The opportunity to see wildlife up close and personal has always been exciting to me and I am sure to anyone who has a passion for birds and animals. Enter photography (I am an obsessed birder and photographer) and the desire to get a stunning photograph stirs the blood.
There are techniques to get closer without harming wildlife and there are HARMFUL methods. For me the most exciting and satisfying photos are those in which I stumbled onto just by accident. Also, satisfying is being able use a known location for a bird and find a place to set up my equipment where it will not "spook" the bird so that it changes location and then WAIT PATIENTLY for a POSSIBLE opportunity. This was a hard lesson for me early in my birding/photography life. And I know that I upset others because I believed that my tremendous stalking skill (sarcasm) could certainly get me one or two steps closer without disturbing the bird. If a person has such a desire for great photos that they are willing to endanger birds by using lures, fishing line, or any other questionable method then I might suggest a rethinking of one's ego. For those who care more for the photo op than the birds I suggest you go to your nearest zoo adjust your camera setting so that any fences, people, will blur and shoot away. They you can go and show everyone what a great birder/photographer you are. NOW to the main point. There are so many ways the humans can impact wildlife--even providing food such as at feeding stations causes harm. Not reporting owl locations won't solve the problem because if someone is that driven they can certainly find other ways to accomplish this such as: 1) making friends with birders then going back and doing whatever to get the photo, 2) finding birds on their own (Sax-Zim offers excellent chances and is not that large an area), 3) put out bait and wait etc. etc. Owls are not the only species that people can cause trouble for. I mentioned earlier the Gyrfalcons in SD. How about the wolves or foxes? Putting carcasses to attract eagles and the list goes on. Pretty soon we will have to stop listing at all as we might find that photographers or birders work on Pine Grosbeaks or Prairie Falcons. EDUCATION on birding and photography etiquette. REPORT on the listserve and to law enforcement unacceptable behavior or etiquette (though there was a recent report about photographer misbehavior that turned out to be inaccurate). Mike Henderson just posted about a Northern Hawk Owl behaving very strangely. Even if we accept that a birder/photographer did use these unacceptable techniques is there any proof that the owl in question was found via MOU-NET. People could do the same thing after finding birds on there own--especially knowledgeable birders who are into photography. Have we considered it might even be someone who wish to capture a bird for themselves--like falconers do? Maybe Kim Eckert should take "A Birder's Guide to Minnesota" off the shelves to make sure people don't know were to go in Minnesota to see birds? Maybe Sparky and Mike and other guides should quit taking people out (the clients could and often do go back to locations). Truth is that the person(s) doing these things could well be members of MOU who are unethical and immoral and put on a good front when with others. Anything is possible. If this was a pervasive occurrence I would be the first to come up with a radical solution, however this does not seem to be the case. Let's see if we can work through this without punishing all birders and photographers. I really believe that we can reduce these incidents by being active conservationists, educating others (post the "MOU" ethics to the list serve periodically), and finally--take a stand and report bad behavior. Image what it would be like if no one would respond to requests for help birding in a different state or even part of our own state. Hoping my plans to visit northern Minnesota with Dave Lambeth from Fargo ND can continue on schedule. We have been looking forward to this trip for two years. God Bless, Paul Roisen Sioux City, IA Woodbury County 712-276-0371(H) 712-301-2817(C) ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
