I recently had the enormous good fortune to see an Osprey nest, it was in an area where it had been reported in the local and possibly National news before. It thrillingly was an active nest and I would obviously never post photos of the nest itself but of the adult. However, I did wonder whether it was a good idea to post it or not and I’ve purposely waited a few weeks until the chicks are older. Also will iSpot automatically hide the location if it’s just an image of the adult bird? I was going to hide it anyway but don’t want to take any chances. It doesn’t matter to me personally if I post it or not, but it’s such a good news story and of course to see these magnificent birds is such a treat?
Luisa, I’m absolutely thrilled for you!
The question has come up before and I don’t know if the terms are the same for such nests in the “public domain” so to speak but see Terms of Use 10.1a here:
I don’t know if this is ‘your’ nest, but it’s a webcam of an ospreyest.
That’s lovely, Ospreys are doing quite well
We can see that plenty of Websites show birds at nest. I guess the idea, in iSpot, is to deter users from getting close to nesting birds just to take a photo. We sometimes get accidental encounters with nests, eggs and bats even but I still think iSpot should disallow posting, for fear of encouraging ‘opportunists’
There are two main dangers from posting nesting sites of scarce birds - the risk of disturbance from people wanting a view and that of egg-collectors. Ospreys have increased quite dramatically during my lifetime and I think and hope that egg collecting has become less popular.
It is of course illegal intentionally to disturb a Schedule 1 species (which includes Osprey) during the breeding season.
My feeling is that it is better to play safe and not disclose the exact location of a breeding bird, even if it is a photo of the adult fishing some way from the nest.
Thanks everyone - I won’t post it.
JoC, no, the nest I saw was in England.
Most people use common sense and stick to birds nesting in full view.
Here is an example.