Urban Hawks

I was taught by my parents that when observing wildlife one should do one’s best to avoid disturbing animals.  I also learned to never actively interact with them by feeding them or making noises. 

One of my best childhood memories is a hike in Grand Teton National Park with my family.  I must have been seven or eight and had raced ahead on the trail when I saw a bear.  Knowing what to do, I quietly went back up to the trail and told my family. My father found a spot for our family to watch from a distance, and the bear and her two cubs crossed the path and wandered across a meadow for half an hour.  I can still remember how wonderful it was to watch the bears and how hard it was to stay quiet!

I’ve been disappointed to learn that some bird watching leaders don’t follow these simple rules. It seems that bird watching tours run for profit can cross ethical boundaries in order to guarantee a successful outing for their paying group.

My first experience with this was while I was a participant in a photography workshop held in Florida by Arthur Morris.  Artie compromised standard guidelines for interacting with birds, in order to provide an optimal photographic experience.  This included feeding birds with bait, and incredibly, playing Great Horned Owl recordings at a Great Blue Heron rookery.

Over the last few weeks, I have been witnessing another breach of ethics by Dr. Robert DeCandido, Ph.D. He has been giving paid Eastern Screech-Owl tours in Central Park.  Instead of studying the owls and leading the tour discreetly through the North Woods in the dark, he actively uses sound recording to manipulate the owls and bring them to a brightly lit roadway.

The owl pair in the North Woods may be the only remaining Eastern Screech-Owls in the park – a gray female from the 2001-2002 releases and a newly introduced young red-phased male.

This is their first year together and tapes, which signal an intruder, agitate them significantly. Dr. Robert DeCandido, Ph.D., a.k.a. Birding Bob, is playing tapes two to three times a week as he leads his tours.  He is doing this during their breeding season.

This Thursday night, rather than waiting for the owls to naturally fly out and wake up, Dr. Robert DeCandio, Ph.D.  played the recordings too early.  Once he had the owls he couldn’t just naturally follow them.  He had to loudly play his recording over and over again.

The recordings, which signal an intruder, are highly recommended against by the American Birding Association’s Ethics Guidelines.

What bothers me the most is that Bob usually has inexperienced birders, including children and teenagers, on his walks.  He is setting the wrong example.  It is not acceptable to manipulate wildlife while observing it for recreation.

In addition, he isn’t teaching them how to be owl watchers.  Because of the intrusive methods Birding Bob uses as an owl leader, his tour groups don’t get to witness the fantastic behaviors I’ve seen over the last few weeks, which include fishing, worm hunting, copulation and moth hunting.

So, what to do about this? I don’t know.

Complaints to Bob, by myself and others, haven’t gotten him to stop playing his recordings.

The Parks Department has clear regulations prohibiting harassment of animals in the park. But it is unlikely to respond, since Bob has co-written a paper with senior Central Park Conservancy staff members and has been invited to speak at this year’s On A Wing lectures series.

At this point, I’m just frustrated and yearn for a simpler time, when money didn’t corrupt and boys could learn how to watch bears.

It was a simple evening with the female in her standard roost, and the male coming from somewhere!  They met in their standard place, where we heard both of them.  Then they went north and upstream.  We heard her, the sounds of copulation, then her faint call from way across the stream and we lost them both.  No more endless cries from the female.

It’s hard to know what’s happening.  Is he doing better at hunting and she doesn’t feel the need to call so much?  Or are there hormones calming down and they aren’t going to nest?  Or is it just that it’s gotten cold again?  Who knows.

It was a stressful evening for both us and the owls.  Dusk brought a young Red-tailed Hawk who ate a bird in view of the female’s roost.  Needless to say, she didn’t come out of her cavity at the normal hour.

In addition to the hawk, an owl tour leader played recordings again, disturbing the owls and drawing the male from his normal wake up and preening area to a bright, street lamp lit, road. 

As usual, rather than waiting for the owls to naturally fly out and wake up, the leader played the recordings too early.  Once the leader had the owls he couldn’t just naturally follow them, he had to loudly play his recording over and over again.

The recordings, which signal an intruder, are highly recommended against by the American Birding Association’s Ethics Guidelines. 

Because of the intrusive methods of the owl leader, the group didn’t get to witness the fantastic behaviors we’ve seen over the last few weeks.  Once the tour group left, the birds settled down and began to hunt on the lawn south of the bypass road and north of the North Meadow ball fields.  There must have been some tasty worms or insects in the lawn after the rain storm.

Our female was by herself tonight, leaving the cavity by Glen Span Arch by herself.  The owls were quiet tonight with only one or two Whinny calls from the female.

Both owls then spent a great deal of time feeding at the top of a new tree near the arch.  The male left first followed after a few minutes by the female.  With her being silent, we then lost track of both of them.

With the leaves about to leaf out, and the female being quieter, we may soon loose track of these owls as it gets warm enough for them to sleep outside of a cavity.