OHIO-BIRDS Archives

July 2016

OHIO-BIRDS@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 10 Jul 2016 11:35:10 -0400
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (54 lines)
As someone with more past than future, I get interested in history. Sue
Tackett and I have been talking about her intense interest in Spring
Valley WA, and my recollections from visits there in days gone by, about
this birding spot in Greene and Warren counties. There is always
interesting birdlife here. There is also a state-sponsored gun-shooting
facility, so that noise goes on day-long. You get used to it. And
next-door there is a giant quarry. Overall strange territory but at
least suburbs seem unlikely.
        Permit me to vent a bit about quarries. Birders will know that these
places are often surrounded by high fences and revetments with
forbidding signs, often patrolled by guards. I don't know what it is
about quarries that makes them potentially so much more dangerous than
other lakes or ponds. A few years back a brown pelican chose the quarry
next to Spring Valley to spend a week or more, and bird observers were
interested in seeing it. The quarry folks could have provided safe areas
to have a look, but instead increased surveillance by security staff to
keep observers away. This led to some dismay among birders; I recall I
and others wanted to get a look, but hours of waiting for it to appear
above the wall were unavailing. Finally one of our party--who was in the
Army Reserve and wore a uniform to prove it, not to mention some
chutzpah--climbed the hill and peeked through the fence in hopes of
seeing and verifying the bird. Quarry security did not bother him.
        Here in Columbus we have a LOT of bodies of water you won't see on most
maps--but easy to find on Google satellite scans--where many birds might
be observed in a safe way, but they are hidden, presumably lest the
public might fall in and drown, and sue the owners. We have some very
interesting quarries--where in some cases equally interesting birds may
quite safely be observed--that are difficult to visit, and even more
difficult to scan, even if they haven't been used for limestone or
gravel mining, etc., for decades. I can understand keeping birders and
other weirdos away from active mining operations, but providing access
to scope an inactive quarry should not be a big problem. I know that
boards of quarry companies shudder at the thought of drunken teenagers
trespassing and drowning in their properties, but there are plenty of
other properties--such as state parks and rivers--where the same dangers
exist; it is in fact the secrecy of the quarries that adds to the allure
and the illicit midnight swims. And our local Xmas bird counts are
extravagantly inaccurate as a result. Nuff said.
        Returning to planet Earth, I hope Sue will write up an article on
Spring Valley and its history and future; it is a unique spot.
Bill Whan
Columbus

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.


You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]

ATOM RSS1 RSS2