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Re: news report



I guess the game's up.  The secret of the so-called bird experts is out.  
We've all just been taking hallucinogens.  It's no wonder beginners have 
trouble seeing what we see. :-) 

Actually, most birders I know do take one performance enhancing drug -- 
caffeine.  Maybe that's why Birding magazine devotes so much space to shade-
grown coffee.

(In case anyone was thinking of taking the "news" story seriously, it's a 
spoof posted to Texbirds yesterday by Rob Fergus, who says he was trying to 
avoid working on his dissertation. He could have a career with 
theonion.com!)

> I'll close with a news story below about some birders in South Carolina. 
> I guess they are non-Carolinabirders, none of the names sound familiar... 
> Is THAT how Robin Carter keeps getting all those huge big day totals? ;-)
> 
> Joshua S. Rose
> Duke University
> Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)
> 
> jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
> http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/
> 
> ---------------forwarded message----------------------
> Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 22:51:40 GMT
> 
> Check out this news report from http://www.abcnews.com/102934453.html
> ...What's next, random drug testing at the birding classic...?
> 
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.
> 
> Birders Decry Use of Performance Enhancing Drugs
> (AP) Grandon, South Carolina.
> 
> Birdwatchers--or birders, as they prefer to be called--have struggled for 
> years to shed the image of little old ladies in canvas tennis shoes 
> stalking sparrows in the park.  Since the late 1960s, birders have 
> promoted the competitive aspects of their hobby through listing--usually 
> friendly competitions to see the highest number of species in a given 
> area or during organized day-long birding events.  However, several 
> recent incidents have cast a dark shadow across the face of competitive 
> birding.

[rest omitted]

> Rob Fergus
> Hornsby Bend Bird Observatory
> 2210 S. FM 973
> Austin, Texas 78725
> 
> Phone: (512)929-1019
> Email: fergus@hornsbybend.org
> Website: www.hornsbybend.org

-- 
Charles W. "Will" Cook                  w 919-660-7423
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook            cwcook@duke.edu
Box 90340, Biology Dept., Duke Univ., Durham, NC 27708