News from other nests 2013/2014

scylla said:

Can we put FK8 on GE?

This question applies to all tracked birds, actually. I'm afraid that we cannot rely on a list of "public nests", safeguarding birds is not just that.

We have been asked to responsibly retain confidential information we might get to know and this should take precedence over any possible list. I believe this is the reason why the RSPB cannot take care of providing a list as suggested. Some examples follow, please mind that - as a non-UK resident - I cannot have detailed knowledge of places mentioned back in the thread and judge whether confidential information has been actually disclosed or not in the past.

• We might add to our ideal list a nest because there's CCTV bringing images to some visitor centre or even local pub, it was suggested. Reporting that birds returned to the nest, laid eggs, chicks hatched, fledged, etc. would be, I believe, nothing wrong. Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean that the nest is adequately protected: reporting the exact location might be inappropriate. We can report the location only if the viewing facility is (we can presume legally) clearly making it public - not if the barman tells us while handing our beer, that would be "word of mouth"
• We regularly report in the forum birds tracked by Roy Dennis. There's nothing wrong in making Roy's posts public (they are already public at his website, definitely). But if, as a pure accident, someone of us gets to know the exact coordinates of Beatrice and GreenJ/BlueXD nests (not just "Moray" and "Abernethy"), sharing them publicly would be wrong.

As we can see, there can be no list telling what nests can be appropriately reported in our posts. Everything highly depends on what is going to be reported. There might be some haze in it, true, as there's haze in every human judgment. This is where moderation by the RSPB can step in to prevent us from going off track.

Back to Scylla's question: in my opinion information disclosed by the Forestry Commission is already public and there's nothing wrong in spreading it. If the location of the nest is secret, I expect the FC having stripped sensitive data before.

Thank you, Roberto :-)

I have asked on the Tweed Valley blog if there is a publicly available KML file - but I forgot to tick "notify me of replies", dang!  I'm sure to forget to check.

To be straight honest, I did not even know about FK8 before your post. I just googled few keywords and saw pages apparently published or controlled by the Forestry Commission mentioning that everybody will be able to follow the bird on GE. I just had the time to give a quick look before going off and did not search for the KML source, though. There was also a reference to RD website, but no mention there. Maybe it still needs to be updated.

At the website I only saw maps similar to those Roy shares. They can in my understanding be safely considered public domain. The Forestry Commission is obviously a well recognized organization and can be considered a reliable source of publicly available data.

EDIT: the reference to RD website was actually for Beatrice. Still no clues if the KML for FK8 will be released to public, Google Earth is mentioned many times but it's said to be used to draw maps.

Update from Kielder and a plug for the BBC The One Show on 1 and 2 Sept, featuring Roy Dennis and the Basque Country Osprey Reintroduction Project.

Thanks jaydee. Must remember to watch those.

Thanks JAYDEE

Thank you for the link Tiger. What a shame.

I expect this should be in a specialist thread but haven't time to look for it (doing Dyfi and peregrines with videos seizing up):

A Scottish Osprey dropped in at Kielder  Nest 2 last week, details here