More on the Bird Photo Contest... To Perch or Not to Perch... That Is the Question
Hi all,
So what do you think... Is the crow above perched? More to the point, was the crow I watched today who was hanging perfectly upside down off the suet feeder "perched"? Well, it looks like we've got a "Contest Rules Situation" brewing here...
Initially, the eBirdseed.com September '08 Bird Photography Contest rules stated "... the main subject of the picture has to be a bird perched on a feeder". Within a day of the start of the contest, I received a photo of a hummingbird just hovering while drinking at a feeder... Within hours of that picture came another showing a bird pecking at a suet cage. Then there was a shot of birds fighting over a feeder... Later still were photographs of birds on a homemade tray. Obviously, the rule needed to be sharpened.
Ok, to define "perched" at a feeder is tricky indeed. And to address that issue, I re-worded the rule slightly to, "...the main subject of the picture has to be a bird actually on or at a feeder". The idea being that the contest should consist of birds using feeders to eat.
- What about the ground feeders below the feeder? (Like the flock of turkeys that just graced our backyard...)
- Suppose someone takes a great photo of a deer snacking at a feeder... Do we accept that pic as an entry?
- What of raptors that only use nature as their feeder?
- Suppose we get a snapshot of a chickadee "snatch a seed and fly" without really perching?
So, if you look at the eBirdseed Photo Library and don't see your picture feel free to send a comment my way or email me at capecodalan@ebirdseed.com and we'll see if we can't work out a reasonable solution.
CapeCodAlan and eBirdseed.com.
eBirdseed.com photo library
