briding versus hunting

[Tim Avery <tanager at timaverybirding dot com>]

I have always tried to see both sides, as I was raised by a family that hunts,
and I only chose birdwatching after years of doing both.  No matter what anyone
says hunters are conservationsists, and until someone makes a good point that
they arent, there is no argument.  Here was the email I sent to Richard talking
about hunting versus birding... lets be real and look at some of the things we
are saying:

on a timeline of bird numbers and population:

-Point A = Spring of 2004
-hunting season is an intermediary time, between two points
-Point B = Spring of 2005

In between these points is a hunting season and people shoot ducks, yet
every
 year the duck numbers steadilty increase as a whole, especially game
 species,
ie: Mallard, Green-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, CANADA GOOSE. (if a
 species
 number has decreased for one reason or another, usually do to weather
 conditions not prime to nesting as in the Northern Pintail situation in
 norhtern Canada the past couple years, regulations are put in place like a
 reduced bag limit to help protect those birds till the number sincrease
 again)
 And as for hunters contributing to conservation, I was a hunter long
 before a
 birdwatcher, and I can say that I contribute more to conservation then and
 now
 than most birdwatchers ever will... why is that, because Birder's tend to
 drive
 around loooking at birds talking about them, but what do they really do in
 the
 field for birds?  Most Birders who I know do very little to help
conservation,
 even as little as buying a duck stamp. How is a bird watcher helping
 conservation by looking at bird?  In reality birding does little for
 conservation, as what birders do has little impact on what types of laws
 and
 regulations are in place to protect species. But many a hunter, have
 worked
 very hard to try to put certain regulations on hunting and areas to hunt
 to
 help substain wildlife numbers and create protected areas.  This is not to
 say
 all hunters are like this, but there are plenty.

 And as for your comment on bird numbers left:  THe types of birds that are
 hunted today all are at a level where numbers are increasing again.  THe
 reason
 for there demise wasn't due to sport hunting.  In 1900 when large
 commercial
 outfitters would take out hundreds of birds a day that was causing damage,
 but
 a hunter going into the field a couple times a season and baggin his limit
 isn't going to hurt duck/goose/swan/sandhill
 crane/grouse/chuckar/pheasant/turkey etc etc etc.  The birds that numbers
 are
 decreasing, ie small passerines, are not do to hunting in America,
 honestly,
 who shoots a warbler?  Those numbers are decreasing because of what goes
 on
 once they leave America and migrate south.

 Now there is my two cents, after trying to be extremely nice the first go
 around.  Birdwatchers and Hunters alike are given a bad name by a few who
 don't
 seem to see the big picture, like the birders who constantly blast
 hunters and aren't exactly following good birding etiquette.  Or like the
hunters who do stupid things and
 deserve to be bad mouthed.  But as for most of us, those hunting and those
 birdwatching, we recognize both sides, and as long as the hunters don't
 bother
 me, I don't bother them.  It is as simple as that.

Good Birding

Tim

Salt Lake City, UT or Beloit, WI
http://www.timaverybirding.com

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