Endangered Species : threats from Twitchers & Photographers

[peachfront]

A couple years ago, I was about 115 yards (according to my rangefinder) from a local and well known eagle nest. A less than pleasant "scientist" was telling me I was too close to the nest (standing in a public parking lot). The next day, that same "scientist" and about 10 others had 2 tables set up under the tree while one of them climbed the tree, removed eaglets from the nest to band them, weigh them, and draw blood samples.

Now, you tell me, which one of us was harassing the nest?

Jeff

One of the worst stories I've heard about this comes from a rural South American country. Apparently, a famous ornithologist campaigned to stop local people from hunting birds for food-- but he himself was hunting birds to collect specimens. Like... he thought he could tell the people who lived there not to hunt birds and then he could come in and... start hunting birds? Really? What was he thinking? But that was over a decade ago, hopefully this kind of thing no longer occurs.

But this disturbance of nests is still a thing. I was in Ecuador in December, and the lek of the Club-winged Manakin was gone that had been there for years. Birders and photographers weren't the issue. The guide said scientists had come in, over protest of the tour companies, and physically trapped and handled the birds to band them. Very disappointing. This was too much, and the lek dispersed.