Drove up from Downtown Toronto to see Mr. P. I was there Nov. 29 at 1:45. There was one other gentleman there that had seen it. He was a great guy. Very nice and polite and treating the bird with much respect. At 2pm, the bird showed up. I happily added it to my lifelist (having missed it in California). We watched it for about 20 minutes. It even fed on some berries. Then some others showed up. One of those people's name I knew (read: well know birder) but will not mention it here. The bird had disappeared about 2 minutes before they had arrived. I said hello to this new man and his guest. He ignored me (maybe i'm just too young to be a serious birder to him) and his friend gave a quick hello. They wandered around while myself and the original man just chatted and waited. The bird returned to the exact spot we were watching him in before. I was kind enough to gather the others from a few houses away and tell them it had returned. I'm sad to say I wish I had not done so. They proceeded to walk within 3 feet of the bird and using flash photography documented what I had only looked at from across the road. I was a bit shocked at this. I always go by the "do not disturb the bird" rule. It got to the point that they scared it off to another perch, then they hurried over to get more shots. The bird began calling and was clearly disturbed. I left after one more quick look (still from across the road) before I ended up in a fight on the street. It was a real shame that my perfect sighting ended that way. People can be so disappointing. Maybe that's why I usually choose to bird alone.
Nice work sir. You know who you are and should be ashamed.
