The Birdlife Photography rules are simple and straight forward: no call playback and no hanging around nests. If you wish to publish an image there you have to tick off that you have followed those two rules.
Apart from that, for me the larger questions are matters of personal ethics: Why do I take images of birds? Are the birds there to be 'consumed' as photographic subjects? Are they there to serve my personal needs and wants? Do birds have rights?
Do I 'count' my actions as being insignificant because they are only one/eight billionth of the total human effort, or significant because they are part of the sum total human impact on biodiversity, whether it be by particular personal behaviours, or because
of my paltry contribution to the Technosphere?
https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/12/the-technosphere-now-weighs-30-trillion-tons/
I used to be quite intrusive and disturbing to individual birds while photographing them. I did this by hanging around their nests in particular and also by sometimes extensive use of call playback. I did it because I got better images faster. There is no
doubt in my mind that some of my subjects consumed a lot of energy in dealing with me.
Was the damage done offset by the various conservation-based uses of my images?
I don't intrude like that any more. It has limited my photographic effectiveness and efficiency considerably. But any good results are that much more satisfying.
regards
Con
On 1/29/2017 10:02 PM, David Rees wrote:
Got no problems with the BLA approach, esp. as it applies to localized birds in high visitation locations. Also with birds where it is plain dangerous - e.g. owls. What does it truly matter if you happen to stop 50 km from 'woop woop' and
try a few calls by the side of the road. When is the next time that someone will bother those exact birds, relative to other hazards they face? We have all seen what happens when you park your car in a flame robin/ magpie lark/ fairy wren territory, as Philip
mentioned.
With regard to Night Parrots, there is an urgent need to undertake surveys to determine how widespread this bird is - right now we have no idea other than its presence at several locations in SW Qld. I would not be surprised it it has been hidden in 'plain
sight' in other locations, for want of understanding its ecology and a means to find it, which are now being accumulated and shared. For a bird that is 'out and about' in the dark sound will play a critical part in finding them. I think the risk is outweighed
here by the need to know. Mind you, bright torches and banging off stutter slapping cameras with flash guns at night to get a picture may probably scare the birds more. Maybe, video technology which is silent in operation, using infra red illumination, which
neither we or birds can see, would be a more ethical approach of seeing and visual recording night parrots in new locations at night.
Playing sound is not something I like to do when filming birds, though like many I may use a bird app on a phone in the field to work out what I'm hearing if I don't know the call, sometimes birds will respond to that, so how long do I wait before I can
film??. Personally, I dislike the 'Precautionary Principle' is it is often a 'fig leaf' for 'no/not' doing good science.
David
