Dear Trevor,
I have always argued if you cannot see a bird without technological help
then you shouldn't see it all. In fact, I am not sure even if people should
be allowed to use glasses of any kind. A case in point, binoculars
definitely are a problem because they allow people to easily see birds and
thus encourage overvisiting of areas.
But spotlights are the worse. If we could ban these we could prevent people
from bothering birds at night. If people cannot see anything, they are
going to stay home and leave our birds alone.
I am also worried about eyes. There is good evidence to show that excessive
staring at birds is deleterious. I think the data is firmly in now that
birds stared at too much have less feathers.
There is also good reason to think that human ears have become a problem.
Several studies show there is a close correlation between males
stumbling into the wrong territory and getting beaten up by other males
with the number of human ears in the area! Apparently, too many ears use up
the given sound for an area making it difficult for the males to hear.
Even more damaging, however, is the discovery that the number of birds in
an area is inversely proportional to the number of human ears. If anyone
needs any proof of all this, you only have to look at NSW legislation:
Section 29ar, Rule 4.82 says: "Anyone found having any sensory experience
of birds of any kind shall be put through the mincer."
For those who want to quibble, in the definition's section, "mincer" is
defined as "a set of revolving knives."
Finally, and it has to be faced - the earlier letter about shooting birds
is probably correct. If we can get everyone together and shoot just one
bird and confirm its identity, there will be much less disturbance to birds
overall compared to the damage done by everyone running around trying to
identify the species by themselves.
Is anyone else sick of this thread?
Glen Ingram
Brisbane, Australia.
"Heller's Law: The first myth of management is that it exists."
---------------------------
Trevor Quested wrote:
> Tony,
>
> It is funny how birdwatchers see things so differently from each other. I
> recently saw Plains Wanderer
> north of Deniliquin and I found it one of the best birding experiences
> ever. How do you go finding Plains Wanderers yourself? How would you
> propose I find one?
>
> Trevor
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