One of the worst instances of unethical behavior occurred when I was trying to photograph Sage Grouse at the lek near Malheur. I got there before the crack of dawn and photographed quietly from inside my car. An hour later, several vehicles with about a dozen birders pulled up and parked around me, then all of them got out of their vehicles and were milling around, talking and drinking coffee and setting up spotting scopes. It ruined the experience for me, and was expressly against the suggestions for visiting the Sage Grouse lek, in which people were supposed to remain in their vehicles. I can't say for sure if all the people bothered the grouse, though I suspect they moved farther from the road, but I felt it was highly inappropriate behavior.

We all need to reduce our impacts on both the wildlife and other observers.

Lee Rentz
Shelton, WA
lee at leerentz.com
http://leerentz.photodeck.com (galleries)
http://leerentz.wordpress.com (blog)