Hartlepool Blue Throat and pressure on tired migrants

[A McLee]

As a club we regularly repeat the mantra of " first consideration must be given to the bird". We normally mean is that it is a practice to be applied in the field and I believe that this is largely obeyed by birders and most photographers. In this electronic age , however, things have moved on and national paging facilities in conjunction with this website's " Sightings" section allows wider and rapid access to sightings. It is the case that serious birders have access to the paging facility but at present anyone with a computor can access the " sightings" facility and many, I suspect, use our site for little else, and may not even be club members.[ It is worth remarking that as a club we are particulartly liberal in this aspect and I can think of other clubs where this is not a concession to non members.]
I believe, as a club, we are not giving first consideration to the bird when electronic access is given to an irresponsible minority and if we are to be putting our money where our mouth, is we should be considering practices to minimise the disturbance. Clearly not every species is vunerable to viewing and photographic pressure, but the case of a rare, stunningly attractive migrant, whose fuel reserves are running on empty and is therefore more overt, is a prime example of what I am really talking about.
I have a few ideas on how this issue might be addressed, but I am interested in the views and suggestions of others ................... we could arrange for the bird to have a bright shiney BTO ring attached to put off the purist photographers, of course.

[Lockhart]

Given that my sightings post on Friday night seems to have prompted some heated comments, it seems appropriate to comment on this post.  I won't address what the policy should be (although i will offer a tentative opinion); other, more experienced people can do that.  I also can't address the period between 18:30 and 19:00 hours which was described by "Chipf" in the sightings page, for reasons that will become apparent. However, i will describe what i saw and did, and let others judge.  Timings are approximate.

I arrived at the Headland after work on Friday, probably around 17:40 (a work colleague, another TBC member, arrived around the same time).  At this stage, it was raining heavily, although the weather improved slowly after that.  The bluethroat had been located by others in the north bed of the Memorial Gardens; in total about 5 people were present at this stage.  For 15-20 minutes, a number of people attempted to either see or photograph the bird as it worked its way back and forth along the northern bed, sometimes showing quite well in the gaps in the bed (mostly under the larger shrubs), sometimes disappearing for several minutes.  Throughout this period, the bluethroat's behaviour was more consistent with foraging than trying to avoid detection or evade a threat (I saw it pick up a few things but they were too small to be identified).  For those who know the Memorial Gardens, the people present were on the grass to the south of the path, mostly about level with the northern edge of the tulip beds that lie between the path and the central monument.  People were moving around (and a few more people had arrived), which probably wasn't ideal, but they appeared to be trying to find angles that would afford good line of sight into the bed, in an attempt to anticipate where the bluethroat would appear next.  To reiterate, the bird was mobile and keeping a fairly low profile, but didn't appear to be distressed.

At this stage, i retreated to my car for a few minutes because I had remembered that there was a small bag of mealworms in the vehicle (they had been in the car for several months, largely forgotten).  On returning, i asked several people where the bird was, to ensure that i wouldn't disturb it, before scattering some mealworms in the undergrowth.  Yes, I was hoping that the food would cause the bird to linger for longer in one of the openings, but i also wanted to ensure that its foraging would be successful (not all of the mealworms were thrown into the small clearings).  I checked with several people before doing this, but i'm still not sure if my behaviour was appropriate (my thoughts at the time were along the lines of, "We do it for water rails at saltholme, so it should be ok.").  This account seems like a useful time to ask that as a separate question.

After this, the routine of trying to anticipate the bird's movements continued for some time, much as described above, with perhaps 8-10 people present.  There was an inevitable air of excitement, but people were generally behaving themselves (in my opinion) apart from moving around to try to find suitabe angles.  And yes, I was one of the people moving around.  The bluethroat continued to forage, and made a couple of brief appearances at the front of the flower bed, in adition to being visible when traversing the gaps in the bed.  Around 18:30 (i think the number of people had increased a bit, but memory fails me on the exact number), the bird showed visible sgns of distress for the first time, making a short flight (15 to 20 feet) from one part of the northern bed to another, apparently to avoid lingering in a more open section.  I said to a couple of other people that it was time to go and leave the bird in peace; at least one other person joined me in walking to the area between the Heugh and Pilot Pier, which led to my report of three whimbrels being present (I was hoping to see some purple sandpipers for the first time in a couple of months, but the light was too poor to pick any out among the weeds; I only worked out that the large waders were whimbrels after taking a record shot and zooming in on the relevant part of the photograph).  Around 19:00, i walked back to my car, and stopped at the gardens to ask someone if the bird was still around, which led to my report confirming its presence up to that time.

