snakeroot

Greg can't find your article "Birds of prey as limiting factors of gamebird populations in Europe: a review, Biological Reviews (Cambridge) 80(2): 171 (May 05)".

If you send a link, I'll read it, but again it doesn't really seem relevant to the question at hand. I can send you some irrelevant articles too, but the question at hand is that does anyone have hard evidence that feeding raptors causes harm?

Maybe attracting more hawks to the area might result in predation of songbirds at my other feeders. Maybe. I assume that's what that article says, but again, what is the evidence and how did they back it up? How was the data garthered? Any double blinding of the data? Is it believable?

Where are the articles showing harm to raptors?

My opinion is as good as yours and irrelevant links don't support your case.

These links are unrelated to the question at hand. Two questions:

1. Evidence that feeding raptors cause harm.

2. Evidence of retinal damage in mementary exposure to the sun through tracking soaring hawks with a telephoto lens. I say unless you are an idiot and stare at the sun, your reflexes should protect you.

You sent links on conjunctivitis in finches from bird feeders, and laypersons articles about to make sure to clean out your bird feeders. I don't think that's quite relevant to the question at hand.

The visual stuff is again from agencies that say it's not a good idea to stare at the sun directly for extended periods or watch eclipses. There is one layperson's opinion of "instant" damage thru a telescope. I need case reports and hard evidence and I told you will do my own literature search. On the subject. I repeat, never seen it and never heard of it in 20 years of clinical practice. It's your opinion and reminiscent of the LSD scare in the 60's of the professor and his students going blind while high on LSD staring at the sun. It just didn't happen, and I serious doubt accidental momentary exposure throug a telephoto lens causes instant retinal damage. The sky might fall on you and hurt you though.

It's like the tobacco company claims in the 1960's. Citing a whole bunch of irrelevent and unverifiable claims to back up their assertion that cigarette smoke doesn't cause cancer.

You continue to blow a lot of hot air and it ain't making you soar.

Thanks Jim for the suggestion. I think the Pocketwizard MultiMAX is a reasonable choice for my purposes. I know of several osprey nests that be will active soon in my immediate area and need to set up a remote camera station with flash capability at night with my 500/f4 and 1.4x, mabye just the 500 and get outta Dodge. I plan to sit in a blind 500 yards away to not disturb the birds, and document egg to fledgling and first flight stills. I have blind building and perch construction on my agenda for next week.

My goal is not to disrupt the rearing process in any way, but to get some exposures that might cause the elitists on this site to remove their watermarks. Give me some time to learn and do this mehtod. Lack of disruption of the birds will be key.

I need to set up some things prior to spring mating and birthing, but I think the Pocketwizard might be invaluable in terms of image capture without human presence. I may set feeding stations well removed from the nest.

The obvious advantage of this whole thing being wireless speaks for itself, and the reason I've stopped looking at extension cords. As they say "We have the technology" and will get whatever else is needed for a successful series. I am very interested in quad channel utility and rear curtain displays. I am investing heavily into this sideline, as I see it a challenge for learning and execution.

As one member pompously chided once, I have "infinite knowlege of everything", but balderdash. I'm just trying to get some pictures to complete commercially. Don't need the $$ but have the motivation. I want to compete in commercial nature photography for the sake of competing. I want to share my work commercially and perhaps find a sideline career.

Watch for details. I'm looking for bald eagle nests, bear dens and whitetail births. I'm a very experience woodsmand, and look forward to the pockewizards for the hunt.

Regards, Mike

Thanks for you response.

A lot fewer hungry raptors.

My finches love the thistle, what's the difference?

An excerpt from an article on eagle feeding in Alaska:

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/7312170p-7223904c.html

"Biologists generally frown on feeding healthy populations of wild animals. But there is little documented proof of harm from the practice, other than the occasional eagle that gets drowned or electrocuted, they say."

It's just like the retina burn issue with telephoto lenses Mark. Look at the science. Evidence base your opinions and they will hold stronger meaning. I see nothing stated in the negative responses on this thread regarding my proposal other than opinions. No facts. Zippo.

And even though I don't have the infinite wisdom that you chide, my opinion happens to be just as good as yours or anybody else in this world. And I think it's ok on a small individual scale to feed raptors if it helps me in my photography and does no harm.

I understand from searches on this site and Pocketwizard's support

forum that the Paramount cable, (PW-MHSF1), available at

www.paramountcords.com is just about the only cable that will attach

the male hot shoe of the 580EX to a Pocketwizard receiver. I have a

very simple question, should I order that cable to fit a male

shoe "with a shoe mount and 1/4 20 screw" or "no shoe mount"? If

anyone has any experience with this setup I would be grateful for

advice.

I assume the connection on the bottom of the 580EX is male, the cable

end is female (see photo). I don't think I have a shoe mount/screw,

unless they mean that black plastic wheel to tighten the mount to the

camera?

I bought two MultiMAX's today with the proper pre-trigger motor cord

to keep my 1Ds awake, but am confused by the 580EX flash connection.

My primary use of the MultiMAX will be to trigger my camera remotely,

through the pc connection, occasionally with an ST-E2 and slaved

580's or similar setup. I would like to have the option of

triggering a 580 remotely using a MultiMAX connection, but don't know

which option to order on that cord.

geez lotsa words for a simple question<div></div>

One example of my use below. I have two circular polarizers. One 77mm for my 24-105 f/4 and 70-200 f/2.8 (ring adapters are needed for one), and the other for my 500mm f/4.

Still experimenting with them, but I like them!<div></div>

What am I doing wrong?

Tried to post a 19kb photo, but it still shows up as a link.

