I'm on the fence with this. When a photographer is luring a bird near a roadside, it's simply not good. And unless a bird guide is leading someone who is elderly or has physical impairments, I think birders should traipse a bit themselves or be satisfied with distant looks rather than luring an owl in. Northern Hawk Owls are sort of the owlish form of Gray Jays--curious and capitalizing on bits and pieces of food from other predators, so they are often likely to fly in even without luring--MANY times at the bog I've merely gotten out of my car and set up my scope to look at one way across a field, and suddenly it's flown right in to the powerline over my head! I think Sparky's estimate of traffic in the bog is a little low, but on the other hand, he's right that most of the roads are little traveled. But despite that, I received many--way too many--phone calls from birders and others who had hit owls on those little-traveled roads in the bog during the big invasion. Except for Boreal Owls, most owl mortality during invasions is indeed from auto collisions.
And mice from pet stores DO indeed sometimes carry salmonella. To feed my educational owl I buy frozen white mice from a reputable breeder. But as Sparky notes, the risk is fairly small and when the owl actually gets to eat it, there is usually a genuine benefit from the owl getting those calories. On the other hand, every time we lure in an owl, it habituates to human presence and starts associating humans with food, which is a lot more dangerous for an owl than for those chickadees at our feeders. The only times I've ever provided mice for owls have been when the owl was clearly hungry and already so close that I could have gotten plenty of photos without feeding it. Sparky is completely right that photographs are often used for education and conservation purposes, and that is one important consideration to keep in mind. I would bet that 99% of all the dramatic owl-in-flight photos ever published in magazines, field guides, or books have all been a result of luring. When we see a birder OR photographer doing anything that egregiously endangers a bird, including luring it near any roadside, it seems perfectly justifiable and even necessary to call them out on it. I'm with Mike on FAR preferring to err on the side of protecting these vulnerable individual birds, and I say this as someone who just spend my entire discretionary income for 2009 and 2010 on a Canon 50D which I will be bringing to the bog when I go birding with Mike this week. I won't be trying to bring birds in--I strive in my own photography to show people what splendid birds and behaviors we can witness at a respectful distance without insinuating ourselves into the bird's life any more than just being there. But I also respect Sparky, Mike Furtman, and other conscientious photographers, and figure that as much as I've researched issues, their experience and research is equally valid, and their photos have sure enhanced my life and contributed overall to conservation. So as I sit here perched on my fence, I guess my conclusion is that we each need to follow our own lights within the ABA code of birding ethics, and even as we give birds our top consideration, remember that we're all in this together. We're entering a new era politically, with maybe a bit of real bipartisanship or even post-partisanship, and it might be a nice thing for us birders to try that, too. But even as I say that, I sure hope that voices like Mike's keep reminding us of what's important, and voices like Sparky's keep reminding us that very few issues are black-and-white. Best, Laura -- Laura Erickson Twin Beaks! www.twinbeaks.blogspot.com iTunes podcast of For the BIrds http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=288123640 For the love, understanding, and protection of birds There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of birds. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature--the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter. --Rachel Carson Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail. ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
