COVID DECISIONS

     The prominent  news lately is "opening up " concerning Covid 19. The opinions are sharply divided. Opening up means having to live by a strict set of rules. However, watching things on the weekend shows that many people are not willing to live by any guidelines. The news showed parks and beaches that were crowded on the weekend.

    I'm of the opinion that we should wait for  things to begin to open up. If we fail in opening up, I think the cost will be tremendous. We will have to close down for a long period of time again. Costs would be added to what we have already spent to fight the virus. 

   So here's my situation. I lead a bird watching group. Spring is an excellent time for birdwatchers with migration and breeding season. We've been missing this excellent time for bird watching.

    So what should I do? Our small city of 100000 has had 37 covid cases. One is still active and no one has died. It's easy to think that there is little risk out there. But we don't know how many cases are out there that we don't know about.

We are allowed groups up to 50 if spaced by 2 meters.

    We decided to not open up our bird watching season. We decided that we couldn't maintain a constant 2 meter distance. Also half of our birders are in the senior classification and one in the eighties (me) . Many times there are six heads close together looking at photos or bird apps. Try getting birders to not have their heads together. Good luck.

    It was a hard decision to make as the activity is outside . However , I would find it tough to take if one if the birders caught the virus from being out birding.

Time for a group photo

Where are all the other birders?

See , heads together

Chickadees come to the hand

Otis the owl who is used for educational purposes.