Friday 29 July 2011

Responsible, or should that be Irresponsible Behaviour?

I felt I had to contact the 'webmasters' of Fylde Bird Club recently to ask them if they thought it was a good idea to publish the exact site details of a Schedule 1 breeding bird in the area. I am not going to mention the species but I will say that they were feeding young and birders were being encouraged to twitch and photograph them. I was hoping, as a member of the club, that they would heed my advice and decide that it was reckless to do such a thing. They have chosen to completely ignore my advice, so by their actions I can only conclude that they think they know more than me and that it is absolutely fine to disturb a Schedule 1 species. A very sad state of affairs for a club that does actually do some good work for bird conservation locally (hence the reason for being a member), but they obviously think that they are above the law!

Apparently, the young have now fledged and are being fed by the adults out of the nest, but it is also an offence to disturb dependant young of a schedule 1 species.

On a more positive note I am looking forward to getting out birding and ringing this weekend and hopefully I will have something interesting to report here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I look forward hearing about your next ringing season mate

Mpho Phiri said...

Hi,
A real sad state of affairs. I hope they ultimately come to realise your concern. Keep up the good work

The Hairy Birder said...

Hello Mpho, Thanks for your posting. I too hope they come to realise my concern, but unfortunately I doubt that they will. Cheers, Seumus

Peter Fearon said...

Outrageous mate!

Imagine if one of us ringers were to publish the location of a nest site of say, a Barn Owl or a Hobby - there would be murder!

Of course, we're not so reckless to do such a thing - theoretically they could be prosecuted couldn't they?

The Hairy Birder said...

I think they could and they would have no-one other than themselves to blame.