I was going to stay out of this one, but I think Bob's response is so sensible--just plain sensible--that I wanted to second it! Steve Cagan Cuyahoga County On 12/19/13 5:39 PM, "Robert Hinkle" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Letıs get real, folks. The ABA ³rules² are guidelines, and the "no feeding > raptors² part was meant to suggest that photographers and trip leaders > (mostly) who would bait raptors for their own purposes and financial gain > shouldnıt be doing that. You and I both know that the vast majority of snowy > owls coming down from Canada will starve to death this winter due to their > inability to find suitable prey in suitable quantity to sustain them. The > snowys are dumber than a box of rocks most of the time and the normal > densities of their northern prey, such as lemmings and arctic voles, are > higher where they came from than the densities of anything on the Cleveland > Breakwall or almost anywhere else down here. And we have more snow than the > place they came from. Huntingıs easier there, tho perhaps a bit more windy and > dark. Do folks REALLY think the break wall and airport are crawling with big > tasty rats 365/24/7? The Ohio open field habitat matches their natal habitat, > so thatıs where they sit and patiently hunt, or try to, and eventually most > starve to death. They already arrive stressed and underweight. My personal > sense of birding ethics says that if Joe has a snowy owl out in the boondocks > where no one else will mob it with cameras and bins, and he wants to feed the > thing, then BRAVO to Joe for doing it. Should it be done on Burkeıs runways? > Probably not. This no doubt sounds like ³situational ethics² to some of you, > and I freely admit that it is, but I for one am not offended by Joeıs feeding > ³his² snowy owl any more than I object to you putting suet out for your > Carolina wrens. Blind obedience to a set of ³rules² without questioning the > context in which they were created is folly. And Joe, I second the opinion of > a previous poster. Just donıt tell anyone next time. > > Bob Hinkle > Chief Naturalist Emeritus > Solon, Ohio > ______________________________________________________________________ > > 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.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS > Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask] -------------------------------------------- Steve Cagan, photographer [log in to unmask] www.stevecagan.com www.elchocomining.net www.pbase.com/stevecagan www.stevecagan.blogspot.com http://socialdocumentary.net/photographer/stevecagan 216-932-2753 (USA) ______________________________________________________________________ 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.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]