Nest Photography, the BTO's Nest Record Scheme & 'Cambridge Nesters'
Like many of my generation my interest in the natural world began more than 50 years ago when, as young boys growing up in the industrial north-west of England, my friends and I innocently developed an interest in searching for birds' nests and, dare I say it, egg collecting!
Just to put these boyhood activities into perspective I should explain that we operated under a number of unwritten rules such as always waiting until there were at least four eggs and never taking more than one egg from a single nest.
In any event, none of us ever had a 'collection' of more than about 10 or 12 eggs of the then relatively common birds - such as House Sparrow, Blackbird, Starling, Dunnock, Robin, Song Thrush, Crow, etc. with pride of place in my own collection being a Lapwing's egg - and, without wishing to condone or encourage egg collecting in this enlightened age, I simply cannot believe that our innocent activities had any significant or long-term damaging effect on our local birdlife.
However, these activities came to an abrupt halt when one of my young friends was tragically killed whilst trying to reach a Kestrel's nest on an electricity pylon - an incident which was enough to deter the rest of us from wanting to collect eggs ever again.
I mention this period of mis-spent youth because in those days my young friends and I would spend long days out in the fields and woods with no fears of assault/abduction by perverts to worry about nor the 'health and safety' issues involved in climbing trees, etc. and it was during this time that I first developed both a love of the countryside and the skills/fieldcraft necessary to not only find nests but also to identify and to watch birds at close range (and without binoculars!).
These skills lay dormant throughout my teenage and early-adult years and even when I became an enthusiastic birder during my mid-late 20s, nest finding was no longer of interest to me and by then egg collecting was not just a taboo subject but, and quite rightly, also a criminal activity.
Similarly, when my interest in bird and wildlife photography first started more than 30 years ago I made it a self-imposed rule not to indulge in any nest photography, for fear of causing disturbance or bringing danger to the nest site.
My feelings about nest photography changed, however, when our local Kingfisher nest site came under threat from development (without its presence even being acknowledged!) and I made it my business to do everything possible to help to protect the site. Amongst other things, this involved keeping a photo-diary of the birds' activities and consequently I had to apply to Natural England for a Schedule 1 Licence permitting me to photograph these birds at their nest site - see separate page about Schedule 1 Licensing.
In order to get such a Licence one not only has to provide character references, etc but also has to prove one's ability to take photographs at the nest and without causing disturbance by submitting 6 examples of non-Schedule 1 birds showing normal and undisturbed breeding activity at the nest.
This forced me to re-think my attitude towards nest photography and, thankfully, those nest finding skills and the fieldcraft that I'd first learned as a young boy kicked in again and enabled me to get those 6 examples and to satisfy the requirements of the Schedule 1 licence application.
Since getting my first Licence for Kingfishers I have had Barn Owls added to my Licence and have now spent hundreds of hours photographing both of these species at and around their nest sites and, by using a variety of hides and camouflage clothing, with hardly any disturbance at all to the birds.
It is a condition of holding a Schedule 1 Licence that one completes an annual nest report for Natural England and Licence holders are also encouraged to submit nest record details to the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) under their Nest Record Scheme.
The Nest Record Scheme is probably one of the best-kept secrets in UK birding, currently with some 400 recorders monitoring 30,000 nests annually. However, many of the Scheme's participants are of my generation (55+) and are themselves former boyhood nest finders/egg collectors who have since adapted their nest finding skills for the far more valuable purpose of gathering scientific data used to monitor many aspects of breeding activity.
My involvement in the Nest Record Scheme brought me into contact with Carl Barimore - the BTO's Nest Records Officer, himself an enthusiastic nester and who also lives in the Cambridge area. Carl and his BTO colleagues are rightly concerned that with the ageing profile of many of the Nest Record Scheme's participants and the reluctance of many keen birders to engage in nest finding, the continued long term nest monitoring of many species is itself under threat and the BTO is keen to rejuvenate interest in the Scheme and to attract interest from new and younger nest recorders.
Having met Carl a couple of times I agreed to participate in a new venture he was eager to pursue - the creation of a local group consisting of several of the BTO's current Nest Record Scheme recorders from the Cambridge area with the aim of sharing knowledge about nest finding, etc. and, hopefully, attracting some new recorders.
Five of us met up and 'Cambridge Nesters' was born. Each member of the group has varying birding interests and skills and we have since been out on several group field trips to visit other nest recorders within Cambridgeshire and to learn from them nest finding/monitoring skills and techniques for a number of species such as Sky Lark, Yellow Wagtail, Corn Bunting, Meadow Pipit, Eurasian Reed Warbler, Barn Owl, Stock Dove and Kestrel.
A number of sites have since been identified for group-based nest monitoring activities to take place during the 2009 breeding season and further group field trips are planned to extend our individual and collective knowledge and to learn from other active nest recorders in and around Cambridgeshire.
All of this has convinced me not only that nest finding/recording is a crucial part of the monitoring of our bird populations but also that if done carefully and properly, with sufficient knowledge of the species concerned and, as with all wildlife photography, ALWAYS putting the welfare of the subjects first, nest photography can be done in such a way as to cause neither disturbance to nor danger for the birds concerned - others will doubtless disagree but I do now have a fair amount of experience in this area.
If anyone is interested in joining Cambridge Nesters or in finding out more about the BTO's Nest Record Scheme, please feel free to contact me (via the contacts page on this site) or Carl Barimore at carl.barimore@tiscali.co.uk.
