Regarding John's reply,
I think there has been much discussion about the appropriate distance from nests and the related issues in the thread, but it has been masked by some disputes about a watcher/photographer who tries to stop people from photographing around the Drongo nests.
People argues that there is no scientific foundation/literatures showing that photographing activities around the nests would cause disturbance, nor those about appropriate distances from nests when observing/photographing. Thus, some people do think there is no problem gathering at the present position for photographing the Drongo nest. They also have doubts about the credibility of comments from "so call Professionals" (like John yourself). As there is no apparent damage to the nest throughout these days, it seems that the distance is "OK" (John has justed pointed out that there may not be enough space for test flights of babies drongos). It seems that the disturbance from cars would be greater than the photographers, there are observations from one of the comments that the drongo response to passing trucks rather than photgraphing activities.
However, i worry that after such a case more and more photographer would think that photographing near nests is acceptable. The problem is, i believe, a number of nests would be affected in the future but these cases would be invisible - as there wouldn't be photos or other sorts of evidence.
Even there is an obeservable damage to the nests (say this drongo nest unforturnately), the photographers can still argue by reasons such as "This is nature" or "There are other disturbances around", and they can still be "innocent" if you use the Hong Kong law system (which assumes that people are innocent).
I worry that such disputes (including issues about using flashlights and baiting) would continue between some photographer & Conservationists, as there is no good scientific support for both sides. More sadly, I believe there is a group of photographers (who seems not present in this forum) who are very angry about some enthusiastic conservationists (and probably vice versa) and which would be one of the reasons leading to such a "Battle". We always hope there are Bird Professionals to stop this dispute, however now it seems that some people disregard the advices from professionals and believe what they are doing is right.
Beetle Cheng
[ Last edited by Beetle at 17/06/2010 14:13 ]
