Many will remember the dismay caused by the Ohio Division of Wildlife's
recommendation to extend deer gun season to overlap with the traditional
Christmas Bird Counts period this past winter. A decision at last week's
Wildlife Council meeting--where public comment is not allowed, and ODOW
recommendations seldom disagreed with--continues this practice next
winter: see
http://www.ohiodnr.com/wildlife/Hunting/deer/huntingregsapproved.htm?j=32831
        Has anyone heard a word from ODOW justifying continuing this
new conflict with the CBCs? It would put many birders at increased and
unnecessary risk, likely alter the course of routes in CBCs, and skew
final counts. I have seen no public statements from the ODOW that even
acknowledge that many hundreds of birders will be afield during these
days, or that this fact was taken into account by the Wildlife Council
in scheduling the hunt. Last winter, hunting was newly permitted for
days when 39 of the 64 Christmas Bird Counts took place.
        It's ironic that the Christmas Bird Counts, originated to counter local
traditions of shooting birds during the holiday season, should
themselves be compromised by gun seasons newly expanded into
established count days. This is not a message objecting to hunting. I
object to an apparently heedless decision to start sending gunners
abroad on a weekend CBC counters had always regarded as safe, and to a
lack of communication with the birding community by the ODOW. If
Wildlife has anything to say on the subject, this forum might be a good
place to start.
        The ODOW seems to attend to its client groups--deer hunters, in this
case--more than to other citizens, and to devote more attention to game
species than others. Still, complaining about this conflict will
probably have no more practical effect than it ever does. My suggestion
would be simply to re-schedule all the 15-16 December 2007 CBCs for
later dates. Warming climates make this earliest weekend less
appropriate for censusing winter birds, anyway. Birders will be safer,
and able to more thoroughly assess their assigned areas, thus resulting
in more reliable and comparable data. If necessary, some counts could be
undertaken on 5-6 January. Any thoughts out there?
Bill Whan
Columbus

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