effects of Tape Luring (1 Viewer)

Bird_Bill said:

Something I don't use myself. Only my opinion I would be competing for the affections of a bird, the end results not as intended by nature. Had a chap give me his business card and ask that I lobby state officials for permission to stake mice to the ground, so he could photograph Barred owls. I politely declined. In another instance, I watched an adult have her kids start hurling rocks at a group of overwintering Trumpeter Swans, Canada geese, and various duck species, so the adult could capture some BIF pics. In that case, police were called. If there is a lesser evil, it's the taped calls, that's only opinion. It's something I don't do.

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wow...that's just sad that there are these types of people out bird watching. I've never seen anyone do anything harmful to birds while out and about, but I did watch a woman threaten to harm a turtle !
very strange...but then again I live in NJ.

I think tape luring can be useful for strictly educational purposes (like on a field trip for biology students), but otherwise should be banned as a possible source of additional stress. For myself, I wouldn't use it because it's a bit "unsporting", so to speak. Also, there is the possibility of fooling other people (e.g. birders, if your recordings are very good), which is not very nice either.

johnraven said:

It seems odd to me that the subject of tape luring is so sensitive. This is clear from the very guarded wording used by many above. Its pretty obvious that tape luring disturbs birds, but no more than walking thru a birds territory and scaring it. We do this all of the time whilst birding, as we are large clumsy and very very scary predators.

So isnt the answer not to tape lure rare birds, when frankly you shouldnt be in their territory in the first place, but otherwise it doesnt really matter.
john

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The point is that we shouldn't add another problem to the already existing ones. Saying that "tape luring may be problematic, but so is being there in the first place" ignores the fact that the former already implies the latter and thus invariably amounts to a higher level of disturbance.