Outdoor Ontario
Discussion => General Discussions => Topic started by: Brian Bailey on March 21, 2012, 01:08:14 PM
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I saw this article in Macleans and noticed it's also on line: Birdwatchers behaving like paparazzi (http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/03/20/the-flocking-instinct/). It talks about siturations and changes many of us can relate to.
BB
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I'd like a look through those $5000 binoculars.
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article says "Last June, the arrival of an Arctic ptarmigan turned Ontario’s Darlington nuclear station into an unlikely bus-tour destination: officials with Ontario Power Generation had to set up mass viewings because those three-winged radioactivity signs evidently weren’t enough to keep birders off the property."
I wonder if this is true or just sensationalization with a pinch of libel. I had the impression that OPG *chose* to do this as a goodwill gesture, not as a response compelled by trespass by birders. Even if trespass did occur, it hardly seems like setting up a bus tour would be the response.
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Interesting article! Is it actually becoming "cool" to be a birder? "Middle-class flash mobs" and "twitching"? I'm definitely behind on the lingo.
As for the Darlington story, I also remember it as a goodwill gesture from the OPG - I don't think it's actually possible to trespass into that high security property. They were birders, not secret agents. Here's a quote from an article in the Toronto Star at the time: "Concerned about birders flocking to the off-limits site, Ontario Power Generation flew into action to organize an expedition on Sunday. Armed escorts took three busloads of security-checked spectators from across the province and northern U.S. for a once-in-a-lifetime closeup of the chicken look-alike."
I don't suppose Macleans meant any real harm with the looseness of the facts, but it did make birders sound a little foolhardy.