Bird-brained horn honking laws

By Jim Banholzer

Recently there have been several cases featured in the news about motorists being given warnings or tickets for excessively honking their automobile horns. Certainly, I’m a fan of maintaining peace and quiet, but the peace officers in action would do well to interpret a law that reads, “Automobile horns shall be used for emergencies only” with some broadmindedness.

A few days ago, I was driving down the highway with a friend. We approached some flickers standing in our lane. These woodpeckers appeared to be distracted by something and we could see they were not sensing our approach. As we came upon them, I lightly tooted the horn at a strategic moment, taking into account the Doppler Effect. The birds went quickly airborne, as my friend exclaimed with some amazement that he never considered lightly tooting a car horn could save bird lives.

Was this an emergency? Certainly for the birds it was.

On my last trip to Montana, I drove up that old dusty Red Rock road, to that vast wetland avairy area beyond. There to my sweet delight, I witnessed some seldom-seen Trumpeter Swans. As we intersected within a hundred feet of these tremendous birds, I politely waved, smiled, and then lightly tapped my horn for a pleasant hello. The birds responded in kind fashion with light trumpeting. My friend claims it sounded as if they were laughing at me, because when I pointed at them, I was pronouncing their name with a jazzy “Trumpeteer” Swan twang.

Here's one solution being trumpeted:

http://www.a1nycsightseeing.com/PressRelease.html