I have put together some notes on the dire predicament evidently facing the Letter-winged Kite. This iconic species may be at risk of extinction due to increasing feral cat populations. It could be the case that dingoes are part of the solution to securing the future of the world’s sole nocturnal raptor. Birdlife Australia has published a feature on the subject in its December 2015 edition, though I’ve not yet seen the article. It is encouraging that this problem is beginning to get the attention it deserves. More here: http://sunshinecoastbirds.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/letter-winged-kite-on-brink.html Greg Roberts http://sunshinecoastbirds.blogspot.com.au/
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Back in the early nineties, the Gould League Bird Study Camp Club went to the John Hobbs Eremophila Patch. While there Bev and I met Lindsay Cupper and he spoke about the Letter-winged Kite. I remember him saying how once you used to go out to their area and you would see large numbers, but increasingly what you were finding were cats in their trees and nests. In the spotlight, the cats eyes lit the trees up “like Christmas trees”. So, the cats have been a problem for a long time. Our first sighting of the LWK was the year before Peter Waanders took the photo of the ginger cat on the nest that is in the magazine. We were back there a year later, about two weeks before Peter took his photo. We saw probably the same ginger cat on the nest, but only managed a pretty ordinary photo before it took off out of the tree and into the distance. While we did see a couple of Kites in the area, it was a sickening experience. Last year, there was a bit of a stir about feral cat control. I got responses from minister Hunt’s office and NSW NPWS, and NSW NPA at the time. I just hope that the issue is still high on the agenda of ministers and conservation authorities. This discussion and the article by Sean Dooley make it timely to do some follow-up. Peter Morgan The conservation battle is never finally won; the development battle is.
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Writing an article to raise awareness is a good start! Sent from my iPhone
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No personal reflection on anyone but when people say “nothing seems to be done” I ask “what are you doing?” ________________________________________ Sent: Friday, 1 January 2016 5:15 PM Cc: Birding Aus; Greg Roberts Thanks for highlighting this Greg. Shocking that yet another Australian bird species is slipping towards extinction, and nothing seems to be being done. Nature conservation will not be fixed by “the market”. John Leonard On 1 January 2016 at 19:35, Laurie Knight < l.knight@optusnet.com.au> wrote: — John Leonard Canberra Australia http://www.jleonard.net I want to be with the 9,999 other things.
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Thanks for highlighting this Greg. Shocking that yet another Australian bird species is slipping towards extinction, and nothing seems to be being done. Nature conservation will not be fixed by “the market”. John Leonard On 1 January 2016 at 19:35, Laurie Knight < l.knight@optusnet.com.au> wrote: — John Leonard Canberra Australia http://www.jleonard.net I want to be with the 9,999 other things.
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Hmmm, I guess it depends on which fence you sit on, but owls are definitely raptors in my book. They are certainly birds of prey and use their talons in the same fashion as the Accipitridae and Falconidae … Regards, Laurie On 1 Jan 2016, at 3:05 pm, Greg Roberts < friarbird.roberts@gmail.com> wrote:
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