Whoa! What just happened here!?
How is this even remotely helpful or constructive? While several different opinions have been expressed on the listserve, they have been done so respectfully and while trying to help others, the bird, and the situation - regardless of which "side" people are on.
But apparently, these days we can't even have a conversation about birding without someone getting offended that people disagree with them and flying off the handle. This is completely unnecessary, completely counter-productive, and completely off-putting. It's just the type of response that leads to people not bothering to contribute to the birding community, post rarities, open their homes, or share sightings. And EXACTLY why I don't share sightings of owls and other sensitive species, to the detriment of the majority - as I wrote about earlier.
Tone is hard to judge from email. While several other posts could be interpreted as sarcastic, passive-aggressive, or even downright mean, there is no question what the tone is here.
As for the actual points raised here, it seems a waste of time to address them - whether pro or con - if this is the type of response someone would receive if they disagreed. Please take your own advice and try and have a conservation like an adult. Your opinion would be much more likely to be heard and respected.
Respectfully, but rather disgusted at the moment,
Derek
P.S. I also can't help but note how many strong opinions have been expressed here by people who don't otherwise contribute at all to the listserve -finding, reporting, posting (including negative reports), or otherwise participating. Until it comes time where someone's perceived right to see every bird is called into question. Just sayin' a little leading by example might be in order. But that's just my opinion.
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Derek and Jeannette Lovitch
Freeport Wild Bird Supply
541 Route One, Suite 10
Freeport, ME 04032
207-865-6000
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From: Justin Lawson <justindlawson@gmail.com>
To: Andrea Bean <abean60@gmail.com>; Maine birds <maine-birds@googlegroups.com>
Cc: voodoochitlins@yahoo.com
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2017 8:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Maine-birds] Re: Great Gray Owl rules to follow PLEASE!!!
the owl is fine and has been eating. calm down. if the bird wasnt eating it would be gone by now. hop on ebird and see photos of it eating and please stop trying to be the bird police to adults. what you should be focusing on if you wanna play detective is the locals that have a shooting range right behind where the owl was on sunday. a photographer that was there actually talked to them and asked them if they could please not shoot today at that location and they complied. there were numerous locals that seemed annoyed. worry about them shooting it so all us outsiders stop coming around. id say be careful with taking photos of people and their cars. i saw that happen last year in NYC while birding and the person got their ass beat for being a bird superhero. there are laws. if a person wants to walk on the other side of the street (literally 10 feet) they can. you exposing them for being legal makes you look like a fool. are they an asshole getting to close? sure if you wanna call them that but its not illegal. never forget. birds can fly. if they are pissed and unhappy there are 1000s of fields and marshes up there. its staying because its getting food and feels safe. bottom line. if people wanna protect birds please get a job application from the Maine's Warden service and imstead of the facebook bird group snitch. now go find some good birds !On Mon, Jan 23, 2017 at 8:08 PM Andrea Bean <abean60@gmail.com> wrote:This is so upsetting to hear. When I was there Friday, other than the Audobon van, there were only about 8 or 9 other people there. After seeing the owl, we left after about 35 minutes. No one went off of the road and kept their distance. What has been concerning me is I've not seen any photos of this owl eating. I did hear that Saturday was the worse day and that people were chasing it as it was flying from tree to tree parallel to the road, obviously trying to hunt. Short of trying to plead with people to please give this owl space, is there anything else that can be done? I myself would suggest taking their photos and posting them publicly but I know a lot of people aren't comfortable doing that. This is extremely distressing news. Will this owl be OK?
On Saturday, January 21, 2017 at 9:20:00 PM UTC-5, Noah Gibb wrote:To all birders and photographers,First of all, thanks to John Wyatt for finding this bird and getting the word out! I personally had never seen this species and am very fortunate that I had the opportunity this morning. Unfortunately, the experience was somewhat tainted due to a few individuals and eventually several not respecting the bird's space and livelihood (which should be the most important thing).From what I could see, all the birders and birder/photographers that I know and birders that I don't know remained on the opposite side of the roads that have the cleared area in front of the trees where the gas lines run. The owl obviously hunts and perches mostly on the side with the cleared area. This is where it will get it's food. All of those birders (to my knowledge) stayed behind their cars that were also parked on the side of the road opposite the cleared area. I personally feel like if everyone that was present obeyed that rule that this relatively tame species of owl would have no problem with it.When Leon Mooney, Josh Fecteau, Marian Zimmerman, and I arrived at Stud Mill Rd after just getting word that the bird was present only a minute before, the bird was nowhere in sight. Of course there was a line of cars lined opposite the cleared side (which is where the cars should be), but there was a man in the woods heading towards the direction in which the bird apparently flushed and two photographers with huge lenses on tripods set up in and adjacent to the cleared area. This is NOT okay!Luckily the owl came back out to the edge of the woods after several minutes, but what started with two photographers remaining on the "Owl's side of the road" even after being asked politely to back off eventually became a lineup of 8-12 large lensed individuals that ran after the bird every time it flushed! Every large lensed photographer was not guilty of this, however.Before we left, the bird had flown to a fairly short, wooden post right at the intersection of Stud Mill and County Rd and people proceeded to get in their cars or start jogging to the bird, eventually surrounding the owl from both roads on either side of it while photographers got as close as they could. From a distance, it was obvious that this bird was surrounded practically 360 degrees with maybe 30-50 feet around it. Cornering the bird like this more than significantly reduces it's ability to hunt and quite frankly confuses the heck out of it! This should be obvious.Please remember that there is no excuse for putting added pressure on this bird; not if you are a professional photographer, semipro, amateur, or anything else. Most importantly for the bird's sake, but also because there are other birders and photographers (pro, semi, and amateur) present and/or on their way that are currently or are planning to keep a safe distance. Sometimes the best photos come from hanging back and being patient! Don't ruin it for everyone else!I am hopeful that many other bird lovers out there can go see this owl for much of the remaining winter and enjoy it while at the same time, giving it the space that it deserves so that it can hunt in peace and continue to survive.Sorry for the long post and please don't continue this thread unless absolutely necessary (feel free to reply to me offline if you would like)!Bird haahd, but not so haahd that you scare off all the birds!Noah Gibb-Freeport
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