Excellent discussion.

A personal lesson learned is that as with written letters and e-mail, posts written in an emotional moment should be not sent until one has cooled off and allowed to think about what is about to be sent.

For those who feel my post was extreme, ridiculous, or ignoring my own practices, I offer a retraction or apology.

This winter has been exceptional with the number of snowy owls in close quarters, in places like Boundary Bay and Ocean Shores. The typical winter up here you see snowy owls but they are mostly sitting on top of telephone/hydro poles or on the ground doing nothing. If they do fly it is usually away from the source (like after being flushed). So, I would say 95% of the good flight shots here have been obtained only by a certain method. However, with the unique situation this year...so many owls in one location...and in locations where you have other predator birds in close proximity that may interact with the snowies....I am seeing for the first time good flight shots being obtained naturally or in some cases after being flushed. Although snowy owls can hunt during the day here, they are also very active at dusk. Just wondering which field guide you were referencing? SEO also can hunt during daylight hours here...mostly late afternoons.

My 60+ hours of observing/photographing the owls at Ocean Shores echos this. Not once did I see them hunting during the day, but every single morning I saw owls with blood on their talons and/or beaks. That's not to say they don't hunt during the day. Like any other predator, these owls are opportunistic and will jump on something if they have a chance.

Snowy owls are most active at dusk and dawn. That is one reason you see them sitting around during the day. They are opportunistic hunters so will be active during the day if prey makes itself available. Keep in mind, where they live there can be long periods of time (2 months or so?) where the sun doesn't set so it's pretty much daylight all the time. When they are nesting, they'll be very active during the day.

A slightly longer version of this video was posted on our local birding forum and it shows the "flusher" standing up, turning around and walking back to his tripod. As I watched it I was shocked that the guy looked very much like me with the same cap, beard and camo that I usually wear. I thought " Oh my good, everyone is going to think it was me". I half way expected to get contacted by those who know me, both birders and photographers. But I didn't.
I have visited Boundary Bay 3 or 4 times and Ocean Shores once. I have many flight shots of these owls which I got as a result of other people, mostly photographers with short lenses, bumping them. I found it best just to sit in one place and wait. You might say I took advantage of other people's ignorance and lack of ethics. I watched one guy move from one owl to the next, bumping each one to get butt shots as it flew away from him. There was another report of a photographer throwing things at an owl to make it fly. It all made me feel almost ashamed to be "another one of those big lens photographers".
All of that being said, these owls have become very tolerant of human presence and behavior. At Ocean Shores last week I witnessed no owls flushing despite hoards of birders walking the area in lines trying to locate the McKay's bunting. I found it somewhat ironic that a bunch of white feathers were found and thought to be those of the bunting, possibly preyed upon by a snowy owl.
Bob

Jeff,

I agree with you 100%. I have seen this type of behavior many times. A classic example was several years ago when a huge influx of Great Gray and Northern Hawk Owls occurred in northern Minnesota. I personally saw photographers tying pieces of fake fur on the end of a fishing line and then casting this fake fur out onto the snow to enitce the birds in close so they could get flight shots of the owls.

I see many photos, posted on NSN, where it seems all too obvious that the photographer approached and flushed birds on nest just to get a "good shot". Several months ago I started a post about this matter. If my memory is correct it concerned a flight shot of a jaeger.

The ABA code of ethics (http://www.aba.org/about/ethics.html) would be a great thing for every photographer to follow.

My own observations of the Boundary Bay snowy owls echo those made here by others, that the owls are not doing much hunting by day. At dusk, I often see them take off over the golf course which is full of voles, and before first light, they are also actively flying as they select a spot to roost. According to Sibley's field guide, "Individuals of both species (snowy and great gray owls) seen far to the south of their normal range and often starved and stressed for food, and thus active in daylight. Healthy birds are mainly nocturnal, like other owls." If my observations are correct, this suggests that the snowys at Boundary Bay are doing OK for the most part, since they are not hunting by day.

