tmichael

It's part of a rather worrying recent trend - what seem to be completely non-naturalist photographers just out looking for novel 'subjects', often going around in packs (with no binoculars, of course), and being quite noisy a lot of the time. I've seen them recently in TPK and at Long Valley.

It's difficult to imagine these types would ever consider the bird's welfare, just getting their shot - plus, apparently stopping others getting theirs!

We sadly may need to be careful about disclosing locations of rare and interesting birds on this Forum and to be ready to intervene, politely of course, if we see unacceptable behaviour.

Let's hope such incidents remain rare.

Mike Turnbull

tmichael

I agree - don't challenge anyone if they seem potentially aggressive, but otherwise try to educate them in field craft (and indirectly, in birding ethics) if they clearly are causing a bird stress, and generally behaving in a selfish way eg disturbing birds to get flight shots.

Concerning "suppression" of bird locations, I had in mind things like owls at or near the nest and other rare breeding birds (we can all think of a recent example,  I'm sure).

News would I hope be spread between genuine birders/responsible photographers by more traditional word-of-mouth means.

Also, while there are some ethical issues about flash use, I wouldn't want any code to ban it - look at the excellent opportunity to look closely at images of forest birds which it has given us in HK.

Mike Turnbull