For all the care that I feel for this "rare" bird, I I must inadvertently flush 1000 red-winged blackbirds, and 2000 starlings, each one a unique creature with sensitivities similar to the precious rare one. I suspect , rare or not, most birds defensively retreat toward a safe place many times a day because an unexpected movement in the bush might be a coyote, a hawk, an owl, a cat, or a rabid bird-eating human. It is not a perfect survival strategy but it is a helpful one. There is reason not to intentionally flush any bird, because we just honestly don't know whether it might cause harm. Nevertheless, it happens a lot. We can never be a bird and know the cost of a flush. It might be best to never look at a bird when we see one, but to keep moving on. No harm, no fowl. Leave only footprints. And, try to avoid leaving footprints. We just don't really know for sure, do we? But, observation tells us that many kinds of birds, when we approach quietly and slowly, just go on with their lives. And, it would seem that the common birds, having been flushed, still hang around by the millions.
There are some threatened species that we need to leave alone so that they can better establish themselves into an area, raise their families, return next Spring. I think the park rangers know more about them than most of us because they aren't talking about them. There are the others, the unusual migrants, the ones that we feel good to find, the ones that by chance chose a more pubic place to take respite. Like young yellow-headed night herons. Unfortunate birds, possibly strayed away from the usual migration path, maybe ending up in a desirable wintering ground and maybe not.
This heron in particular should not be carelessly flushed for at least one additional good reason: because we respect other birders, their children and friends. The stories they might tell. Some of them have travelled hours for a chance to view it. The bird has wings. It will fly away soon. Good to enjoy it as long as we can.
David
On Thursday, November 3, 2022 at 10:09:34 AM UTC-6 noellen...@gmail.com wrote:
Two things to add to the mix:1) As far as I understand, for all wildlife, when you force them to run/fly away, they have to use energy that that wouldn't have had to use otherwise. This is more problematic at certain times of year, such as the end of winter, when they've nearly depleted their fat stores (like when a dog chases a deer, for example). For birds, I'm guessing this is less about the season and more about the food source/weather issues of the last few days since they don't really have fat stores unless they're migrating. This isn't something we normally take into account when we're birding, so maybe this conversation is a good prompt to ask how we can step outside of our species and ask how we nature-lovers can be more empathetic to the daily challenges of the fauna we love.2) Birds are used to the baseline disturbance - at Pella, that's people walking/running/stopping (and sometimes dogs) along the path. Crawling along the bank is not within that baseline and is going to cause distress. Listening to the birds' calls and the level of alert through the community is another way to gauge one's impact.Noelle NicholsonBoulder, COToo much "Whatabout-ism" being preached. It is ridiculous that some keep making excuses for selfish persons who not only unnecessarily disturb some poor bird that ask to be a rarity but interfere with others who are wanted to see the bird also. Call out these selfish birders or photos, whichever they are.SeEtta Moss--On Wed, Nov 2, 2022, 2:51 PM Kathleen Sullivan <ks...@indra.com> wrote:--This morning at about 9:00 I was headed to Heron Pond to see the Yellow-crowned Night Heron and witnessed another incident of bad birder behavior. Two birders in the parking lot were just ahead of me and headed to the North shore. I was going at it from the south shore and I met an experienced birder who had just seen the bird (within the half hour) and gotten a photo and she volunteered to take me right where she had seen it. Then from across the pond we saw the two birders I had originally seen at the parking lot crawling down the bank almost to the shoreline right where the bird had been seen.
We could not find it again with my scope and her good camera plus another man came up who had also seen it from that spot just before. We stood there for half an hour and the two were there for quite awhile but the heron did not show obviously driven into the reeds. Amazingly, some other people who did not appear to be birders but had a camera also crawled down the bank.
Folks, we've got to get a handle on this. Please do not approach birds, play tape, or do anything that will disturb them. In addition if you see something, say something. Thank you. I assure you that if those birders were not on the other side of the pond, they would have gotten some feedback from me! Sorry for this long post but it's important.
Kathleen "Sully" Sullivan, CFO member, former Board member Boulder Audubon Chapter.
Boulder, CO.
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