I've opted for the PocketWizard MultiMAX units. I'm not very good at soldering, and if you multiply 10 extension cords at $73 each, well...the wireless route is cheaper. Probably a lot easier too.

Watch out raptors!

Lot's of road kill here in Maine, too, excellent idea. I'll keep gloves in my pickup look for fresh road kill. To set up with my bazooka.

Ice fishermen in Maine will throw trash fish on the ice, and friends have told me about seeing eagles visit very close to their shacks to get these fish. That's another option for bald eagles, at least in winter.

I have one Canon Extension Cord ET-1000N3 for the TC-80N3, which is

33 feet long. Anyone aware of how many extension cords can be strung

together for remote operation? I assume there's a limit, but 9 or 10

would be a nice distance for wildlife photography.

I guess another option would be the pocketwizard system.

Don't claim to have all the answers Mark, sorry the one's I have aren't agreeable to you or others.

Google Hawk Baiting, interesting results. It seems I'm not the only one who has thought of this method, seems to be acceptable to a lot of people.

Enjoy!

Some ideas on constructing raptor perches:

http://members.tripod.com/~Tommy51/perch.html

Obviously joking with everyone, and hope you have a sense of humor here.

No live bait, just steak and some fish from the fish store.

How about baby chicks? Careless pet owners are always having litters of kittens they don't want.

The possibilities are endless!

No angry responses here, amused. Also, not illegal, and nothing to get caught about!

Righteousness and elitism: I too am a scientist, a degree in Microbiology and and advanced degree beyond that. Preaching about disease transmission and making hawks fly into windows is absurd for what I plan. Gobblygook tree hugging balderdash.

You do bring up a good point however, and live bait probably would be more effective. Black mice at the pet store are pretty cheap, hmmm...now I need to figure out a presentation method. Any suggestions?

I use the ColorVision product. It works quite well on any LCD/Plasma screen, and the difference in the display was almost palpable.

One note, my anti-adware program flagged Colorvision's installation program as spyware, but I contacted the company and they sent me a link with a d/l that worked just fine.

My monitors had more green tones than I could have imagined before calibration.

Kinda disgusting, but the deer entrails last fall were attractive to hawks.

Also, I live in the boonies, and have a small dog that seems to like to play with the coyotes out back. The nearest neighbor is 500 feet away, and the next nearest is 1/4 mile.

The feeding station I envision will be an elevated platform, well out of reach of coyotes and bear. No rotting meat either, limited portions of fresh steak cleared well before decomposition. I would assume rotten meat would harm these animals.

Interesting to recall the Attenboro documentary Greg. I remember that well now.

If I get only black vultures, great. Maine has a large population of bald eagles however, and I suspect I will be posting photos soon of many different species.

State law restricts baiting only as related to hunting. I have no intention of harming these animals, I want to photograph them again and again! (Hope it works.)

I have some time off next week, hope to post soon.

I'm of the opinion that illegal activities are just that. Too much to risk in "getting caught" for me!

I also am of the opinion that the birds don't really care whether I get their picture or not, as long as their bellies are full. Am I going to habituate a raptor to my offering of steak? Are the finches worse off for the thistle I feed them with snow covering their natural feed?

I'm not interested in repeating other's photography. I want to do my own, and part of the joy will be the method. I would be thrilled to have a raptor come in to a feed station I have devised, and even more thrilled to photograph the animal. I am thrilled with my finch pictures.

I offer the animals no harm, but wish to study them closely through photography. My immature hawk stimulated a fair amount of discussion on this forum, I seek more to learn.

I do not and will not sell my work. I do it for the joy and the chase. I suggest the righteous look within themselves, and see if they too work for the joy or some other purpose.

Will my photography stimulate more sensitivity locally to wild things? I hope so, I know it has for me. I can't imagine harming the animals I photograph, and hope to instill that feeling in others.

No copyrights on my work. Feel free to distribute anything I post. I've just started but stay tuned.

I think my methods are harmless and fair. I don't seek tricks or elitism. I seek and will share methods. This thread has helped me decide that what I plan is ethical.

Thanks again for the responses. This site has some superb photographers.

Thanks for the responses.

I checked out the ethics page at Nature Photographers (where I bought some gear recently) and don't see any red flags there. I live in the boonies in Maine, no urban threats here.

I think it's ok to do this. Also, in cases where there is ambiguity in species identification, I pledge to use steel shot (not lead) in my shotgun.

(I am joking, honest officer.)

Mark, I'm amazed that you don't use similar methods to get the stunning photos you have. You are indeed one lucky and skilled photographer.

Comon fellow photonetters, what other methods can one use? I for one agree that many photographers use similar methods to get great nature shots, and I wish they would fess up.

A black vulture flew over my house tonight, I worked a night shift last night and was too slow, but I'm gonna get that shot over bait soon.

I set up my bazooka today over a perch erected over feeders

frequented mainly by finches this time of year. Using Al Servo mode

with spot metering and good lighting, I was able to freeze finches in

various postions, (though less than 10% of shots were keepers).

The thought occurred to me that this method might be transposed to

avian predators/scavengers in terms of a perch situated over fresh

meat. I harvested one of the numerous whitetail bucks last year in

my back lot, and saw hawks frequenting the gut pile (before I got my

bazooka, so no photos).

A simple perch over bait, with the lens offset to the side with

simple cardboard barriers to channel flight might be effective. The

perch would be placed outside of the actual photo, giving the

illusion of free flight by various predatory avian species.

I'd love to get shots of black vultures and various raptors, and

think it might be possible this way.

Legal? Ethical? Any other methodology employed by photographers on

this site? Willing to share thoughts?<div></div>