'Not so Smart' Phones

The Cetti's Warbler - Photographed Using Traditional Field Skills

There has been an unusual amount of media interest surrounding the Nature Reserve over the last week (and I’m not just talking about Phil Spencer’s visit from Location, Location, Location on Thursday the 19th). The main focus of the media frenzy has been the use of smart phones by a small minority of photographers. They are being used to lure otherwise shy and skulking birds from the undergrowth so that they put on a display for the cameras with very little need for patience or traditional field craft.

As the popularity of smart phones has increased there have been some very useful applications (apps) developed that have quickly become the modern day equivalent of a wildlife field guide. With photos, videos, illustrations and songs for almost every bird species in Europe at your fingertips, there could be no need to cart around heavy field guides again. However, there have been a number of cases on the Reserve over the last few weeks where the songs from these apps have been used for a more selfish purpose.

© The Daily Mail, 12th May 2011

Tape luring (as it is called) is very much frowned upon by birdwatchers and conservationists alike as it disrupts a bird’s natural behaviour and causes them to waste precious energy. During the spring months, male birds will be singing frantically in order to secure and defend a territory from rival birds and to attract a female to mate with. Such is the likeness of the pre-recorded bird songs on smart phone apps that even the birds are fooled and look to see off the ‘intruder’. This causes the birds a great deal of stress and regular disturbance, throughout the day in the breeding season, could potentially cause nests to fail as adult birds waste time seeing off non-existent threats - when they should be tending to their young.

One species in particular that has been targeted is the Cetti’s warbler - an uncommon species in Nottinghamshire which first bred on the Nature Reserve in 2007. This normally shy and retiring species skulks around the dense undergrowth as it patrols its large territory, stopping at various points to give deafening bursts of staccato song (usually the only indication of their presence). If you are lucky enough to actually see one, you might notice their rather nondescript appearance. Resembling a large wren they have chestnut brown upperparts with a faint pale eye stripe and pale belly – often sitting with a cocked tail.


Breaking the law

The Cetti’s warbler is one of the more recent colonists of the UK (first breeding in 1973) and therefore is included on Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) – which makes disturbing one in the breeding season a criminal offence!