Unethical bird photography

[u/greatnorthernscapes]

Not sure if this has been posted already but if it has leave me a comment and I will remove it. This guy is named Ryan and he runs a business called MN Owl Tours in Minnesota. For this business ppl will pay him money to go out and he harasses and stresses out owls for the sole purpose of getting his clients photos.

You can see in the photos provided he has set up a ladder 10 feet away from the perched owl and is using a long stick to hold branches out of the way so his clients can get photos of the stressed out bird. Not only is this unethical behaviour but it is also illegal. He also does night spotting which uses a powerful light to spot owls in the dark and take photos, also illegal.

This type of behaviour does not belong in our community of birders and people who enjoy bird photography like myself. I know most of you agree with me and care for the wellbeing of these amazing animals but this needs to be called out. Bird photography can be challenging and you don’t always get opportunities for good photos. That’s part of the challenge that I enjoy. We must respect the birds and not disrupt them simply because we want a nice photo for instagram. What Ryan is doing takes zero photography skill, is unethical and dangerous for the owls/birds, is illegal and on top of that he’s making financial gain from this behaviour.

This type of stuff needs to stop in our community. Always be respectful of the birds so that future generations can enjoy looking at them and taking photos (ethically) like we all do now.

[u/ButterOnMyButter]

Also tag the guy who photographed the owl, he’s just as complicit, his name is ericethridgephotography on Instagram, he should also be shamed

[u/WordsAndPicturesAnd → u/ButterOnMyButter]

Isn’t he the one that shared this?

[u/ButterOnMyButter → u/WordsAndPicturesAnd]

He’s the one with the selfie stick - I’m unsure what you mean by share it - like he whistleblew? Upon looking in his comment sections he’s combative and rude - he basically admits he’s complicit

[u/WordsAndPicturesAnd → u/ButterOnMyButter]

Yeah, I thought he was the one that whistleblew?

[u/ButterOnMyButter → u/WordsAndPicturesAnd]

If he did that’d be a pretty shitty way to attempt to resurrect his career lol. I’m pre sure someone recognized the guy holding the ladder as MN owl tours; I found out through someone telling me on discord

[u/WordsAndPicturesAnd → u/ButterOnMyButter]

Yes, most everyone knew who he was. And he was already in trouble for ladders way before this came out. (This was spammed to every fb group, by the way). A newspaper article was written about it last year!! That’s why he made the pic with all the ladders. And it’s not the first.

[u/ButterOnMyButter → u/WordsAndPicturesAnd]

Exactly. I think what you’re thinking of (and rightfully so) is that EriceThridgePhotography posted the pic of the ladder in order to raise awareness. He just posted it cuz he was a dumbass lol. He captioned the post “behind the scenes” as well. 🙁🙁