Of course, it is still important to approach them carefully so as not to flush them and make them fly.

Roberta Olenick
Vancouver, BC
www.neverspook.com

So is this a valid non-subjective analysis?

1. Opinions are that the snowy owls at Boundary Bay are not hunting much during the day.
2. Therefore, snowy owls do not need to fly during the day to hunt.
3. They might do so only for exercise or pure enjoyment.
4. There is a high volume of snowy owl flight shots taken during the day, posted here and across the web.
5. The root cause of owls flying must be for a reason other than 2. and 3.
6. This root cause must be human or human pet activity whether joggers, photographic flushers, wandering dogs, etc.
7. The owls chose this human-inclusive location. If bothered enough, they would leave. So they are probably not starving, depressed, anxious, exhausted, annoyed, puzzled, pissed off, etc.
8. Bird-in-flight shots are deemed more exciting and visually more stimulating than perched static shots.
9. Since 2. and 7. are not in sync for snowy owls, 5. must occur for successful photography.
10. The owl debates will not occur by 2016, when the estimated latest Canon and Nikon 500-600mm lenses will cost $50,000 such that all new nature photographers entering the field will photograph landscapes and large animals.

Jeff, comments on some of your points above.

pt 3. They might do so for exercise and enjoyment But of course many of them DO fly due to human disturbance, which should be avoided, of course, IMHO and yours. But I have also seen them fly due to low flying helicopters and small planes (human disturbance for sure, but not photographer humans) and also fly in response to eagles, other owls and other raptors going overhead - which does occur with some frequency, though less so than photographer-related flights. And as I say, when I most regularly see them fly is at dawn and dusk on their way to and from what appears to be night hunting.

pt 7. The opinion of a BC government endangered species expert who specializes in spotted owls and other owl species is that the Boundary Bay owls do not appear to be starving or exhausted and seem to be pretty healthy overall. They may, of course, be anxious, annoyed etc by the paparazzi that approach too closely. But in general they are remarkably tolerant of those who approach respectfully, and have become more tolerant as the season progresses.
That said, I am not at all confident whether they have many options of where else to go in the Lower Mainland that would be quite as suitable habitat as Boundary Bay. They have been coming here in successive irruption years for a long time now. So the fact they have not relocated does not suggest to me that they stay because they are not bothered by people as much as the fact that they prefer the optimal habitat even if it is infested with humans.
And I am also not sure what impact so many people trampling the habitat is having on the foreshore, especially of the soupy goop on the intertidal flats that the shorebirds slurp up (according to recent studies they are eating this slime and not probing so much for invertebrates as previously thought), as well as the delicate eel grass beds. But there is no regulation against walking on the foreshore and in fact, it is frequented by duck hunters (though these are far outnumbered by owl photographers this year).
There are regulations against harrassing wildlife, though. According to the BC government spotted owl biologist, the Ministry of Environment had planned to observe those who forced one owl to fly, warn those who forced a second owl to fly (or the same owl to fly twice) and ticket/fine those who offended a third time. However, he also said funding for the staff time this would involve is not available and so not much enforcement activity has occurred. Perhaps MOE needs to deputize some volunteer watchmen, I don’t know.
From what I have read from Bird Studies Canada and other sources, last year was a banner year for lemmings in the Arctic, so there was a bumper crop of snowy owl chicks reared in response and record numbers of those juveniles have been crowded out to winter in the south. Some years, they are starving due to lack of lemming when they fly south, but this year, I gather the irruption has more to do with there not being enough winter territories for all the young birds.

pt 8. Personally, I like static shots in good light and nice settings at least as much as yet another flight shot. But that is just me.

pt 10. If your conjecture about new photographers not owning big glass is correct, I think the situation for owls will just get worse as all those people with shorter lenses will just crowd in ever closer to get a frame-filling shot.