More information is also available here -
http://www.bto.org/survey/nest_records/index.htm
Jeff
Just to put these boyhood activities into perspective I should explain that we operated under a number of unwritten rules such as always waiting until there were at least four eggs and never taking more than one egg from a single nest.
In any event, none of us ever had a 'collection' of more than about 10 or 12 eggs of the then relatively common birds - such as House Sparrow, Blackbird, Starling, Dunnock, Robin, Song Thrush, Crow, etc. with pride of place in my own collection being a Lapwing's egg - and, without wishing to condone or encourage egg collecting in this enlightened age, I simply cannot believe that our innocent activities had any significant or long-term damaging effect on our local birdlife.
However, these activities came to an abrupt halt when one of my young friends was tragically killed whilst trying to reach a Kestrel's nest on an electricity pylon - an incident which was enough to deter the rest of us from wanting to collect eggs ever again.
I mention this period of mis-spent youth because in those days my young friends and I would spend long days out in the fields and woods with no fears of assault/abduction by perverts to worry about nor the 'health and safety' issues involved in climbing trees, etc. and it was during this time that I first developed both a love of the countryside and the skills/fieldcraft necessary to not only find nests but also to identify and to watch birds at close range (and without binoculars!).
These skills lay dormant throughout my teenage and early-adult years and even when I became an enthusiastic birder during my mid-late 20s, nest finding was no longer of interest to me and by then egg collecting was not just a taboo subject but, and quite rightly, also a criminal activity.
Similarly, when my interest in bird and wildlife photography first started more than 30 years ago I made it a self-imposed rule not to indulge in any nest photography, for fear of causing disturbance or bringing danger to the nest site.
My feelings about nest photography changed, however, when our local Kingfisher nest site came under threat from development (without its presence even being acknowledged!) and I made it my business to do everything possible to help to protect the site. Amongst other things, this involved keeping a photo-diary of the birds' activities and consequently I had to apply to Natural England for a Schedule 1 Licence permitting me to photograph these birds at their nest site - see separate page about Schedule 1 Licensing.
In order to get such a Licence one not only has to provide character references, etc but also has to prove one's ability to take photographs at the nest and without causing disturbance by submitting 6 examples of non-Schedule 1 birds showing normal and undisturbed breeding activity at the nest.
This forced me to re-think my attitude towards nest photography and, thankfully, those nest finding skills and the fieldcraft that I'd first learned as a young boy kicked in again and enabled me to get those 6 examples and to satisfy the requirements of the Schedule 1 licence application.
Since getting my first Licence for Kingfishers I have had Barn Owls added to my Licence and have now spent hundreds of hours photographing both of these species at and around their nest sites and, by using a variety of hides and camouflage clothing, with hardly any disturbance at all to the birds.
It is a condition of holding a Schedule 1 Licence that one completes an annual nest report for Natural England and Licence holders are also encouraged to submit nest record details to the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) under their Nest Record Scheme.
The Nest Record Scheme is probably one of the best-kept secrets in UK birding, currently with some 400 recorders monitoring 30,000 nests annually. However, many of the Scheme's participants are of my generation (55+) and are themselves former boyhood nest finders/egg collectors who have since adapted their nest finding skills for the far more valuable purpose of gathering scientific data used to monitor many aspects of breeding activity.
My involvement in the Nest Record Scheme brought me into contact with Carl Barimore - the BTO's Nest Records Officer, himself an enthusiastic nester and who also lives in the Cambridge area. Carl and his BTO colleagues are rightly concerned that with the ageing profile of many of the Nest Record Scheme's participants and the reluctance of many keen birders to engage in nest finding, the continued long term nest monitoring of many species is itself under threat and the BTO is keen to rejuvenate interest in the Scheme and to attract interest from new and younger nest recorders.
Having met Carl a couple of times I agreed to participate in a new venture he was eager to pursue - the creation of a local group consisting of several of the BTO's current Nest Record Scheme recorders from the Cambridge area with the aim of sharing knowledge about nest finding, etc. and, hopefully, attracting some new recorders.
Five of us met up and 'Cambridge Nesters' was born. Each member of the group has varying birding interests and skills and we have since been out on several group field trips to visit other nest recorders within Cambridgeshire and to learn from them nest finding/monitoring skills and techniques for a number of species such as Sky Lark, Yellow Wagtail, Corn Bunting, Meadow Pipit, Eurasian Reed Warbler, Barn Owl, Stock Dove and Kestrel.
A number of sites have since been identified for group-based nest monitoring activities to take place during the 2009 breeding season and further group field trips are planned to extend our individual and collective knowledge and to learn from other active nest recorders in and around Cambridgeshire.
All of this has convinced me not only that nest finding/recording is a crucial part of the monitoring of our bird populations but also that if done carefully and properly, with sufficient knowledge of the species concerned and, as with all wildlife photography, ALWAYS putting the welfare of the subjects first, nest photography can be done in such a way as to cause neither disturbance to nor danger for the birds concerned - others will doubtless disagree but I do now have a fair amount of experience in this area.
If anyone is interested in joining Cambridge Nesters or in finding out more about the BTO's Nest Record Scheme, please feel free to contact me (via the contacts page on this site) or Carl Barimore at carl.barimore@tiscali.co.uk.
More information is also available here -
http://www.bto.org/survey/nest_records/index.htm
Jeff
