[Tweeters] Bad Birder Billboard

[Robert Gray]

Bird paparazzi excuses are unnecessary. They are going to do what they want regardless of the cost to the birds or anyone else so why bother? Tromping through the very fields that Owls are trying to find food in so they can get a better shot at E-90 is typical.

 
-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Downes <downess at charter.net>
To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Mon, Feb 13, 2023 9:08 pm
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Bad Birder Billboard

Tweeters,To clarify I’m not sure which birders Kevin is talking about, but wanted to clarify that it is NOT Sierra or I. There has been a male Eurasian Wigeon at this series of ponds at the off ramp for a couple of winters now, first found by Sierra during a Yakima CBC. I can’t speak for how other birders are birding, but our sightings have NOT been stopped or pulled over, which yes, is not legal. If the passenger in a vehicle is able to scan quickly as the vehicle exits onto the off ramp, you can do a quick scan of the ducks there with no need to break any rules. It was important to clarify this as Kevin did not, yet we are the observers of this bird in eBird and it could be implied, which is not proper or correct.
I would also not recommend using the trails identified in this post as they are not official greenway trails and thus not recommended for use by the greenway.

Scott DownesDowness at charter.netYakima Wa

On Feb 13, 2023, at 8:20 PM, Kevin Lucas <vikingcove at gmail.com> wrote:



Using Washington State Highway 12 westbound 40th Avenue exit ramp in Yakima to bird is not legal, is not safe, is contagious, and makes you a Bad Birder Billboard for all of the already annoyed drivers who've just been anxiously jockeying for exit ramp pole position as they approach you. Less than six hundred feet away, Highway 12 shoulder is posted "EMERGENCY PARKING ONLY" for the safety of ALL motor vehicle operators and passengers. Those who would like to view the birds or "get" a tic on their list at the beaver pond there, can access that pond via well worn trails from the 16th Avenue Greenway Path parking lot. That walk is about one and one-third miles.

When I hiked in the other day, two motor vehicle operators used the 40th Avenue exit shoulder to "get" a duck on their checklist. The first that stopped agitated the birds. The next flushed the birds, birds I'd been watching from the cover of vegetation as they'd been peacefully foraging. I realize it is a common practice for some listers to use the shoulder there to list birds. It should not be. Please do not endanger and anger other drivers and their passengers and set such bad examples. Let's get bad birders off YouTube's dashcam dangerous highlights reel.

On my hike to that pond I was treated to scenes of fifty crows taking baths and preening and playing in the river edge cobbles, of a gorgeous male Anna's Hummingbird singing and flashing his gorget, and of waterfowl peacefully foraging in the pond,..., until the billboards arrived, and flushed that last scene down the tubes.

Instead of putting forth tainted checklists and lame excuses, put forward your better foot -- Take A Hike.

Good Birding,https://www.aba.org/aba-code-of-birding-ethics/Kevin LucasYakima County, Washington
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