Hi this is Chad Griggs who Mr. Hendrickson named in the below emailer sent out today. I just got home from a 20 hour day to go up north to enjoy a day of wildlife viewing, photography and quiet time in the woods. I'm not emailing with any intent of starting an argument. But I do want to say that I'm disappointed the approach to this matter. Mike, if we had offended you in any way today we were available for you in person to say something right there and we would have quickly apologized and explained ourselves. The fact is that I've been in contact with Jim for quite a while and that is how I knew about the feeders. In fact Jim and I have shot together at that location using the exact same strategies. You and I may disagree but I don't see harm in taking down some feeders or covering them up while we place perches near the active feeders. The birds are still getting fed and we are able to do what we love to do, photograph the beautiful birds.
A couple of other things I wanted to clear up as well. First, we were also disappointed to see much of the large branches near the boreal chickadee spot were broken off. It appears that much of the brush near the road had been trimmed back although I'm not sure if that was the cause of this or not. However, we did use some of those broken branches as perches for Gray Jays to land on. But let me be clear, we did not break those branches off. Also, the email sent out for some reason insinuates that we were either using a fishing pole or live mice to bait owls. The only mention of this during our brief conversation was you suggesting that the only way to get good photographs of Northern Hawk Owls was to bait them with mice. Then you asked us if we had any mice and we told you no. So I'm not sure if you were talking about us in this emailer, but it seems that you were suggesting us. In closing I am just disappointed that you decided to bring this to public attention without consulting with anyone involved. You had an opportunity to express your misgivings to us in person and decided against it. In fact, we were quite happy with our meeting you today because you were nice enough to give us some areas to look for hawk owls. Unfortunately we didn't see any owls. I understand that there are many passionate people in the birding and wildlife conservation community and I'm one of them. We didn't mean to offend anybodies sensibilities and though you named us as professional photographers the truth is I am relatively new to the birding community and just recently started receiving the M.O.U. emails. In the short time I've been meeting with other M.O.U. members I have gained great joy in being a part of a community with similar interests as mine. Over the past year I've had several days like today where I've been able to have a blast seeing and photographing new species that I've never seen before. And though I'm not a professional photographer I do hope to some day be able to inspire others though my photography and promote conservation. So it seems we share a similar passion and I believe we are on the same team. PS - I have no desire to fill the inboxes of M.O.U. subscribers with a back and fourth on this subject, so if anybody wishes to continue this conversation feel free to email me privately. Chad Griggs > Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2010 20:25:00 -0800 > From: mlhendrick...@yahoo.com > Subject: [mou-net] Destructive Photographers at Sax-Zim Bog > To: MOU-NET@LISTS.UMN.EDU > > When we hear about people any where in Minnesota who are disturbing birds or > being destructive on public lands for example ripping branches off trees to > get > better photos of a roosting owls, rip branches off live trees for perches, > over > tape use, using fishing poles with artificial bait that look like mice on the > end of the fishing line to tease owls to get flight shots, or basically any > act > that is doing harm to the environment or to the birds we are asked to > document > the event and expose these people. Well below is documentation of how three > people in the Sax-Zim Bog decided to be selfish and to manipulate an area in > the > Sax-Zim Bog to get photos of birds. > > Well today I was guiding two people and we were coming south on the Admiral > Rd. > I was intrigue to see the newly erected feeders that were placed up on > Thursday > of this week. My friend Jim emailed me to inform me that he will be > maintaining > the Admiral Rd feeding station this year as the person who created the > feeding > site decided not to continue maintaining the site this winter. Jim inform me > he > put up a large platform feeder with black oil sunflower seeds on the tree > that > was previous used in the past. The platform feeder was NOT nailed to the tree > but it was hung up instead and Jim also put up a large onion sack full of > beef > suet chunks on the same tree or possibly the tree across the road where in > past > a suet feeder was hung up there that attracted Boreal Chickadees. > > So I am coming down Admiral Road and I see a group of three photographers at > the > site. I get out of the car and the platform feeder was taken down, the suet > bag > was on top of a make shift snow bank along the side of the road with the > platform feeder on top of the suet bag! I inform that the feeders belong to > Jim > XXXX and they said not much accept they will put the feeders back up when > they > are done photographing the birds. I asked why they moved the feeders ?, and > they > said they took the suet feeder down because they wanted to concentrate the > birds > to one spot rather than having the birds go to both feeders. They moved the > platform feeder off the tree because they wanted to set the platform feeder > so > they can get a better background with the perches they set up. I looked at > their > set up with fresh branches clipped to tripods right over the platform feeder > so > they can get some photos. As I walked into the snow to hang up my suet > feeders > on the tree that I know Boreal Chickadees used last year I noticed the tree > branches were ripped off that tree and the ground where they were standing > were > full of ripped branches! I looked at the perches they used on the tripods > and > saw they matched the areas where they ripped them off and the branches on the > ground were branches they decided not to use for perches. > > Yes they are professional photographers because all of them have websites > that > sell photos they took and all their websites talk about how they have respect > for wildlife, the environment and how they create "natural" photos of > wildlife. > > > http://colderbythelakebirding.blogspot.com/2010/12/destructive-photograhers.html > > ( to see the photos ) > > Its not just ripping off branches of live trees to get perches that angers me > but to interfere with someone else feeders they put up to feed the birds and > to > deliberately concentrate birds to one area so they can get photos to me is > wrong > and I think everyone on this listserv would agree. If they want to > manipulate > birds they should create their own feeding station in their own neck of the > woods! This Admiral Rd site is a good site to photograph birds and see > Boreal > Chickadees very close up but I ask that when you bird the Sax-Zim Bog please > do > not interfere with any bird feeding stations on private land or in this case > on > county land. > > > Who are these photographers? They are Derek Griggs, Chad Griggs and Chad > Gustafson. I ask everyone to boycott purchasing their photos for any type of > publication! I been inform that their photos will NEVER be used for > publication > in the Loon which is good news and I hope other sources will follow suit. > > Mike > > > > Mike Hendrickson > Duluth, Minnesota > Website: http://www.mikehendricksonbirding.com > > Blog: http://colderbythelakebirding.blogspot.com/ > > > > > ---- > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
