WORLD INFORMATIONS: [Birding] Watching birds in neighborhoods is not OK... mmk? Hi all! After my Swallowgate post seemed to connect with a few people, I've decided to post some more birding drama. There was an incident involving a photoshopped rare bird recently, but I'd rather post about something that's a bit lesser known but in my opinion much, much funnier. (My apologies in advance for the Flickr links, it's the best way I know to post edited screenshots with names redacted). Birding is the obsessive's term for birdwatching. Some birders are "listers" in that they keep long, complex lists of all the birds they see in their lifetimes/year/state etc. Due to geography, weather, and seasons, some spots can be better than others for finding rare birds that have decided to fly in from distant lands. In many areas, those spots are set aside in nature preserves and wildlife refuges , and birders can go explore these to find new species or see rarities that have shown up. In other areas, especially rural regions, birding is done more or less from roadsides, neighborhoods, and from asking permission to explore private property. Heck, I do it from my backyard, especially after work when I don't have other places to go. Obviously, when you're looking at someone's private property, they can be a bit suspicious of you, even if you're only viewing it from a public area like a road, since they don't know that you're just looking for birds. This has led to a few hostile confrontations between birders and landowners but in general most people act reasonably, and often get excited when shown the Snowy Owl snoozing out in their farmfield (to use a personal example). Recently, in an international birding Facebook group, someone made a comment about how they'd had the police called on them while out looking at birds with binoculars in their neighborhood. Everything was settled well in that encounter, and most of the Facebook group members reacted to it positively, albeit with some complaining about the ignorant neighbors. You know how there's that 5% or so of Facebook members who ruin it for everyone else? Enter Melvin*. Melvin immediately commented, and I quote: "How many of these incidents will it take for birders to finally realize that birding in neighborhoods, along rural roads, etc. is NOT OK?" A few people pushed back against this, assuming he was trolling. However, long and unfortunate familiarity with Melvin's extensive commenting history made others realize he was completely serious. Melvin decided he needed to dig a much deeper hole, and managed to do so over the next few comments. After several comments (link here to photo: https://flic.kr/p/2gWJFi9) he ended with: "The problem with our passion [birding] is that it has no legitimate reason to exist." Melvin, who calls himself a birder, decides it's a good idea to post that our hobby has no reason to exist, in a Facebook group containing at least 13,000 other birders or people interested in birding. He was somehow surprised that no one agreed with him. Melvin, however, was determined to defend this point, as he had at other times before. He switched out his hole-digging shovel for an excavator, and posted as part of his response that "In my opinion, asking for permission to bird on closed private property is never ethical." Full link to photo of that comment can be found here: https://flic.kr/p/2gWJMZL. Melvin then commented on another person (Jim's) story about a Karen calling the cops on Jim and Jim's ornithology class birding a neighborhood, that in order to go birding in residential areas, you needed to inform the entire Homeowners Association and circulate letters letting everyone know what was going on, and personally apologize to any residents who are disturbed. Link to that here, just to show that I'm not making this madness up: https://flic.kr/p/2gWJDcQ I could go on, but you get the point. A good forty people or so argued with him for a few hours while everyone else watched. Eventually, Melvin slinked back into the corner from whence he came, still convinced of his righteousness despite making a fool of himself in front of 13,000+ people. Meanwhile, the rest of us recounted the many uplifting experiences we've had from asking people to go birding on their land, which ended up turning it into a positive conversation. While wading through the flood of comments in the group, I watched the sparrows in my backyard, which according to Melvin is something I need to inform the Homeowners Association of so I don't freak out my neighbors. Y'know, because I can't do something harmless in my own backyard. Oh, Melvin. Please change. ASAP. *(Melvin isn't his real name, per the "No Personal Information Rule" on the sidebar. ) ** I'm sorry that I don't have any 'people-getting-bitten-by-mishandling-snakes' stories to share this time.