I'll freely admit that i have seen some inappropriate behaviour when looking for rare birds, both in this region and elsewhere.  For example, I paid a brief visit to Cowpen Bewley around 18:00 yesterday and one photographer dug out a smart phone and played a recording of a nightingale singing: tape luring by any other name (the bird didn't respond, thankfully; as an aside, the person with the phone was about 60).  However, during the time that i was in the Memorial Gardens on Friday evening, I don't think i did see such behaviour.  Others may have a different opinion, and i would like to hear that, if only to improve my own practices when viewing rare birds.  To reiterate, i can't comment on what happened between 18:30 and 19:00, the time specifically complained about in the sightings page.

The question of whether or not to suppress sightings of rare birds is a difficult one.  The more people find out, the more chance there is of a bird being disturbed; on the other hand, if more people know about a rare bird, then more people will be around to police inappropriate behaviour.  I have to confess that i've never acquired a pager, primarily because I don't want to hear too much about rare birds that i'm not going to see (either because i'm working or because they are too far away) but that's not strictly relevant to this discussion.

Any thoughts?


Lockhart

[sidwemn]

There have been a few adverse comments directed towards Photographers behaviour at the Bluethroat site over the past couple of days. I can only comment on the time period I was at the site which was from 12 noon until 3pm on Friday. During this time, the bird spent almost the whole of the time in the front gardens of Cliff Terrace, preferring the garden of No15.

To observe (or photograph) the bird whilst in this particular garden you had to stand on the nearest pavement. close to the gate, otherwise you couldn't see into the garden. This meant you were watching the bird at a range of no more than 20 to 30 feet. At this range, if you stood still and quiet, the bird was using the whole of the garden, actively feeding and even sitting fully in the open preening. The bird did not seem under any pressure, if it had been I would have expected it hide behind the plants in the garden, or stay as far back as possible, but this was not the case. The only time I saw the bird react to any individual was on two or three occasions when residents of No14 or N16 arrived or left their properties. On one of these occasions when a gentleman arrived at No16, the bird flew out of the garden landing on the wall dividing Nos 14 & 15, no more that 10 feet from the 6 or so observers present. It waited in full view until the gentleman disappeared into his house, then dropped back into the garden. I would not have attempted to get this close to the bird, but happily took the opportunity when the bird came to me!

I can only speak for those on site during this 3 hour period, but didn't feel at this time that the bird was put under any pressure. Those present were well behaved (apart from one gentleman who persistently talked at quite a loud volume). I can't of course speak for other times when for example the bird was in the memorial gardens themselves.

Martyn

[Jamie]

I think the problem here is wider than just rare birds - you just need to look at other similar threads on Grasshopper Warbler etc. A couple of weeks ago I saw one photographer in the reeds at Dorman's Pool trying to photograph Tufted Ducks.

I also dont think that restricting information will do any good as such people as the 60 year old with nightingale on his smartphone are obviously into birding enough to get a supply of information from people even if it is just talking to them. These people are obviously keen. Also pager type info can be got very cheaply now via text messages and with the price of pagers not changing in 20 years even they are not to expensive by todays standards especially when compared with camera gear.

I therefore think that the only answer is to educate the photographers somehow as I think they are definitely here to stay as a new part of the birding community and there are a very large number of them.....

[JohnM]

Why educate just the photographers? Some birders also need to be educated

[Jamie]

Why educate just the photographers? Some birders also need to be educated

agreed. Also a quick look at birdforum shows you the problem is not unique to Teesside...

[Ray. Scott]

Why educate just the photographers? Some birders also need to be educated

I totally agree, having witnessed and photographed some incredible behavior & actions of bird watchers over the past year or so.

