Was verbally harassed by some woman who blames me for the crows' squawking. Two strangers/campers being aggressive and hostile 2 times in one week! That is a lifetime record for me. She was in the site directly across from the man who had used his dog to try to intimidate me, heard the man telling me it was illegal to feed the birds, and a little later was talking loudly about my feeding birds but I ignored her and do not know specifically what she said other than it was directed at me and about her displeasure that I have fed birds. Ironically I was only taking photos and was not feeding them - just like today.
I think it is likely that the woman had complained to the Parks Dept and was now pissed off because I was there again and she felt robbed of her power or something. Her behavior was too aggressive to not have had some perceived personal slight fueling it. She was verbally attacking me from ... I don't know.... 30 yards away maybe? She kept saying that I was breaking the law, feeding birds was illegal, I shouldn't be in the campground without paying for a site etc, claiming I was violating this rule or that.
I ignored her for nearly 10 minutes but that seemed to only make her escalate and I did not want her calling the Parks Dept complaining that I was feeding the birds when I wasn't so I stopped photographing and stepped onto the gravel drive to her site where I could make eye contact. I explained that I was not feeding the birds and was only photographing the birds. She reacted as though I was lying even though I had nothing on me except my camera and had been photographing the fledglings from the road in plain view of her.
I am only human and my defenses have been down anyway for the past few days so foolishly I tried to refute the allegations, but she only got louder made up new ones. It quickly became obvious she did not care that I was not doing anything wrong. She just wanted to vent. After only 1-2 minutes of her talking over me I told her I felt harassed, thought we we were probably causing a public disturbance and was not going to discuss it further, then walked away. I doubt she heard me she was so busy attacking me. I took a few more photos with her still fussing in the background. Just before leaving I turned to see if she was actually talking "to" me but she was looking down so she was talking 'at' me.
As I was backing out and leaving she hollered that she knew I took a picture of her. Good grief! I did not know what to say to that and by that point was feeling angered by her contstant barage of accusations. I looked at her rolled my eyes and said something like yep thats right and im going to show it to the police if you keep harrassing me. I drove off with her now going on about how she was going to call the police herself. I could hear her voice saying something about police (the word police coming up several times) as I drove away and her voice THANKFULLY faded away until there was blessed silence.
I can hear her now:
'Arrest that woman. She shouldn't be feeding the birds..... Well no she was not actually feeding the birds but she was standing in the road taking pictures of the crows in the campsite next door to mine. Well yes there is a thicket of trees between my site and the one where the crows were and no she was not in my site, but I knew she was there and that alone annoyed me.... No the crows did not squawk after the first minute or so, but, Officer, her mere existence bothers me so arrest that woman!"
I think I have figured out why she was so hostile - one of the things she yelled at me was something about 5:30 in the morning. I had been trying to tune her out so did not hear what she actually said but I think she was saying Id been there at 5 30 in the morning. Not often but a few times I have indeed photographed the birds in early morning and one of those times was this week was before 7 am. It never occurred to me that my being there might wake someone up, but now I realize of course it could - the crows fuss at anyone when they near a fledgling or nest and Ive been doing so intentionally. They usually only fuss at me briefly but still, there is an initial racket
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Just 2 days before that I heard her making comments directed at me while I was eating at a picnic table and standing on a log trying to photograph a nest before and after the following incident:
It is unnerving and shocking to have people behave with such antagonism. Neither person simply told me that they would rather I not feed the birds or why. They were mean spirited people:
Not all campers are good natured. I was accosted by a camper day before yesterday while sitting at a picnic table eating dinner (take out halibut from a food stand Joe's? first time this year -was trying to eat away my blues ).
He had his dog on a leash but sic'ed it on me! It was growling barking pulling on its leash trying to get to me for several minutes which may not sound like long but sit and watch a clock and you will feel how long it is. Apparently he recognized me from other times when I have fed the birds in the open areas. He told me the dog was growling at me because I was feeding the birds. Um... Oookay. Pretty opinionated dog. I thought he was joking at first but he was aggressive and hostile and I quickly realized the man was serious - disgruntled and trying to intimidate me, which he did. I contacted the police but stubbornly (defiantly) stayed and finished taking my photos and eating my dinner. I had not fed the birds at all and was only there photographing and eating. Irony
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