Hi All,
For those of you who are questioning the sighting of the Black-throated Finch on Bimblebox Nature Refuge, please note that a concerted effort has been made by BirdLife Southern Queensland to locate this species there. Three observers (of which I was one) visited the property in November 2011 to follow up the report by Maureen Cooper and actually heard the finch on 2 occasions (about 40 minutes apart) – the call was immediately confirmed with the Morecombe App. This “hearing” observation was disallowed by BirdLife Australia as it is such a rare species – a big disappointment to the people involved.
However, a team of 17 observers has just been to area and those of us not fortunate enough to have participated this time, are awaiting the results. There have been some sightings (even photographs) from areas further north, so once all the participants have returned home, some general results should be able to be given.
Despite the presence or not of this bird at Bimblebox, all birders should be supporting the effort to save this Nature Refuge – it is a truly awesome place and is a wildlife haven set amongst many many kilometres of cleared grazing country. It has been a Nature Refuge since 2001 and to open cut mine 50% of it would truly be deplorable.
Cheers,
Sandra Gallienne
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My request for information is for the purpose of collecting accurate information about this issue after hearing a late night radio commentary suggesting Black-throated Finches at Brimblebox were captive birds released by activists to support protection of an otherwise 5th rate area of flogged out pastoral habitat. There was no suggestion in the commentary that I heard questioning the accuracy of the Black-throated Finch sighting, only that the birds seen were not originally wild birds.
If such tactics are found to be true, it will put shame on all other credible conservation campaigns and that alarms me.
Regards
Ian
St Helens 0428337956
Graeme Gallienne wrote:
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