Lil Judd wrote:
Interesting question...... Not really.
I remember when a juvenile Bald Eagle showed up at a park in the Los Angeles area a few years back. We don\'t see BEs in Los Angeles normally. Well in spending time in the park I found out from other photographers that one photographer had paid a man fishing if he could buy a fish of him. The man sold the fish & the eagle was baited.
Later on a park ranger came by & I don\'t remember how the thing came up, but the ranger was told. He became furious. It\'s illegal to feed Federally protected birds like Bald Eagles.
There are many Federally protected birds. I would imagine that there are owls, which are migratory birds & I\'m sure, many Federally protected as well. Hence, there are most probably owls which it\'s just as illegal to feed as a Bald Eagle.
The fines are steep, both on Federal & State level. And jail time can in some places be served. I would imagine that if photographers were better aware of this they might think twice about feeding any wild bird.
I really don\'t think we can compare feeding an owl or a Bald Eagle to feeding Hummingbirds or other small song birds in our back yards. It\'s vastly different to me. Hummingbirds, Cardinals etc are not Federally protected birds. Also, we\'re not overfeeding the little songbirds in our backyards. They eat what the need & fly on. From what I\'ve heard about how some people bait owls it\'s a danger to the birds health.
I strongly oppose baiting of owls or any raptor of any kind. I wish we had enough rangers to protect the birds from people being so uncaring as to do the baiting. If I ever happen to see anyone doing anything like it, you better believe I\'ll with joy call the Police on them. They make the birds ill.
JMO - and no, I\'m not humble about it at all.
Well.....actually hummers and cardinals are federally protected under the Migratory Bird treaty act. As are all songbirds.
Feb 27, 2014 at 03:01 AM
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