It’s been really interesting seeing everyone’s take on this, with the expected range of views, very well expressed.
Thank you to Paul & Deb for the legal stuff, not that I’ve waded through it in any greet detail, I fear my grasp on the legal finer points is every bit as vague as that of any Secretary of State. Although, while I couldn’t possibly say where the precise demarcation between essential and non-essential travel lies, I think I can still clearly see that certain things lie beyond it, which has stopped me from going anywhere at all by car for nearly two weeks now. (I haven’t even been shopping, the missus reckons she is temperamentally better suited to doing the weekly shop in the current conditions than I am, and who am I to argue.)
A certain amount has been said on responsibility, so I though I would offer my take. Responsibility is not a zero sum game. If I were to release news of a rarity then any birder turning up to it, particularly by car, is entirely responsible for his or her decision to do so. But also, I am entirely responsible for creating the circumstances for their decision to twitch. My responsibility is in no way lessened by the recognition of theirs. I’ve been birding a wee while now, been on a few twitches, met some twitchers. If I broadcast the news that there is a big rarity, and as a result 40 or 50 people turn up for it the following morning, I cannot in all honestly say “I had no idea that would happen”. A more appropriate comment would be “yeah, thought that might happen”. Whether their actions do or don’t contravene the current stipulations (they do, in my opinion), they certainly run the risk of spreading the virus. A very, very small risk, some might say, but a deadly one, and if fatalities occurred as a result of their actions that would be my fault. Their fault too, but undisputedly mine.
So how about this; someone finds a biggy on your local patch and, following the rationale outlined above, supresses it. What is your response? Disappointment for sure, probably anger, but would it be anger at the situation you were in? Or anger at the birder in question? Are rarity finders that take the tough but, in my view, responsible decision to keep news quiet going to find themselves ostracised? Trolled and abused online? Harassed and abused out in the field? This might seem melodramatic, but someone, somewhere, in the next few weeks, is going to have to make this kind of decision. If my (walking distance) local patch were a west country headland, or some east Anglian backwater, or a stretch of scrubby east coast (rather than a small dead gravel pit and flooded field corner in north east Wales) then these questions would certainly be exercising me right now.
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