In my opinion, this article represents hype about Arkansas as a hot birding destination, the kind of hype that may have inspired plans to build a welcome center at the edge of Bayou DeView.
In contrast, I think this post by Laura Erickson represents a dose of reality.
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I read Laura's post. Very interesting....but NOTHING about IBWOs!!! Makes you wonder...
No, but she has a great deal to say about IBWOs here:
http://www.birderblog.com/post.php?id=919
Dutch "team Elvis" member Martjan Lammertink has recently signed up to the forum birdpix.nl.
He posted a couple of pictures made last year in the Big Woods.
Why is it such a big issue for you if private citizens decide to spend their personal funds on vacations to Arkansas or anywhere else?
Perhaps the good people of Arkansas are discovering this simple truth: The difference between a couple of duck hunters coming to visit versus a couple of birdwatchers? About $100 a day.
Nothing wrong with that, we call it free-market capitalism where I come from.
Perhaps the good people of Arkansas are discovering this simple truth: The difference between a couple of duck hunters coming to visit versus a couple of birdwatchers? About $100 a day.
Why would they want birders instead of duck hunters if the birders are going to spend $100 less per day?
Nothing wrong with that, we call it free-market capitalism where I come from.
Yes, lots of free-market capitalism involves a bit of fraud, though most prefer to call that "advertising".
$100 MORE per day from birders... hotels, restaurants, souveniers...
$100 MORE per day from birders... hotels, restaurants, souveniers...
Duck hunters don't stay at hotels or eat at restaurants? (I'll concede that they probably won't buy Ivory-bill souveniers.) I think if you check into it, you'll find the local hotels actually charge duck hunters more than the usual rate (because they have dogs with them, ducks, etc.)
So you gonna jump on Florida now for calling itself the "Sunshine State" instead of the "Hurricanes Mosquitoes Fire Ants and Bigger Cockroaches Than You Ever Saw in Your Worst Nightmare" State?
Duck hunters I know generally have less disposable income than birders, and understandably are more inclined to camp or just make day trips from home than stay in a hotel and eat out. Plus, with boats, guns, dogs, dekes, calls, trailers, etc. duck hunting is a dang expensive sport and your likely to leave most of your money behind at home with the people you bought all that stuff from!
Duck hunters I know generally have less disposable income than birders, and understandably are more inclined to camp or just make day trips from home than stay in a hotel and eat out.
In all seriousness, are you familiar with duck hunting in eastern Arkansas? There are quite a few lodges and hotels, particularly in Stuttgart, that are pretty crowded during the hunting season, and there are quite a few hunters that come in from out of state, so staying at home for them isn't much of an option. And we're not talking about low-income hunters mostly, either. Dick Cheney hunts there a bit.
So I wouldn't assume that birders represent a step up economically.
OK fine point made. I'm more familiar with it as a sport of country boys. But hunting is also highly seasonal. Birding is less so.
It remains, why does Tom even care where other birders spend their own money, or why? And what does this have to do with Cornell's ivorybill project?
In the words of the great thinker Cindy Lauper, "Money Changes Everything."
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