Hunting birds: respectfully

I have come to a decision. We had planned to visit a particular spot on Amherst Island (population 450) to spot some owls. It is a famous place to view owls. I'm not going into their woods. I have visited the island, but we did not go into them. I found out, later, that they permit visitors, for now.
I have written about it before: Amherst Island Birding Ethics. A perfect habitat for them in our wicked winters. There is food, shelter, and few predators, until now. The landowners have permitted people to visit and photograph owls on their property. The road leading to the woods is rough. I'm sure it is deliberately so.

There is a wide amateur photographer community, who sometimes use professionals to lead tours to the island. It is ubiquitous, and increasing. I understand the need for professionals to earn a living leading tours, and they can teach ethics, one hopes. You cannot teach respect, however. It's not limited to Ontario:

Phil Slade said...

It happens just the same over here Jen. We don't have Snowy Owls but most owls are now targetes for birders and toggers. "Toggers" are people who have no real interest in birds just photography. It's all become a huge problem.

Amateurs, and professionals alike have been owl baiting to lure the owls towards their cameras. This is bad for many reasons; I'm sure I need not explain it, others have.

Thinking of feeding or baiting owls for your photo? Here's why you shouldn't do it: https://t.co/asusIC7m66 pic.twitter.com/Wq4CpYe04S

— Audubon Society (@audubonsociety) January 5, 2019

By the way, there is a difference between short-term baiting birds with live food, and putting out backyard bird feeders [Audubon Society, Jul. 13, 2017]

‏Verified accounMor

We have many owls in care in rehabilitation centres in the province. Birds hit by cars are quite common. Not that taming them is an issue here, but road speed and distracted driving means there are quite a few animals hit on our highways. Hubby found this one on the road. I took the opportunity to photograph this fine creature, then set it in the forest to let nature take its course.


Baiting owls has been an issue for a few years, now. With Social Media, people share photos and locations. This should stop. It won't, however. Ethical birders have been mum about owl locations lately. I only share a location with trusted photographers.

These are the behaviours people have witnessed on Amherst Island:

• people climbing into fenced, out of bounds areas
• people climbing fences to shake them and make snowy owls to fly
• trespassing at night, with lights, to get photos
• another man picked up a saw-whet owl, a wild owl, and put it in his coat
• landowners are kicking people off of private property as they are trespassing
• a man with a cooler full of mice, to lure the owls.

And now: drones...

This is a collection of my owl photos. The joy of photographing them and the luck of finding one, is sheer joy.

Amherst Island Birding Ethics 7

lots of birders on the ferry

We've often visited Wolfe Island to spot some owls,  Topsy Farm said they had over 20 snowy owls on Amherst Island, nearby. Now, normally, ethical birders do not give away the location of owls, but this is fairly common knowledge. Sadly, birders on Amherst Isl. can be thoughtless and reckless, this is what I have heard from residents and fellow birders. Unlike Wolfe Isl., there are no businesses in winter, other than Topsy Farm. There are just residents, farmers, and construction workers (Wind Farm Construction) for the wind farm.

Birding ethics

The Migratory Convention Bird Act (1994), an agreement across North America, says we're not to kill, harass, or bother the birds in any way. This covers owl baiting, and handling critters. Sadly, there are those who hunt down owls, trespassing, and interfering with their feeding habits.

Ferry across to Amherst Isl.

This is what we can attest to on Friday, Jan. 26th. We got onto the ferry, and took off to Amherst Isl., the guy working on the ferry boat told us that the owls have been on the ice in the morning. On the ferry we met two birders.
This pair had driven down from Ottawa, to photograph owls. We chatted.

Later on, I was furious. We passed them a couple of times. The 2nd time, we stopped to chat as they asked us if we'd seen any. We had not. They'd spotted two, they told us they'd seen the first one by a particular house, and had walked into the field to find a rabbit warren (trespassing). Prime hunting for the owl. They obviously chased the owl off, as they are conscious of photographers. Next, they were going to walk on owl road. I saw two cars parked, and obviously there were people walking along this road looking for birds. Scientists know that studying something changes it. Even if they were collecting data for eBird, they are changing the behaviour of the birds.

