phil jeffrey:: Bozo Award
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I think these people are the poster childen for "things not to do while birding". This was posted on NYSBirds-L on March 6th, and I felt that the contents of the second paragraph deserved to live in infamy. Seems blatantly obvious that you don't ignore signs at landfills or any other facility just because you feel like it . Someone take these people out and feed them to the Turkey Vultures.
From : barbpaulSent : Tuesday, March 6, 2007 7:24 PM To : NYSBirds-L@cornell.edu Subject : [nysbirds-l] upstate results Barbara Dexter and Paul Steineck spent yesterday chasing upstate rarities. the much-reported bullocks oriole spent the lunch hour feeding and perching on oranges placed near the seed feeder in the yard closest to (and behind) the fire station parking lot (parking permitted as long as you stay near your car but do not obstruct fire station doors in case of a fire). directions to this site in Phoenicia N.Y. are given in www.watermanbirdclub.org/BirdersGuideHotline.htm. Later in the afternoon we visited Monticello with gulls and garbage as our objectives. The Apollo mall looked like a barren lifeless snow-covered steppe-tundra in the 25-30mph wind. With more chutzpah than common sense we proceeded west on the main drag in town for a few blocks and turned left into the Sullivan county landfill (sign says County Environmental Facilities). We drove past the buildings (and sort of ignored the do not enter signs), eventually reaching the active zone. Here, with fresh garbage being moved around as a lure, we found 100s of gulls feeding, flying and roosting in easy view. 3+ iceland gulls and several probable 3rd-year lesser black-backed gulls were easily tallied but no trace of the slaty-backed gull. Is driving into the landfill proper legal??? You're on your own but get there early because the road with several gates does really close at 3 pm. Good luck and happy birding.