Please - no playback with AZ Rarities

This was just posted on the AZ birding listserve:

I echo Philip's report from Florida Canyon yesterday 4/12, birdy yet no Rufous-capped Warbler sightings. We did hear it in the form of a photographer playing the warbler's song. The photographer temporarily ceased his playback of the warblers song after a discussion concerning ethical matters. Before my clients and I had gone down over the dam, we heard the songs again. I find this behavior rude to fellow birders, disruptive to a potentially breeding rare extralimital species, and unethical. I hope others, when observing such behavior, will have a discussion with the offender. Enough of my rant. From www.aba.org/about/ethics.html, I emphasized a few words:

"Limit the use of recordings and other methods of attracting birds, and NEVER use such methods in heavily birded areas, or for attracting any species that is Threatened, Endangered, or of Special Concern, or is RARE in your local area;"

AZ is very popular with birders and bird photographers from all over who travel here to see birds not occurring anywhere else in the United States. If you come to AZ to see rarities like the Rufous-capped Warbler please do not play sound recordings in an attempt to attract the bird for close/photographic views.

Let me add one more point. If the birds are arriving, and don't have territories yet, playback will make them think that the territory is occupied, and they'll quietly move on. Exactly the opposite of what a birder is trying to achieve.