I've come to this thread late and read the whole lot in one go. Fascinating. I have a few comments which I hope don't condemn me to the dark side of BF.
I had never dreamed there were such humourless birders in the world - I've never met any in real life. I can't believe someone can't see the funny side of the Felixstowe Snowy Owl story.
There's only one large raptor in real trouble in England and Wales and lack of public access to its habitat (to keep an eye on bad apples and feudalists) is the major reason for the problem. I am surprised nobody has yet used the words Hen Harrier in this context. More open access is needed asap.
I don't go nest hunting, I suspect most other birders don't either. Its not really the done thing, is it? The result is that I don't know exactly where most of the large raptor nests near me are, but I do know approximately and most of them are in public access woods: some of the others are in trees in hedgerows on estates: fortunately the local estates seem to be enlightened, because during intense birding efforts I have never seen any signs of trouble.
I suppose I've done a bit of trespassing - certainly the shouted OYY! is not unknown to me - mostly in my younger days and not always while birding. However, there are vast numbers of oiks who are not birders, who do a lot more, cause a lot more damage through their carelessness or sometimes deliberate evilness, and we should maintain a sense of proportion about our own activities, surely? As for the suggestion that you can't have a law that its OK to be somewhere as long as you behave but which doesn't count if you don't, actually you will find most town centres operate that way these days, with police having powers to disperse groups of teens on street corners, prevent friends having a drink in the sun in a park and so on. Only boring shoppers are reasonably safe from official disturbance. I wouldn't have a problem with a law that gave you access to any bit of countryside without an arable crop on it but came down on you like a ton of bricks for crop destruction or littering or for that matter having a dog not under control (this does NOT mean on a lead, just properly trained).
Its also not rocket science to differentiate between open country and somebody's back yard, garden or house, and its nonsense to pretend it is. As for birding in housing estates, I'll offer a story of my own for perspective.
A number of years ago about thirty birders wer watching a juvenile Rose-coloured Starling in a housing estate in Andover, sitting on a terraced house roof. An irate householder came out, big bloke, and threatened dreadful things if we kept watching his wife getting dressed.
We assured him nothing was further from our minds and when he didn't calm down at once, pointed out there was one of him and many of us. He went back in, we continued watching the bird and waiting for it to drop down so we could get some snaps. Afte half an hour the chap and his wife came out, got into their car and set off, and boy were we grateful for his warning then - she was mirror-cracking ugly and fat with it. If we'd seen that en deshabille by accident.... it didn't bear thinking about.
John