[Lockhart]

Jamie's second comment raises an important issue about reporting sightings of rare birds.  TBC can decide to restrict posts on the website, but it isn't possible to control the content of other information resources.  If "serious" birders are notified of a rare migrant by pager, you can be certain that the info will appear on websites such as Birdguides.  For a local rarity, the info often appears on those sites several hours before it is mentioned on the TBC sightings page.  Thus, if sightings are suppressed on the TBC site but reported by pager, the likely effect is that local people would be less well-informed about a rarity than people travelling long distances and possibly unfamiliar with the local sites.  If people are serious about protecting a rare bird from disturbance, it should either be posted on the site as well as on pagers (the "publicise and self-police" approach mentioned in an earlier comment), or it shouldn't be announced by pager, either.  Full suppression tends to have limited effectiveness, though: people tell friends, who tell their friends, and sooner or later word tends to get out.

Of course, there are options such as password-protection of the sightings page and, for example, issuing logins and passwords to TBC members along with their membership documents.  This has obvious advantages but would probably create more work for those who administer the site (a *lot* more work in the short term; in the longer term the absence of spammers might conceivably make life easier), so the administrators would have to be asked if they were willing to take this on.  Also, it's only effective if people keep their passwords private (about a year ago, someone loudly mentioned a login and password (now forgotten) for Durham Bird Club, while i was sitting in a hide at Saltholme).

Another system i've seen in use elsewhere is that of all sightings being filtered through one or two administrators (Cambridge Bird Club has a variation on this theme): you email sightings to the admin(s) and they decide whether or not to post them on the site.  The upside is total control of content; the downsides are a lot more work for the admins and delays (sometimes of several days or longer if an admin is on holiday) before sightings are posted.  I suspect that publishing their email addresses means the admins get a lot of email spam too, but that's just speculation on my part.

[JohnM]

Why alter the way sightings are reported? the news will get out anyway and incorrect information could lead to confusion and more disturbance for the bird. Its at the site where things need to be addressed. and SUPPRESSION is a bad word

[chip f]

It was my comment on the sightings page that has caused comment, and I would hate that people stopped posting sightings or restricted access to the sightings page because of it.

Unfortunately I was walking the dog at the time, otherwise I would certainly have gone into the gardens and spoke to the individual(s) concerned.

To clarify I cant be certain of the timings, but I think I walked past the gardens around 6.15 with the dog, and there were only 5 or 6 people within the gardens. I actually spoke to a chap who had just left the site, who said the bird had shown well despite the rain, I pointed out there were a pair of stunning wheatear on the gun battery, and we went our seperate ways. Those in the gardens at that time were stood well back from the path, and behaving normally.

When I came back past the gardens it must have been sometime around 6.45. There were more people inside, perhaps 9 or 10. The bird was out low down on a branch of a small bush, and for some reason a couple of chaps, not content with the view they were getting decided to move forward off the grass and onto the path which took them much closer to the bird than seemed appropriate. When the bird flew off about 6 or 7 yards, around half those present went after it, while a few present kept still. This happened repeatedly until the bird had moved from the north of the gardens into the south west corner, where it had ran out of further cover, so it flew back aross the garden itself. It was at this point it presumably went into the undergrowth and did not re-emerge.

Even then, one fella, who had been there when I first went past at 6.15 so must already have taken plenty of photos of the bird, seemed intent on getting the bird to re-emerge as he went round peering into several bushes.

At that time of night I would have thought it was obvious that the bird should not be disturbed at all. I would aslo have thought that the birds re-actions i.e. repeatedly flying away from its pursuers would have made it obvious that it was becoming increasingly upset.

It certainly wasn't the worst behaviour I have witnessed, but I was sufficently disappointed by it to feel the need to comment on the sightings page. I accept that some people may have travelled a long way to see the bird, I also accept that some people lead busy lives and may not always have an hour to stand around waiting for a bird to show, but I don't think that is any excuse for impatient and selfish behaviour.

Unfortunately, and certainly here in the case of at least one individual, it is sometimes those with the largest and most expensive equipment , who should in theory be able to see the bird from furthest away, who seem determined to get the bird out in the open and as close to it as possible. 

[Michael_A]

A birds well being is paramount and it's education people need as suppressing won't make any difference whatsoever.
Would people access the forums as often if no photos of species were shown?
Is not netting and ringing equaly or more so distressing to the 'bird' considering records show feedback is less than 0.001%?

[TobyAW]

I nodded towards this in a previous post but not sure if it was read or has been forgotten about. Happy to keep plugging it though as it is obviously a point that needs to be made.

