Hi, apologies if this subject is covered elsewhere but I just wanted to check - is it ok to put precise location of Bee Orchids? I very luckily saw them on a nature reserve and have seen other people post about them there but not sure how “sensitive” this info is? In general, is it ok to post “rare” things if they are on nature reserves? I would never post nests and I never show precise locations of any hare sightings, but never quite sure about other things. Makes me so sad that we have to be so careful because of a horrible few.
Bee orchids are generally ‘weeds’ (of the orchid world at least)! In some areas e.g. parts of Milton keynes they are all over the grass verges and are relatively common in certain types of grassland so I would not worry about giving location of them.
However there are some other species that probably do need the location obfuscated, there is of course the button to do this when putting in the location. For a small number of species this is done automatically. People also sometimes hide the exact location for other reasons such as not wanting to show where their house is etc.
Many thanks Mike - that’s really helpful.
I think that one should err on the side of caution. E.g. I would be hesitant to give the precise location of scarce breeding birds such as Dartford warbler and nightjar. On the other hand, oddities such as the red-footed booby on the Bishop’s Rock lighthouse is probably OK as the birding information services have already put the news out and the hard-core twitchers will have ticked it off.
Thanks Ken - appreciated