Some pictures I took recently

We would like to remind our Facebook fans to please refrain from taking or posting any photographs of bird nests that contain either eggs or chicks. In many cases, such photos are illegal under the Wildlife Acts unless taken under licence granted by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

In most cases it's impossible for us to know whether a particular photo has been taken without causing illegal disturbance to the birds, and nest photography is not something that we wish to encourage: it can lead to abandonment of nests by parents and/or to chicks leaving the nest too early, and also can make nests more obvious and vulnerable to predators. As a result, BirdWatch Ireland has a blanket policy of deleting any nest photos that are posted to our Facebook page unless we know categorically that they have been taken under licence and that there has been no negative impact on the welfare of the birds.

One exception is photos or videos taken by nestbox cameras, where the camera was in place before the birds began to nest and, therefore, where no illegal nest disturbance will have occurred. Many thanks for your understanding.