Peter,
There is a Hokkien Chinese word, kiasu, which means “fear of losing or missing out”. There are,unfortunately, bird photographers on the Thai-Malaysian peninsula who have very high kiasu levels. I have seen bird photographers behaving in such a manner on the Thai-M/sia pen., that I have, at times, made me so mad that I have felt like inserting their long lenses into their alimentary tract retrogradely.
As for the playing calls for hours, I think that is desperation, not technique.
Cheers,
Carl Clifford
Sent from my iPad
On 04/06/2012, at 17:41, Peter Shute wrote:
> “Climate change > and disturbance in the park are affecting the pitta in a bad way, > photographers are the main culprits with numerous photographers and > videographers setting up hides and playing Gurney’s Pitta calls all day > long. It seems they only care about getting the perfect photo, not the > bird’s welfare! Most (not all) of the recent photos and Youtube videos have > been obtained this way. We saw one of these guys in a hide at another park > trying to get Blue Pitta photos, playing the call for hours!” > > So playing the call for hours does work? If the bird doesn’t respond for that long, is it really responding, or just happened to turn up? > > And why would someone be so desperate to get a photo? Are Gurney’s Pitta photos valuable? > > Peter Shute > > > ————————– > Sent using BlackBerry > > —– Original Message —– > From: birding-aus-bounces@lists.vicnet.net.au > To: birding-aus@vicnet.net.au ; birdswa@yahoogroups.com > Sent: Mon Jun 04 13:08:59 2012 > Subject: [Birding-Aus] Gurney’s Pitta Update – Hurry if you want to see one. > > Hi All, > > > > I have just returned from birding for 13 days in southern Thailand, with > some hard birding, due to it seems climate change according to the guides, > rain cycles totally out of sync for last year and this year affecting many > rainforest birds. 250 bird species were seen, including 6 pitta species, so > I’m happy. > > > > The info about Gurney’s Pitta at Khao Nor Chi Chi is pretty bad, so if you > want to see one you better hurry (maybe ~ 6 pittas left?). Climate change > and disturbance in the park are affecting the pitta in a bad way, > photographers are the main culprits with numerous photographers and > videographers setting up hides and playing Gurney’s Pitta calls all day > long. It seems they only care about getting the perfect photo, not the > bird’s welfare! Most (not all) of the recent photos and Youtube videos have > been obtained this way. We saw one of these guys in a hide at another park > trying to get Blue Pitta photos, playing the call for hours! > > > > We spent two days looking for the pittas with local bird guide Yotin, > finally got great views of a male and female Gurney’s for about 2 minutes, > male and female in the same view. Yotin is the pitta expert, but even he had > trouble finding any Gurney’s in the last 6 months, a number of international > birding companies missed out on seeing them! I would recommend hiring Yotin, > as he has assistants out with radios to find the pittas, otherwise you could > spend a whole week walking the overgrown and poorly signposted trails and > not see one. This was a common statement in the bird log book at the Morakot > Resort! > > > > The situation with the 2 Gurney’s Pittas we saw is not very good, as it > seems the male has paired with his daughter! The ‘official pitta rescue > project’ also hasn’t helped, by ‘illegally’ taking wild Gurney’s for > breeding, which resulted in the pittas not breeding but dying, a lot of it > due to lack of experience of the ‘researchers’. Maybe they should have tried > breeding some more common pitta species first! The Gurney’s Pitta will > probably disappear from Thailand shortly and the population found in Burma > are in hard to get to locations, so it’s best to hurry if you want to see > one. > > > > As for the birding situation in the far south near the Malaysian border, > DON’T GO. Extremists are killing people on a daily basis, with guys riding > motorbikes along forest tracks with machine guns and killing whoever they > find! Beware, there is at least one southern Thailand birding company that > doesn’t even mention the trouble down there, some just say that no tourist > has been hurt! Possibly because no tourist go there and the rebels haven’t > been able to find one to gun down or keep as a hostage? > > > > Regards, > > Richard King > > =============================== > > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, > send the message: > unsubscribe > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) > to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au > > http://birding-aus.org > =============================== > =============================== > > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, > send the message: > unsubscribe > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) > to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au > > http://birding-aus.org > =============================== ===============================
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