phil jeffrey:: Bozo Award

You've Got to Love Those Birders

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 : 	barbpaul 
Sent : 	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.