Subject: Laser Pointer - Eye danger and a birding tool
Date: Jan 8 15:29:02 1999
From: Pterodroma at aol.com - Pterodroma at aol.com


First of all, TYLER, don't feel overwhelmed with guilt or embarassment or the
need to overly apologize. Perhaps you have received privately some
reprimanding type messages to further deepen your sense of embarassment but
this is a topic quite worthy to be shared with the group and discussed openly.
Your topic on laser pointers opened a subject that I don't think has ever been
floated on this list or maybe any other and has resulted in some interesting
discussion and points of view. This is exactly what keep tweeters alive and
lively. Anything new is always welcome inspiration for many of us who've been
around for awhile.

Although Michael Price decribed some hypothetical situations that might cause
harm upon the eye of birds, wildlife, and people, I suspect the odds of
actually ever causing harm is virtually nil assuming the person using the
device isn't doing so irresponsibly and without consideration to the potental
hazards through abuse. I was intrigued by Rob Conway's suggestion for using
the device as a pointing tool to a general area of location. But even at
that, has anyone ever actually used one in the field? Laser pointers work
best on a flat surface such as a slide screen. Somehow, I would think that
tiny fixed point of light would be lost in anything that has irregular texture
and relief like the green boughs of say a Douglas Fir or singling out a tree
or branch deeper in the forest. A tiny sharp point of red light on green
(even in the dark) may not even be detectable to most of us or certainly hard
to find and even by the the person doing the pointing with or without optical
aids.

When these things are used during a slide presentation, I'm often not even
aware of the pointer until it moves! The only way it might work effectively
and practical is to play the beam around the target area where the object of
interest may be lurking in which case there would be no prolonged exposure on
the eye of the unsuspecting bird. At the moment, I'm thinking mainly with
regards to night time owling as I'd think the visible light would be best
detected to the human eye in the dark. As long as the pointer is moving, I
can't imagine how any harm could be done unless the owl is located and the
laser pointer is fixed on the bird carelessly. At this point if owling at
night, we've already moved beyond the laser pointer and put the owl in the
spot light which probably causes more disturbance in the longrun. Daytime
owling and fixing the laser point on an owl sedately hidden in the shadows of
the branches carrys the risk for which the individual using the pointer must
assume responsibility and exercise common sense.

I am skeptical of the practical application of laser pointers in most
situations even in the day light. Having never seen or tested one perhaps I'm
wrong, but my instinct suggests that even finding that tiny point of red light
even with binoculars or spotting scope is going to be extremely difficult if
not impossible for most of us unless it is being used to point something out
at close range and/or back in the shadows of the forest. In the daylight, a
tiny red dot on green will be virtually invisible and perhaps hard to detect
on anything else with texture and relief. As a pointer at a few meters to the
general location within the habitat of say a brown winter marsh, grassy field,
or brush pile where there may be a sparrow or rail lurking, the laser pointer
might have some merit to at best 'frame the area'.

Say you're out with a group and you've found a vagrant Blackburnian Warbler in
the tippy top of the tree at Spencer Island but no one else can get on it.
The laser pointer might be useful in 'framing the area' the bird happens to be
in as long as there isn't too much open sky showing; the odds of making its
detection so simple by laser pointing the bird are small and the old fashioned
method of just watching for movement will as always, work best. Ditto to
Michael Price's hypothetical example pinpointing the Little Stint amongst a
tight mass of Western Sandpipers. You might be able to 'frame the area' to
get other birders looking in the right area and without prolonging the birds
exposure to the beam.

Those hypothetical examples being suggested, a target at a thousand meters or
hundred meters or fifty meters even would probably be difficult for anyone to
hold a steady beam without shakey movement in which case there shouldn't be
any harm done. Chances are that the bird isn't going to sit still long enough
with or without the laser aid. And even so, as pointed out in the Laser
Pointer Safety Bulletin, there is a natural protective reaction to bright
light, called the aversion response, in which one blinks and turns away. That
applies to people; I don't know about birds. Various caprimulgids on a dusty
road don't seem to be averted by the sudden appearance of oncoming headlights
but usually have gotten out of the way before they're run over. An
undesirable bird or squirrel (or cat) at your feeder might be startled by the
sudden light and just turn, fly, or run away. Effective as a long term
deterrant seems unlikely.

Concluding here, I would have to reiterate Michael Price's closing remarks:
>> I would plead the conservative position: if you are sure you can use it
safely, yes; but put the safety of the animal first. If you aren't sure, if
there's any chance of harming the animal or its surrounding neighbors, then
be conservative: don't. <<

Richard Rowlett (Pterodroma at aol.com)
47.56N, 122.13W
(Seattle/Bellevue, WA, USA)