Even in educated groups, people are stupid. Imagine large groups on owl road, an area replanted by the landowners to encourage the birds. I had a research question: how many are visiting each weekend?

How many tour leaders are visiting these locations?

RED are weekends

I did some research from Ontario Field Ornithologists   eBird reports, as well as MeetUps.com, as well as other birding tour guides.

For January I managed to determine that there were 67 reports. Islanders report up to 100 birders on a weekend. This is the tip of the iceberg.

I think that this area should be regulated. Someone needs to collect some data and figure out who is going there. Some sort of sign-in.

Code of Ethics - Ontario Field Ornithologists 

And this, specifically, for Owl Woods:

Amherst Island - Owl Woods - New Rules (2010)
"These days, it is not uncommon to have well over 100 people visit the Woods on
a weekend day. "

• The reserve is open only from sunrise to one hour before sunset.
• Do not spend more then two hours in the reserve per day.
• Absolutely no dogs are allowed.
• Keep a minimum distance of five metres from owls. 
•  Be silent; speak in whispers. 
•  Do not linger in front of an owl more than a couple of minutes. 
•  If you cause an owl to fly, do not pursue it. 
•  Do not bait owls with rodents. 
•  No flash photography allowed. 
•  No sound devices allowed. 
•  Do not remove branches or vegetation. 
•  Stay on the existing trails. 
• Persons entering roped-off areas will be prosecuted. 
•  Report harassment of owls to 1-877-TIPS-MNR (847-7667).

Many organize tours:

Org. Tours	Fees	Acronym	Group
✔	$40- 75	AWA	Always An Adventure
✔		OFO	Ontario Field Ornithologists		Caps at 20
✔	$500	FL	Fred Lemire
✔			Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory
data submission		eBird	eBird Sightings on Amherst
✔	$40 - 70	EOB	Eastern Ontario Birding		Caps at 12
		Proj. Snow	Project Snowstorm		transmitters
✔	$279		Toronto Nature Lovers		9

 Ontario Field Ornithologists 

Ontario Field Ornithologists are collecting data
They don't appear to charge for the trips

Eastern Ontario Birding 

-posts trip reports:

Friday, December 29: *Owls on Amherst Island Trip Report (6 participants)
Saturday, January 20: Wolfe Island & Kingston Trip Report
Sunday, January 21: *Amherst Island & Kingston Trip Report
Sunday, February 4: *Amherst Island Trip Report , another trip planned.

Protect Amherst Isl - protesting the wind farm

Great Grey Owl baited by photographer

The barred owl we found on the highway.
Hit by a car when it was hunting mice.

There are many bird lovers who complain about cats. There are many bird lovers who complain about humans, too. With the owl irruption from the north, professional and semi-professional photographers (not necessarily 'birders', since they are behaving unethically), are out preying on the owls. Birders, bless their hearts, are unafraid of speaking out on behalf of their birds.


Ethical birders keep their distance, set up, take a few photos, bracketing their shots, and leave the bird in peace. They refrain from acting like a human (making noise to attract its attention, baiting it, using noisemakers, using a flash). These owls are having a tough enough time as it is without citiots standing out in the fields trying to exploit these owls.

Now, serious birders have a website, with a listserv that informs members about hot spots for birds. Perhaps, it is a bad thing. This guy showed up, with his cooler full of white mice, and set up across the street. This meant that the owl would have to fly across the road, and risk getting hit by a car (fairly common), while he got his photo.

Toronto Street posted this story. Unfortunately, the vulgar ads beside means you may not want to read the entire article! I'm just sayin'. It's not a website for THIS grandmother!

"Birders posted his behaviour on the popular OntBirds board, trigering outrage amongst many."

Great Grey Owl baited by photog in Brooklin

WWW.TORONTOSTREETBEAT.COM

Today, while watching a beautiful Great Gray Owl in Brooklin along with many other birders and photographers, an individual showed up with a cooler full of mice.