RSPB Musings

You know it's been a bad day when you're reduced to taking Pheasant portraits

For a number of years we have been members of the RSPB having joined to give both a stimulus to our wildlife photography and to support their conservation work. To be honest, it has only been partially successful and has had little or no effect on our photography. It’s almost impossible to get close enough to the action, even with lenses of 600mm and I truly believe the RSPB are missing a trick. So reluctantly we decided to cancel our subscription in favour of the pay as you go approach.

Last weekend we ventured up to the Lake District and planned a full day at RSPB Leighton Moss, but that has now caused us to look again at the issue. We arrived in quite a good size car park and wandered into the Visitor Centre to be met by a volunteer. We were given a rundown of what had been spotted recently, handed a map and asked if we were members. Explaining the situation, all that could be offered was the conservation card, but no facility to make my feelings known to the higher echelons of the organisation. We paid our entrance fees (£7 each, although I got away with £4.50 for being old) and set off.

At this point I should confess that there wasn’t much about all day, save for a very distant Marsh Harrier in a tree, but we’re used to that with wildlife togging. The day was partially saved in late afternoon, but more of that later.

After a couple of hours, it began to dawn on us that we could have saved ourselves the entrance fees and accessed the reserve for free. We could even have used the reserve car park. The locals obviously know this and take advantage, why wouldn’t they, but we were somewhat miffed. The issue is though, the locals aren’t doing anything wrong. They merely walk about 100m down a bridleway off the main road and they’re in the reserve. All of the hides, even the visitor centre and its facilities, are accessible.

There are two more hides attached to the reserve, about a mile away and these are freely open to anyone. It was here our day was rescued as they overlooked a scrape where there were six Spoonbills and plenty of nesting Avocets relatively close.

When we got home I researched the subject a little more and found this is a common situation. In the past year we have visited RSPBs Minsmere, Bempton Cliffs and Lakenheath Fen, among others. The situation is the same at them all, a public footpath or bridleway enables free access to those who know about it.

So what is the answer? In truth I don’t know, but from a photographer’s point of view I question whether the RSPB want to know. The admission situation is difficult for them, they can’t restrict access to public rights of way crossing reserves and clearly the money they raise is significant. But I feel they are missing a huge opportunity. The reserves are fine if you are a birder and just want to use your binoculars and spotting scopes to look at the birds. For us togs, they aren’t so good. A quick look around would show them the advent of digital photography has led to an explosion in the number of people wanting to photograph wildlife. One only has to look at the number of private hides being set up around the country and the sums of money we are willing to pay to use them. If only the RSPB would embrace that and the needs of togs in general, another revenue stream would be available to them and no doubt prove very lucrative.