Nature Photography is Silent

Each evening after work this week I've been watching Short-eared Owls that are flying around the fields just west of Middleton Municipal Airport. It's great having such neat birds right along my way home from work and a few other enthusiastic birders to share them with. But as beautiful as these owls are, they won't attract attention like a Snowy Owl does. Nuthatch at Bootstrap Analysis has an excellent blog post about the ethics of bird photography regarding a Snowy Owl that people are flocking to see and photograph.

As far as anyone will ever know, I am the only person who will have photographed this particular Short-eared Owl. I think there's something special about that notion. Sure, I've photographed "spectator" birds before, but always in isolation after the bird's celebrity status has significantly waned (all it takes is a report of another rarity). The feeling I get from photographing "non-spectator" birds seems vastly more fulfilling than being one of the paparazzi. Actually, I wouldn't know. I have never joined a group of bird photographers. I guess I must imagine it to be.

I avoid the paparazzi photo-ops because it seems like everyone is going to walk away with pretty much the same picture of the same bird in the same lighting. It's not unlike the line of photographers you see during a football game. It's competition. True, it's not like the world necessarily needs more pictures of Short-eared Owls either, but the hobby (to me) is about an escape from noise. I don't want to be around other people when I photograph birds. I don't want to hear the sound of dozens of cameras going off every time the bird slightly shifts its posture or turns its face.

Becky and I waited weeks to see the Northern Hawk Owl at Harrington Beach State Park a few years ago. The bird was so deluged with photographers and being baited with live rodents, that one person decided to throw rocks instead of a mouse. Apparently, the curious owl swooped over to check out what the person had thrown into the snow.

Our turn finally came on a weekday we both had off from work and a Great Gray Owl had been reported in Dane County the previous evening. Becky and I figured attention would be diverted from the hawk owl and we were right - we were the only people at Harrington that afternoon near the owl. I didn't have to chase it, call it or throw anything at it.

The hawk owl, so used to people baiting it, seemed curious about us and flew right over to where we were standing. But that wasn't the reason – the bird actually found a mouse all on its own in the snow directly in front of us. I imagine a difference in watching a bird behave under a natural situation of its own creation to be so much more rewarding than having forced something to happen, but that's not what it's about for some so-called "nature" photographers.

I know these aren't the only photographs of this particular Northern Hawk Owl, but I'll always cherish the memory associated with my pictures and our one-on-one experience with nature that day. It is nature photography, isn't it?

I'll be working at the Bald Eagle Festival at Starved Rock State Park in Illinois this weekend, so there probably won't be any birding reports until next week sometime.

Addendum:

A photographer on the Wisconsin Birding Listserv wrote today, “I was privileged to spend the day with Wisconsin's most photographed bird, the Horicon Snowy. He is vast becoming like a rock star and it is fun to watch.” He added that the bird was never very far from the road and that he had spent an entire day with it.

The road is Highway 49, cutting across the top of Horicon National Wildlife Refuge. The speed limit along the highway is 55MPH, but that means some vehicles are going through at 65MPH or more. There are so many birds struck by vehicles along this highway that Horicon management places signs along the road just before the refuge displaying the seasonal death toll. There's no doubt birds are exciting and fun to watch – that's why we do this. However, I worry a little about this owl becoming a little too habituated being around people and cars all day.

Having people and cars around a hunting or roosting owls are more things they have to pay attention to, and if an owl isn't paying attention to people and/or cars, then in my opinion the bird's days are short numbered. Should this Snowy Owl become roadkill, there will be remorse and accusations. Certain photographers would defend their actions, others would point blame and some would say its death was natural.

It's true, this Snowy Owl is hunting on ground of its own choosing. Having made the long journey from the north, it is struggling to survive. It's not a performance. It's not entertainment. It is, in every sense, Tennyson's “Nature red, in tooth and claw” at work and must be respected from a distance. Just because you can closely approach a Snowy Owl without it flushing doesn't mean that you should. The lack of respect given to these hunters from the Arctic is deplorable to me.

Yes, I have photographs of Snowy Owls, but I have never spent more than 15 minutes in the presence of one while photographing it. Why anyone needs to spend an entire day around an owl escapes me. I have encouraged birders and nature photographers to admire them from a distance – that's what a spotting scope is for, right? If another photographer is in place near an owl, I won't even bother getting my camera out.

There were so many unethical photographers harassing a Snowy Owl last year along Pheasant Branch Road, I decided to monitor activity from a mile away with my scope. Any time someone got too close to the owl, I drove over and held a brief discussion concerning birding ethics. Invariably, such individuals never concede fault and make up a bunch of lame excuses and justifications as to why they need to be closer to the owl, disturb it while it's roosting or trespass on private property.

If I expressed this sentiment to the listserv, I know I would come across like a wet rag or party-pooper, but what would not be my intent. Birds are not “like a rock star ” and I think people who want to photograph birds, especially owls, should minimize the amount of time they spend around them. These wild owls are doing what they must in order to survive - with our without an audience. Give them peace, time and distance. People will say I'm wrong. They'll say I don't know anything about these owls. Perhaps so! But there's one thing I can gaurantee...my method of erring on the side of caution is the surest way to minimize any human impact on the owl.

All images © 2007 Mike McDowell