What do do? Stand up and say "Excuse me..." and freak the guy out"? In
the end I just stayed quite still and he never noticed me. He did, sad
to say, scare of the bird.

Cheers,

Steve P