Spot on James. It is of course the perogative of any fee-paying member to withhold his subscription for any reason he chooses, and some people have very good reasons. However, to bring a little more sense to this debate, it is a fact that if the RSPB members stopped paying their subscriptions it would cease to function in just 6 weeks. Yes - 6 weeks! Monies are committed to conservation as soon as they are available. I have no reason to believe that NWT is any/much different, so those of you that are spouting cr*p about not paying subscription fees need to wake up and get a grip, if you want to have any reserves to visit that is.
There is no doubt that each and every conservation body needs every penny it can get and boat trips, guided walks, education days, etc, all raise badly needed funds. No, not all of its members will agree with everything it does on every single occasion, but if you think whingeing about an osprey being (accidentally) flushed by a boat is relevant in the wider picture of trying to conserve Norfolk's flora and fauna - IT IS NOT. And for the record, ospreys have oversummered several times in the past, in the Broads and in both the Yare and Wensum valleys, and possibly other places too. They may well breed in the future because there are vast areas of broadland that are inaccessible, and because they are being encouraged to by conservation bodies who are spending money erecting nest platforms.
As for the variable opening hours of various reserves - staffing and funding dictate many situations and just because a reserve opens at 10am doesn't mean the warden has been in bed until 09.45am. There is an awful lot going on behind the scenes in all conservation bodies, on all reserves, that the vast majority of visitors/birders take for granted, or have no clue about. Some of it needs to be done when visitors are not on the reserve. If anyone wants to find out more, try volunteering instead of complaining.
Much of the above is possibly the reason why Brendan Joyce doesn't have time to deal with every individual query from his membership. If you can show me a CEO who hasn't given his secretary a briefing to deal with a minor situation you will be very lucky. I will be even more lucky if I can find an active birder who hasn't accidently or inadvertently flushed a bird in his life. For all we know that boat may have approached that Osprey in the same tree several times in previous days before it decided to fly, it just happened to be seen and interpreted as 'being flushed'.
I stress that my comments are directed at no particular individual, but I hope my point is made. It is far, far, better to express our support for the conservation bodies (particularly our own county, or local group) by volunteering and paying membership fees than it is to criticise and complain about a small mistake, if indeed one has been made.