Today my girlfriend and I had the pleasure of seeing a beautiful snowy owl at Jones Beach next to the jetty. As we approached the jetty we saw the bird fly in and settle close to a pair of photographers.
As we watched the photographers approach the bird, they caused it to fly further down the beach. I thought it was unfortunate that the bird was disturbed like that and was incredulous as I watched the photographers walk down the beach to where the bird had landed and flushed it again. Upon speaking with some other birders at the jetty we discovered that these same photographers had been there for two hours chasing this poor bird up and down the beach. I have seen this behavior before in Maine. The attitude that these birds exist only for us to take photos of them. The light wasn't great today and one of the photographers was using a flash to try and light the birds beautiful eyes. I'm appealing to all of my fellow birders to help discourage this kind of behavior. These birds have value as individuals and deserve a rest after their long journey. They are exhausted and just need some nice prey and a safe place to rest. I'm hoping that the photographers I saw today are reading this post and will refrain from treating other wild animals in this manner. Happy birding and Happy Holidays to you all. Sent from my iPhone -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
