Hi everyone,

I'm an avid bird photographer from the Twin Cities of MN, so the payoff for the long winter is many nesting warblers in our state for two months. I guess I'll take what I can get.

In real life I'm a Roman Catholic priest, and my spare time is spent chasing birds. And paying off photo gear

I wanted to run a question by the group concerning etiquette and what is kosher in terms of asking other photographers who are near you about where they took shots.

Prior to Facebook, our state like many had news groups - a list would go out and anyone could post to it. This would be about sightings of birds; e.g., prothonatary warbler seen at...etc." It's still used and helpful. However with Facebook, people I would see locally would start posting photos of birds; sometimes on facebook groups. The only problem is no info was given on said bird. So it's not very helpful really, other than to the photographer who is angling for a lot of nice comments and likes. Sometimes I would in comments politely ask where the bird was shot - if it's local it's nice to know, and we aren't exactly making a lot of cash off of photographs of black and white warblers or herons.

I had "friended" a few of these photographers, and thought I was on good terms with them. However, one went off on me. I asked him about a warbler he photographed, as I saw another photographer post it and he said he could not share as this other guy took him on an outing. The photographer than went off on me, claiming he has to "defend" me and was sick of it, and was messaged by others when I would ask them about where a photo was taken, implied I was pathetic, and that he was using "tough love" to tell me "how it is" like talking to a "child." He said I needed to help him more, and all I did for him was to give him the location of a long eared owl spot, but he had done "much" more for me. In reality, most all of my photos on my website, and that I post online were not from him at all, but from the listserv when a bird was reported, or from well known spots such as the Sax Zim bog, county parks, etc. Most of the time I'm just looking to make conversation with other photographers to learn about their favorite spots to go. As a priest I don't live with anyone other than my golden retriever, so found it nice to talk to photographers who were into birds.

I was pretty annoyed, and promptly cut off communication with the guy. Inquiring to another photographer he said the person was kind of a jerk, and indeed this guy intentionally gave bad info to someone about an owl and caused them to drive 3 hours one way because he thought it would be funny.

So, to make a long story short, what is the protocol if any? Is there some unwritten rule on social media? I have my local books, there are guides I can hire, and I just want to find good birds to photograph. I know where to go for the most part, but when I see something nice it's nice to know about it. I'd hope an adult would say simply they would rather not share and Id leave it at that and not ask anymore if they really do not want to share the bird but just post it for the photo. What I had been doing was simply making a comment to ask, or if a rarer bird, say I had sent them a message in private about the bird. Many birds are around and aren't that uncommon; some are less common but pretty regular. I guess it just seems more online its becoming not about finding birds but about posting a photo, getting compliments about what a great photographer you are, and that maybe some bird photographers are worried the photo will be taken or duplicated. Yet the last time I checked a chestnut sided warbler looks like another chestnut sided warbler.

This could be a Minnesota thing too - Minnesotans are known for being very, very passive aggressive and fake nice - nice to your face, but then talking about you when you aren't around. Sad to say, but it's quite true.

I guess this situation was compounded by the fact that I thought I had a good relationship with the guy online and it was via messaging. I guess from now on it may be best to just stick to online reports and guides, and that there are too many jerks online. I never thought it was pathetic to ask about a photo - with a full time job, I only get so much time off, and the bird may or may not be there when I go, so thought it might be helpful to ask.

Thanks for any feedback on this. I look forward to posting and sharing with others in the forum.

- Paul