A thoughtful, comprehensive and very well done summary, Michael.


I believe we all have some impact on the birds and environment, probably varying degrees of minimal, by finding, viewing and recording their presence and behavior. Some of the impact may also be helpful. Many examples come to mind including your fine data collection activities at Marymoor park and the national CBC counts.



Thanks,
Dan Reiff
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Hobbs" < BirdMarymoor at frontier.com>
To: "Tweeters (E-mail)" <TWEETERS at u. washington . edu >
Sent: Friday, January 7, 2011 1:39:18 PM
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] re: sick of the cameras




I think there is some room for concern by birders about photographers, and vice versa .

One issue is that the stress on the bird is probably higher, on average , per photographer than per birder:

? Photographers often move much closer to the bird than birders, as they attempt to get a frame-filling shot
? Photographers often stay close to the bird much longer than birders, and may return multiple days to photograph the same bird
? Some photographers pish , or use recordings, to attract the attention of the bird, and do so for significant periods of time.
? Some photographers sometimes use flash
? Some photographers will set up their equipment very close to nest sites
? (Please note that in no way am I suggesting that birders aren ?t also sometimes guilty of moving too close, staying too long, using their iPods inappropriately, or getting too close to nests. And since there are probably still more birders than photographers, the total stress caused by birders probably exceeds the total stress caused by photographers).

But I think there are a lot of other things that simply build annoyance between birders and photographers:

? Photographers will often be set up in ?the best viewing spot? for an hour or more, and birders are left to peek over their shoulders or through the legs of their tripods to try and get a view. This runs counter to the general courtesy among birders, who will often allow others to look through their scopes, or who will urge others to ?take my place? to see a bird.
? Some photographers have very little knowledge of the birds they photograph, and may seem completely oblivious to other birds besides the target one
? Birders will often annoy photographers with their impatience, when they pish or use recordings, instead of simply waiting for the bird to reappear from inside the bush
? Birders will often arrive, see the bird, celebrate, and leave, while the photographers are taking the time to study the bird and its behavior
? A steady stream of birders all coming to ?get? the bird may keep the birds on edge and more undercover, so that photographers need even more patience to get a good shot
? Birders and photographers have both been known to inadvertently flush the bird, preventing others from seeing and photographing the bird. The photographers will tend to remember the birder that scared the bird away. Birders tend to hold a grudge against the over-eager photographer.

A few more things to consider:

? There are so many billions of bird photographs already in existence that there is no great need to take more, and no benefit to the greater good in any particular photographer getting ?the? shot that is desired.
? The vast majority of birding is simply for the pleasure of the birder, and provides no addition to our scientific knowledge of the birds.
? Careful observations, made either by birders or by photographers, can provide new scientific insights. Birders may be able to provide data about bird abundance and distribution. Photographers often capture and record interesting aspects of bird behavior. Neither realm is reserved for one set of people.
? Both birders and photographers can educate the general public about the value and significance of birds. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, photographers probably have an edge here.
? Birders use photographs to learn field marks. ( Please, please, please ? Photographers ? label your photographs with date and location when posting or publishing them )
? Often, the best source of information for a birder, about the habits of a particular staked-out bird, will be the patient photographers who have watched the bird for hours.
? Often birders will have initially located and identified the bird that the photographers want to photograph.
? Often, a photographer will have found and documented a rare bird that birders want to chase.

In short, I think if all of us keep in mind the concerns of the other people around them, we can all get along. We are better off if we don?t turn this into an Us vs. Them situation.

And the most important thing is that we ALL keep in mind that we are poking our nosy noses into the lives of birds who are just trying to stay alive, and we should do our best not to interfere with their hard work.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland, WA
== http :// www . marymoor .org/birding. htm
== http :// www . marymoor .org/ BirdBlog . htm
== birdmarymoor at frontier.com
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