Dotterels on Pendle hill

Let me first apologise for the poor photos, as for the 2nd time out of 3 I've climbed-up Pendle hill with dud batteries in my camera.
I would have helped if I hadnt wasted valuable power, taking snaps of cannon fodder Red legged partridge and this male chaffinch at Pendleside farm that let me approach to within an armslength.

(as usual, click on picture to enlarge)




































Of course the main reason for the climb (quite a struggle with my newly fixed toes) was to look for ring ouzel and dotterel.

No luck with the ouzels, but I did find a small collection of fellow birders just past the trig point, sitting down low. I guessed that they werent having a picnic and probably had some Dotts in their sights.

Now.... before my battery light started flashing low, I was having trouble even seeing all of a single dotterel because of our low angle.
Its kinda like "scruples". I've seen dotterel before. Probably, so had all the others trying to get a view. We also know that its quite a confiding bird, not too fussed by human proximity. However, not wanting to seem rude, I wandered of behind the wall to get a higher angle to get some shots. (this was the cue for the battery light to start flashing...... "b@$^*£&!")
I would never purposefully cause a bird or animal stress with noise etc and assume that most others would follow a similar etiquette. The wall gave a better angle and more cover for myself anyway.

Shortly, I was joined by 3 birders who had travelled from the Manchester area to visit Pendle hill. They wanted to share my view point (behind a 5 foot, some 30 metres from the Dotts)
They told me, they'd been told (by a fellow birder) to sit down and wait for the Dotts to approach them. They'd joined me because they could barely even see them. Doesnt really work when a bird-watcher can't.....well....."watch birds".
Well....heres the shocker! As soon as theyd left the hopeless-sitting-down-not-seeing-any-dotterels area, and joined myself behind the wall........
the guy who "told"(their words not mine) them to sit down.....then proceeded to approached the birds within 10 meters and crawls towards them with a huge SLR lense!

Now, I am familiar with the perpetrator of this "crime" and I'm sure this wasnt meant to be a hypocritical as it seemed, but it did raise a smile for me.
Personally I dont mind most birding crimes, like eating your sandwiches loudly in a hide not the Prince Harry/Hen harrier shooting type crimes.

Anyway, I'm sure M (identities have been concealed so as not to offend) has now read this and is laughing cos he now has much better Dotterel photos than me. I'm also sure that the threesome who'd travelled quite a distance for the dotts have now forgotten the incident.
Isnt it amazing that such an innocuous, non-competitive hobby such as birding can become such a political hotplate eh?






















































Anyway, jolly nice folks the Mancs were.
We discussed the Dotts, the goldies that we also saw, and the red grouse that had evaded me today.
We also got onto dodgyscoping techniques and discussed a few cameras like cheap and handy Fuji finepix A920. Easier to cart up a hill than a fully lensed SLR!
If "the Mancs" do eventually find this webpage then feel free to contact me for any other frugal Scotsman-type camera advice.
Next time you feel like getting a good look at a bird....you just go ahead on do so.
Lets face it, on August "the glorious" 12th all the country toffs will be zooming about the hill taking pot-shots at anything alive.....I hope someone tells them to sit down!