Birder/photographer skill vs. instant gratification

-
I just read a post on the Florida birding listserve that I thought encapsulated the issue of frequent use of bird rcordings quite well. The issue pertained to a impatient photographer who wanted to get a photo of a rare bird, in this case a Masked Duck, though I think the issue is equally applicable to birders:

"A photographer who had been trying to get some shots of the bird was obviously frustrated by this as he came up to me and asked "I WONDER IF IT WOULD RESPOND TO A TAPE?". I was furious and my response to him probably reflected that. There seems to be an element in the birding community these days which has lost all concept of what it means to wait PATIENTLY AND QUIETLY for a bird to show. In their rush for instant gratification it has become all too convenient to reach for an I-Pod and force it into view so that it can be added to the county list, year list, life list or whatever. Over the past few months we have seen examples of that broadcast on BirdBrains. Some birds you may need to use a tape for but these represent a small minority of the bird species out there. Woodpeckers, Hermit Thrushes and Least Bitterns definitely do not belong to that category and Masked Ducks certainly don't. This may sound old school (and yes I have been birding for 40 years) but if you need to use a tape to see a Least Bittern or a Hermit Thrush then I think you need to take up another hobby.

I am therefore pleading with everyone out there to develop some patience and field craft and resist the urge to automatically reach for the I-pod when a bird refuses to show." Read the full post

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spotted Sandpiper Chicks, 3 more days older

-
Image
Two days when I went to check on the Spotted Sandpiper family at Florence River Park I thought they had likely perished--there were two men engaged in gold panning right where the parent sandpiper had been and they had dug some of the sand from the bank where I last saw the sandpiper chicks. Arggh, I was afraid that all this activity, plus a large off leash dog with these people, would have scared the parent away and even if the chicks were successful in hiding in the vegetation they would not survive without a parent at their young age. What a surprise when I returned that evening for one last check to be accosted by the parent sandpiper calling loudly and challenging me by walking right towards me (and my dog). It took awhile for the parent to settle down and for one of the chicks to walk in some grass where I could spot it--the parent had moved the chicks about 150 from the river into an area with a lot of vegetation. I returned day before yesterday and refound the parent and
Read more

Recently fledged Common Raven

-
Image
At the end of March this year I spotted a Common Raven going into a crevice above a rock face of a local cliff area called Castle Rock (as part of it looks sort of like a castle). I started watching this area and observed a pair of Common Ravens spending time around this location. On March 27 I spotted one of the ravens inside the crevice which now had what looked like nesting material in it--the photograph of that is the second pic here. I continued off and on to check this apparent crevice nest. At the end of May I saw what appeared to be a nestling inside the crevice. I continued birding in the riparian forest across the Arkansas River from this cliff area. When I was about a quarter mile away I heard a lot of raven racket and walked to a spot where I could see the cliff area through my binoculars. I could see a lot of raven action with the parent birds calling loudly so I expected that the nestling may have fledged or they were trying to get it to fledge. I went back t
Read more