I have endured the barrage of crazy tweeters emails from people spending countless hours blasting photographers on here for months now. People are creating signs, asking for restrictions, and now a program you have to sign up for when you buy a big lens...lol. I don?t know if it?s jealousy or otherwise, but there is clearly a divide amongst birders who photograph and those that just observe. However, I?m not sure if this divide is real. I?ve been out photographing birds and have never been commented at by any birder that what I was doing was wrong in some way. Do these people wait to get home and then vent, after thinking about it for a while, on the computer at an audience that they think will better receive their anti photographer comments? Don?t you have anything better to do? Do you know birds are actually killed by mis-identification from hunters, from combines harvesting wheat, etc. Would your time be better spent focusing on these issues? I won?t make excuses for some of the behavior that goes on but I ask you to put it in perspective. Did any owl at Boundary Bay die from a photographers conduct yet? There is zero evidence that I?ve seen that making an owl open their eyes by waving hands at them can or does kill them. This is an unusual year where there are lots of owls, people, and they are packed in a small area. Just put it in perspective this is a small segment of snowy owl populations and, despite whatever conduct they have endured, none have been injured. Do we keep restricting where people go, what they can do, and curtail things in life until we can?t do anything? Can you put the eruption of snowy owls in perspective before blasting on a public listserve?

Again, the only issues I saw when I visited the site was from a couple of point and shoot photographers that had to get close and continually flushed the owls. All the ?big lens? guys were staying at decent distances. Even then, I didn?t say anything because I don?t really care. So they flushed a few owls, big deal. They just glided 100 yards and perched up again, uninjured. They just flew 3000 miles but they can?t glide 100 yards? Maybe you should focus on the small lens or point and shoot crowd... Maybe if you have a point and shoot camera you need to sign up on a program to know how to use them ethically? Do you get the sarcasm?

Shawn M
Bellevue, WA