Date: 12/27/25 6:39 pm From: Robert Hibbitts <hibbittsrhh...> Subject: [ia-bird] Not a sighting - Birding Etiquette in Iowa is Bad
This is my second year birding in Iowa. I have been all over epic places in
past and rarely ran into any attitudes or had issues. Costa Rica, pelagic,
and Alaska with lifers that we missed, people didn’t have issues.
Iowa, folk are aggressive.
In past two years I have run into numerous folk who just ignored etiquette
or were just mean. Most just ignore another birder to get camera shots but
I don’t attribute those to being a birder. Some are birders that try to
park in front of you or tell you off of being near them.
In past month, I have had two people deliberately pull in front of my scope
to set up theirs. I have had one person yell at me to get out of his way on
Saylorville dam when I was parked at edge and scope was off pavement, then
pull in front of my truck and never get out. Window birders.
I don’t know what it is about Iowa birders, they don’t want to talk or are
so envious about others seeing something when they are late. A lot of folk
I encounter never get out of car. Case in point was parasitic jaeger on
Saylorville. People set up scopes in car and never got out, then yelled if
we were in their view frame. Sorry to those again.