Please have a look at the April newsletter. On page 12 you will a piece on guidelines for photographers, which is generic enough to apply to general bird and nature watching as well.


To make this work we need those in the field to not only follow these guidelines but also let others know about them. Unfortunately common sense doesn't seem to prevail which is why these guidelines have come about. If you see anyone not following the 4 points below, wherever they may be, please engage in some discussion and if need be print this out and carry it with you. This way you are speaking on behalf of the TBC, RSPB and TVWT (and we are looking for support and endorsement from the DBC and other organisations)  rather than offering your personal opinion. We are looking to make a little poster of these 4 key points and distribute them at key points (hides and public areas) around the Cleveland.

Hope this helps people's awareness of the responsibilities they have when out and about, both to the wildlife and your fellow enthusiasts.

Guidelines for Wildlife Photographers 

1. The welfare of wildlife is more important than getting closer for a photograph
2. Preserve and respect habitat
3. The experience of others should be considered at all times
4. Remember your legal obligations

There may also be a bit of understanding lacking by the non-photographers about what exactly these monster lenses can do. If you bump into a photographer out and about I'm sure they wouldn't mind fielding some questions you might have. While it may not justify their actions it may help an understanding that we're doing the same hobby from different angles. Mistakes are made in both but if you're never told you're making a mistake then how can you learn? It's all well and good talking about it here but by the sound of it, everyone reading or commenting on this topic is already aware of their responsibilities so no attitudes or behaviour is being changed. If you see someone doing something wrong please try and have a chat and explain the effect their behaviour may be having.

[tonyg]

The subject of photographers has been covered on numerous occasions, what I am wondering about is the comments regarding the birds welfare and my memory is taken back to the American robin which allegedly was eaten by a cat why wasn't this bird captured and then put on a plane back to the states as is the norm on the North sea oil rigs ?

[A McLee]

Following on from Toby's point about about a failure of non photographers to understand the cabablity of long camera lenses it would be useful when a photograph is posted on the website, to state the actual distance from the subject when the picture was taken. It might give an indication as to whether the photographer was intruding on the bird's space an causing disturbance.

[Renton Charman]

I hope Alistair's last comment was made in jest. If this was a serious comment I would think the "considerate" photographers amongst us would feel rather insulted if they had to do this everytime they posted a photograph in order to justify it's "legitimacy". I believe the large majority of photographers who post on TBC website are "considerate" and fully understand their legal and moral obligations. If there are a few loose canons I'm not sure who they are but I definitely agree they should be educated about the acceptable standard of behaviour. The club obviously intend to publish a document shortly. I have seen the draft document and agree with it's recommendations. It is important that people seen to be contravening should be approached at the time in a calm and polite manner and made aware of the accepted standard. We all have a duty to do this.
With respect to "long" or "monster" lenses there are a few misconceptions. I have a 500mm Canon lens which may fit this category. The use of a longer lens does allow the photographer to get "closer" to the subject. However "closer" doesn't "mean not so far away", it means bigger image in the frame. Indeed, all lens' have a minimum focal distance and the longer the lens the further the subject has to be away to be in focus. When I was Hartlepool on Friday between 2 and 3pm, like Martin I saw no untoward behaviour. I like a few others was positioned on the pavement next to the wall of the garden the bird was in. The bird flitted about freely feeding and occasionally appearing in full view on the ground or a wall. It occasionally came closer to the position I was standing to the extent that I had to move back in order to get a shot in focus. A bird under stress would certainly not have been behaving as this one was. As far as chasing the bird about in the garden is concerned I saw none of that and anybody using a long lens like mine would certainly not have needed to clamber about the garden as has been suggested to get a better shot. I should point out there were a number of people around carrying cameras (and cameraphones) that were asking questions and clearly were not either members of TBC or in fact birders at all. I'm not sure what you do to inform members of the general public who are not knowledgeable about birds and are not particularly interested in a moral code of practise that the club wishes it's members to adhere to.
The long running saga of birdwatcher versus photographer, which I read with amusement on birdforum.net and now this website, is set to continue until common sense prevails, and people accept that the bird is the common ground and it shouldn't matter what tool you use to observe, be it telescope or camera. It is a fact that more and more "pure" birdwatchers now carry a camera as well to record their observations and the growth/development of digital photography only makes it more likely that it will continue in this way.