There's been yet another ugly outbreak of argumentativeness in our home town on the subject of whether or not to play bird recordings in an effort to attract and see birds.
Again, we think the ethical answer is pretty simple: Do whatever you reasonably can to avoid having any direct impact on wildlife when in the field.
Thankfully, we've come a long ways from the days when both professional and amateur ornithologists regularly went into the field armed, not with bins and cameras, but shotguns and nets. And no responsible birder would (we hope!) argue that it's ethical to toss a brick into a shrub to flush that bird that's maddeningly refusing to just come out and be seen.
But for some reason, assaulting the ears of birds with phony calls becomes more difficult to figure out. And more often than not, the 'reasoning' behind the arguments in favor of playing tapes is little more than, "I really want to see the bird, so it must be okay."
Meanwhile, we are proud to report that when we recently found ourselves in Monterey, California just down the road from the Common Cuckoo found in Watsonville, and when we found ourselves early one Saturday morning in the company of between 75 and 100 fellow birders patiently standing around for nearly two hours waiting for the bird to re-appear ... not one person played a tape. No one even flashed out a cuckoo clock!
Instead of tapes being played and fences being trampled, we were frankly amazed to see one of the most civil, well-behaved impromptu mass gatherings we've ever been a part of. We saw people helping complete strangers to get a better view, and we saw people willingly giving up prime viewing spots once they'd had a good look.
In such a graceless and uncivil age, it did our hearts good to be even a small part of that gathering.
