There was a piece in the Guardian about the dangers of being over enthusiastic or downright obsessional about seeing or photographing plants and animals. It is an issue that crops of from time to time.
It's forty years since the last time I saw some idiot thrashing about in a bush trying to flush a rarity into the open but I still read and hear stories about misbehaviour and a couple of times a year I'll see someone and wonder what on earth they think they're doing. And I try hard not to be that person someone else is wondering about. Which is why there's often a lot of scenery and not a lot of bird in many of my photos and why there's sometimes all scenery and no bird. To my mind the welfare of the bird far outweighs the birdwatcher's desire to see it, let alone take a photo of it.
This is also why I'm sometimes cagey about what I've seen and where, or when. And why I've not gone looking for some birds that would be new to my life list despite my having a good idea where they're nesting. Hopefully I'll see them by accident some time half a mile away, and if I don't, well there's no harm done is there? I live to hope another day and they can get on with their business unmolested.
The BTO's Birdwatcher's Code summarises the do's and don'ts (pdf format).
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