John Vose’s recent comments on wildlife ethics reminded me of a wildlife encounter I had early in February last year.
I was driving to Vermont in the early Sunday morning gloom to photograph an assignment for a magazine. I thought I noticed an owl along the road so I turned around, lowered my window, and drove very slowly back with the camera that is always on the seat or floor next to me aimed out the window. I squeezed off perhaps 10-12 photos in 7 seconds, most taken while the car was still in motion, before the owl disappeared. I guess it was OK with speeding cars but not slowly moving ones. I later learned that this owl was very tolerant of people approaching from a respectable distance.
I did not get a good look at the owl; I was concentrating on photographing it and also keeping on the road. While shooting the assignment, which lasted most of the morning, I showed a few people one of the photos on my monitor, and they admired my nice barred owl. Late that afternoon when I had downloaded all my photos from the day, I noticed that it was not a barred owl. I checked Sibley’s and was 99% sure what it was, but before posting it on birding listservs I emailed a photo and then immediately called a good friend who is probably the most knowledgeable ornithologist in the area. He excitingly confirmed it was “the first great gray owl in the area in probably over 25 years”. So I posted my finding HERE.
By the next morning the area was filled with birders and photographers from all over New England and beyond searching for the owl. So was posting its sighting ethical? I think so. But I was floored by a comment a woman made on some forum as relayed to me by the friend who I consulted on the ID, “Too bad the photographer flushed the bird”. I guess she felt that if I did not it would still be sitting along the road for all to see.
There were a few sighting that Monday, then a few more unconfirmed sightings Tuesday and Wednesday. On early Thursday morning I was privileged to spend almost 40 minutes totally alone with the owl. That encounter along with photos from Monday morning are HERE.
Interestingly, this was posted this morning on the Vermont Bird Listserv concerning a rare bird found yesterday in Burlington: “I wish the rest of us with cameras would take a few images of these over-aggressive photographers/birders and post them. These individuals prevent the rest of us from having chance to see a good bird, a rare bird; they need to understand that their behavior is not accepted by the rest of us who like to bird and take images and don’t want to be labeled with them.” I was pleased I did not observe any similar behavior around the great gray owl, but I heard of such goings on during the recent snowy owl invasion. Photographers owe a debt to birders who find interesting birds to photography. We should all respect not only the wildlife but others who want to enjoy them.