>
>Whatever happened to the joy of discovering your own birds?  Long-eared, 
Northern-saw-whet, and Short-eared owls likely occur seasonally in almost any 
Minnesota county and I recall at least one article in the Loon in how to find 
your own Long-eared Owls. 

The thing of it is, not all of us are experts. I love birds and am an avid 
photographer; my vocation is a Catholic priest and birding is a hobby. I enjoy 
going out and trying to find a bird on my own; I do all the time on my day off. 
But there are people with much more experience with me. I'd rather not have 
to pay a fee to have someone show me where something is all of the time, but 
hope that we could share this information. Birds are hard to find, and knowing a 
vicinity of where one is located would be very helpful. I have a telephoto lens, 
I stay at a distance, and obey all the laws. 

I must admit, I am quite perplexed. I have no idea what the point would even 
be of saying someone saw something in a general area - we're happy for you, 
but how about sharing that for those of us who'd like to see it too? That's 
what has happened with this list, and I love it. It's allowed me to see new 
birds. It would be very aggravating to have someone just post and keep the 
secret to themselves, especially if it's public lands. We are not talking about 
going on private land without asking, but public areas that are open to 
everyone in state parks, back roads, trails, etc. Private property, sure, a 
homeowner might not want 10 people with telephoto lenses and scopes in his 
yard, but public land? I just don't get it. 

Fr. Paul

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