Now Don’t Get Me Wrong!
   Yes, birding is The Perfect Pretext for spies, and all birders are spies, if you look at it that way.
The birds didn’t ask us to spy on their lives, their nests or their babies. The difference between birders and other spies is intentions, it’s as simple as that. We do not watch birds to do them harm.
   Spies use birding for cover as they video on the hillside near an industrial lab or go on owl prowls at night in the city. They don’t really care about birds, they just use them as cover as they look for weak links in the informational chain, something or someone they can exploit.   
  I believe “Birds Are Beacons of Hope,” as the Cornell Lab of Ornithology said in their mailer when it was time to renew my membership. Most birders I know think like that. Birders are good people.