Roberta Olenick
Vancouver, BC
www.neverspook.com

All wild creatures and especially the prey species are prone to flight if approached too closely in a reckless fashion. I am not against the occasional bumping of a birds, but rather the repeated bumping by overzealous photographers and birders as they rush to get to the front of the line. Large crowds tend to have a detrimental effect on ones ability to produce a quality image or viewing session.
I have always found avoiding crowds is a much more enjoyable expierience for both myself and the subjects i hope to photograph. It is much better to learn about your quarry, its habits and prefered food sources. Some subjects you will have to search for and some you will wait for them to come to you. If it is necessary to approach a subject do so slowly and not directly at it. Take a few steps, pause, look around and try to become part of the environment. Fail do do this and you will be percieved to be a threat and this will induce a flight response. The best shots are always taken when the subject is calm relaxed and going about its daily routine.

Jeff, thanks for posting. This post, and the ensuing thread, raises a lot of concerns and ends up being quite the conversation. Overall, I would like to add that those commenting are doing a pretty nice job of keeping the conservation civil and I hope it stays that way.

I agree with a lot of the great points that have been raised
1) Photographers who act stupid and selfishly do create a bad name for photographers.
2) I believe we as photographers do need to hold one another accountable for our actions. There will be disagreement about ethics and controversial topics such as baiting, etc. But reacting to these situations in an emotionally hijacked state isn't likely to help the situation. If you are in the field and notice another photographer doing something that you feel is unethical, approaching that photographer very calming and stating "I feel uncomfortable when XXX happens and this is why" might actually help educate the other photographer, and if done in a respectful, not accusatory way, might make them stop their behavior. No one likes to be attacked, and people become defensive and defiant when they feel threatened. When I see this video, I think of that. I see bystander apathy. Granted the video cuts out pretty soon after the owl flies off, but picture this scene as a non-photographer birder or wildlife enthusiast. Some jerk just flushed a bird and no one else seems to care about it. So it becomes easier to do #1, assume that one photographer represents all photographers and write photographers as a whole off for being unethical and inconsiderate.
3) I don't think I know a single nature and wildlife photographer who can honestly look back over their career shooting nature subjects and not pick out a moment when they crossed the line or made a mistake. Most of us have probably flushed birds (knowingly or unknowingly, by accident or on purpose), plucked a couple blades of grass in our way, stepped off trail, or worked our way to the wrong side of a fence at one point or another. We are human, and to err is human. But the more educated we make ourselves, the more we are willing to examine and change our past, and the more we hold ourselves and one another accountable to acting ethically, in ways that respect our subjects and the environment, the better off we will all be.

Without taking sides, here is my observation regarding daytime hunting.
1. Snowy Owls hunt early morning and late afternoon when the light is still or alreday good for shooting. A typical time frame in my area; they fly out from the field at around 2 Pm and sit on a utility post or a fence post sometimes for hours and then all of a sudden they fly and hunt. Sometimes they hunt from a hay bale. If you are lucky and patient enough, you may catch a moment like this. Once I witnessed a young Snowy Owl hunting and catching a Vole or a Field Mouse right in front of me along a fence, on Amhers Island. It was midday.
2. Short-eared Owls do hunt daytime starting just before or shorthly after sunset when you still have enough light. Sometimes they start much earlier.
They are the only Owl species that hunt in group. It is amazing to watch them as they fly like giant Butterfies.
3. Barred Owls hunt any time of the day but mostly early morning and late afternoon. However I saw them hunting during bright daylight as well.
4. Great Gray Owls hunt all day after they moved down from North as a result of food shortage and they are starving. Later on they hunt early morning and late evening only.
Erruption years that occur roughly every 8-12 years ( last time 2004) will yield opportunities to observe and photograph them without disturbing them.
5. Northern Hawk Owl can hunt any time of the day especially just like the GGOW after arriving in a starving state to our area.
6. I have never seen any Northern Saw-whet Owl hunting during daytime.
7. I have only seen Boreal Owl hunting daytime once but it could have been an exception to the rule.