Teesmouth Bird Club

I was in the Phil Stead hide this morning and pointed out a Water Rail that had come out into the open just in front of us. A guy immediately stuck his lens through the window, then a rat-a-tat noise from his camera, guess what? bird gone!!. As I said on leaving, when will they ever learn.

It's not just photographers Keith. The noise in the Phil Stead hide last Saturday when the Pec Sand was showing was unbelievable. Another thing I find annoying is when people stand at the hide door talking with the door wide pen. Do people not realize that birds can see movement through the hide a lot more easily with the door open?

Sorry for the moan

Martyn

What are you basing that title on Keith?
Simply that the guy had a camera.
Did he have bins or a scope as well?
So many birders have cameras now that this age old hatred of photographers is long past it's sell by date.
I never hear anyone say "this birder stuck his camera lens out of the window and went rat a tat tat"
Far easier to keep this dinasaur alive by classing anyone with a camera as a photographer.
It's only a week ago everyone was thankful a photographer had took shots of a Bairds sandpiper.

If a photographer's behaviour is totally unacceptable then fine - moan about it.
But please keep it fair by classing birders with cameras as just that because at the moment the only people on the naughty step are photographers.

Now what irritates me about birders?
Throwing stones into the hedgerows at Rainton Meadows to put the short eared owls up.
Throwing stones into a bush at South Gare to put the wryneck up.
Pagers going bleep, bleep bleep in hides
So called organised flushes.
Ringing
Sticking their heads out of the windows at Rainton Meadows and using the ledges to steady the view through their bins.

Keith we all moan and we all get irritated and frustrated but none of these birds have "Property of bird watchers" or "Property of photographers" stamped on them.
Just because we might not like something it doesn't always make it wrong.

The second paragraph is exactly what I'm doing, moaning about bad fieldcraft, anyone who knows me will tell you I'm not anti-photography, we have some brilliant guys in our club who I admire greatly. I would also agree with Martin, there are some very noisy birders out there as well, it just seems that cameras are involved with a lot of disturbance, I'm certainly not alone with that view.

Without going down the photographers/ birders route too much, sticking lenses / bins / elbows and even heads through a hide window is crazy! What's the point of having the hide?  Where I agree with Keith is that this is a massive problem at the moment with a plethora of photographers apparently lacking fieldcraft - keep the lenses inside of the window! The extra foot closer makes no difference to the shot and will almost always flush the bird. If you're using the hide window as a steadying mechanism then get a tri/monopod instead!

But the other side of the coin is also true.... the 'bloody photographers' brigade need to consider whether flushing, tape luring, bush bashing etc are any less of a problem to birds than photographers approaching too close too quickly.

Problem is simple, humans are a selfish animal who's own considerations are all that matters at times.... I of course include myself in that!