Gordon:
I used playback fairly extensively for obtaining singing bird photographs
for my book "Music of the Birds". While I certainly consider playbacks to b=
e
"intrusive", the technique provided me with the only reasonable avenue to
get many shots, especially when dealing with forest birds that sing
primarily from the canopy and from a thousand-and-one different perches.
My justification/rationalization is that I worked almost exclusively with
commonplace birds, in areas where nobody else was working, and I only
subjected individual males to the insult for one or two "sessions" at the
most. In all cases, it was extremely unlikely that anybody else came along
later to do playbacks.
The effect on the males could be viewed as both positive and negative. The
negative is that you're stealing some time away from the male, time he migh=
t
better spend feeding or interacting with real intruders. The positive aspec=
t
is that the male who comes in ultimately is the "victor" in the encounter
(primarily because one should stop playback as soon as a male approaches).
Thus, the responding male "thinks" he has supplanted the intruder, gets all
puffed up, and sings his heart out victoriously. Perhaps this has a positiv=
e
effect on his psyche.
Yes, these are rather insufficient rationlizations, but I must say the
technique did yield many excellent photographs that I otherwise could not
have gotten. Incidentally, using playbacks does not make photography "easy"
by any means. It just makes it possible to get certain species that cannot
otherwise be photographed, except around their nest (I never do nest
photography as I consider it extremely intrusive).
For sound recording I haven't used playback, although I might consider usin=
g
it in the future for specific cases where I am otherwise unable to get a
good example of a call. For instance: the short outburst of the
Yellow-billed Cuckoo. If a playback would allow me to get a pristine
recording of this call, I'd try it . . . simply for the sake of getting an
excellent example for identification-type guides.
For my work with the SASS, I'd never think of using playbacks, as the whole
point of SASS-work (as well as your Fritz-work) is to document what actuall=
y
happens "out there", with minimal influence from the recordist.
Lang
> I'm wondering if anyone uses song playback to call down their subject,
> shortening the sound hunt by drawing the animal in close and provoking a
> loud response? Playback of songs/calls is widely used in owl census
> (particularly for Northern Spotted Owl, for example where a very large ar=
ea
> must be surveyed with limited resources), and also to bring a bull elk in
> closer, trumpeting boldly, etc. It has also been so overused in the past
> that places like Cave Creek in the SW have signs posted "NO SOUND
> RECORDING."
>
> PLAYBACK seems to me like chumming for fish at best, or worse, out and ou=
t
> wildlife harassment. Is there anyone out there in the group that would li=
ke
> to defend 'playback' as a ethical technique? I'd be interested is hearing
> the views/confessions of someone who has done it or perhaps continues to =
do
> it.
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
|