The Cult of Short Eared Owls & Social Media
My first blog post, most likely going to be an incoherent word shower, but i have thoughts and i think is worth a discussion about this subject.
So it seems that everyone these days on social media is obsessed with owls specifically short eared owls. I too love them, and enjoy photographing them. However, what is the impact of social media doing and its drive for content doing to these creatures and the local communities that live along side them?
Not a single day since the return of these beloved animals to various spots around the uk and we have been inundated on instagram with pictures (1000s) of them daily. Many posts sensationalising the “return” or “shorty season”.
So lets back up a minute, a bit about short eared owls (i’m not an expert), they are (or some are) migratory birds, in summer they spend there time in northern parts of the uk and Scandinavia. During winter they migrate south or west in the case of Scandinavia for milder climates, when vole populations are down, they arrive larger than normal qualities making there way to various wintering spots, usually between late October, before departing for summer grounds around March time. These spots are not a particular secret (any longer), i will not be sharing them with you (do your own research).
The great thing about Short Eared Owls is that they will happily hunt during the day, so naturally fellow photographers and birders want to see them, either for a tick or a picture or two, nothing wrong with that you might think, and i would say not ordinarily, but add social media into the mix and we have a problem.
The drive to post on social media, to upload content, il be honest i don’t get it, i do post, but i’m not frequent and i’m not very good at it, and i get bored of it. Others do enjoy it and obviously the interactions between like minded people, (the likes, the followers, the attention, it’s not a criticism, it’s an observation). But the constant in your face images of owls owls owls, obviously drives people to want to see owls and so how do you find them?
Before social media, you had to do your field work, you had to understand the animal, read about it, work out what habitats they like to in habit, what patterns did they adhere to? put in some effort and time to finding them, these days go to youtube, go to instagram, twitter or just download a birding app. This means that the information on where to find them is on hand and not difficult to work out. and here lies the problem, when the information is easy to obtain and there is a cultish enthusiasm of seeing something people will follow the trend.
So getting to the point (i know its taken a while), we now have 1000s people who want to see owls and have the ability to find them, so naturally they all turn up at a location and chaos ensues.
What do you mean chaos Luke? i haven’t seen any? well here’s what i have witnessed:
Poor parking, blocking access to roads
Poor behaviour
Shouting (i love a good running commentary about where the animal i can quite clearly see is) but remember it’s wildlife photography not a Taylor Swift concert.
Running about chasing animals around, trying to get closer than necessary for the shot, if you can’t get the shot with your 800mm lens your probably not gonna get it running up to it and shoving it in its faces are you?
Standing in the middle of roads, blocking traffic. (its a road, you ain’t suppose to be there)
Littering (seriously, we care for the environment right?)
Trespassing on private land. (you ain’t got permission)
Destruction of property, mostly because of parking stupidly (you know who you are)
Now i recognised that it’s a few that paint a bad picture of the many, but when one person believes its okay others follow.
The elephant i have yet to address is the welfare of the animals in question? Are they impacted by the 100s of photographers traipsing or “clogging” (if you know, you know) about trying to get a picture? does there behaviour change? Some say yes some say no.
I believe they do, hunting patterns seem to change, they might hunt at night to avoid disturbance, and certainly seem to keep there distance.
So what can we do? well here’s my thoughts:
Think about posting images and the impact of a post before hitting the upload button, avoid the trend, do something different, wait until that species has returned home for the summer?
Don’t ever post specific locations online, i include birding apps in this
When going to a location, think about how you behave, don’t follow the crowds
Understand that the best experience you will ever have is letting the wildlife come to you, learn some field craft.
Treat a location as if it was your own, leave no trace
Call out poor behaviour
Be nice to locals, you're probably gonna learn more having them onside than pissing them off.
Naturally this applies to many species of animals not just short eared owls, and i too may have be guilty in the past of joining in with these trends, but as you can see, i have been thinking about it, so while i will photograph the owls you won’t find me standing next to 30 other photographers getting the same picture and you won’t find me posting my images anytime soon.
There you have it, my thoughts, maybe you agree, maybe you don't, these are my opinions yours may differ, let’s have a discussion.