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In recent weeks there has been some
discussion on internet forums about birders causing disturbance to birds and
in particular to the Snowy Owl which has been present in Cornwall. Much
of this discussion has centred around some birders disturbing the bird in
order to get good photos.
First and foremost it should be clear that we at Rare Bird Alert completely
disagree with any disturbance to a wild bird. We
regularly instruct birders who subscribe to our
services about appropriate viewing or to
follow on site instructions. In the specific case of the Snowy Owl which
turned up on the 21st December we were alerted to possible disturbance on the
28th December and from that point on have added the caveat to "view from a
sensible distance" to all our pager, sms and online messages. This we
feel is appropriate advice to birders, who are after all adults, and we can
not beyond this to do anything about birders who fail to listen to this
advice. Obviously birders who notice disturbance on site are best placed
to stop such activities as it is happening.
With regard to the publishing of photos of birds which may have been disturbed on our galleries it is an extremely
difficult issue to judge. Unless there is 100% unquestionable
evidence that a bird was disturbed whilst a photo was being taken it would be
impossible for us to start investigating each and every photo what gets
submitted. In the case of the Snowy Owl for
example should we put a blanket ban on a all photos in case one might have
caused disturbance to the bird? There is
nothing to say that with patience, field craft and the correct equipment and
of course some luck that somebody might not get a great photo without causing
disturbance to the bird.
Currently we have two photos of the Cornish Snowy Owl on our website, both of
which show the bird on the ground but neither are extreme close-ups and neither
show the bird in flight. Nor are either of them extremely high quality
so it is probable that have been heavily cropped. All of these factors
suggest that the photos were taken in a sensible fashion but as per the
comments above it is a very difficult judgement call to make. As our
galleries do not allow users to upload their own photos directly they are
checked before a member of staff uploads one. We regularly receive
photos that do not end up being uploaded for a whole host of reasons and this
will remain the case.
Interestingly if you run a search on all Snowy Owl photos on our gallery you
will see a photo of the Snowy Owl on the Isles of Scilly in October. The
bird in photographed in flight yet there has been little suggestion that this was taken with
the bird being disturbed. In fact there are many other photos on various
websites of that particular bird in flight at extremely close range and again
little suggestion that the bird was disturbed. Also of the 36 or so
photos of Snowy Owl on our website from August 2003 only two of them
show birds flying. Most of the others are typical photos of a Snowy
Owl during the day sat on the ground with eyes open, again I do not think
there were suggestions at the time that these photos caused disturbance to the
bird.
The above in no way condones disturbance to a bird, as there is no suggestion
in any of the photos mentioned that the bird was disturbed, it just shows how
difficult it is to judge if a photograph was obtained with disturbance being
caused.
As a reminder to all birders below are some guidelines from the BTO
birdwatchers code which we whole-heartedly endorse and will whenever
possible advise users of our services to abide by.
We will continue to monitor photos submitted to us for our galleries and where
we feel they are inappropriate we will not upload them to the gallery, We have
also posted these instructions on our gallery submission page. |
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Extract from the BTO Birdwatchers Code
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If you twitch a rare bird, park
sensibly, follow instructions and consider making a donation if requested.
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Don’t get too close for a photograph –
you’ll earn the wrath of everyone else if you flush the bird out of sight.
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Be patient if the viewing is limited,
talk quietly and give others a chance to see the bird too.
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Do not enter private areas without
permission.
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Birds should never be flushed in
important wildlife habitats or where there are other nesting or roosting birds
nearby. Birds should not be flushed more frequently than every two hours nor
within two hours of sunrise or sunset, so the bird has chance to feed and rest
The full birdwatchers code can be found on the BTO website
here
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