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Regards Carla Jackett ===============================
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Hi Andrew,
I’ve noticed many times, that individual birds within a species can react very strongly to a whistle, while at other times it seems to make them go quiet.
This usually coincides with seasonal context differences. Golden Whistlers respond very well to a whistle in spring, but a calling young bird that has dispersed tends to go quiet after hearing another bird call.
It strongly suggests that such birds suppress their calling to avoid the ire of another bird sounding territorial (usually the most played call is a territorial call).
In the case you quote regarding to the Night Parrot reports – the different response to call is most likely due to difference in seasonal context, territory status, maturity of the calling bird or a combination of all these.
No doubt others will be able to suggest other reasons why this could be so.
Allan Richardson Morisset NSW
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I find birding a lot of fun, so I will go somewhere locally where a special or new bird has been seen but I won’t travel long distances or to out of the way places just to see a particular bird, other than a birding tour to see a part of the country I haven’t seen. My greatest thrill is when I go somewhere to watch and a special or new bird turns up while i am watching-what a privilege! I hope I never feel driven to disturb a threatened or endangered bird so I for one am not going to see Night Parrot. The number on our lists are entirely an ego thing and is entirely different from conservation and protection of habitat which is about putting the welfare of the bird first.
Christine Melrose 0407705140 cmelrose099@gmail.com
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Hi Simon Some tour operators do behave badly, as happened with the Red Goshawk at Mataranka. I know from experience (30 years as a birding/natural history guide) that Tourism NT promoted any operator who ran bird tours no matter how little experience they had or what they did to show clients birds. As long as they had the right permits, public liability insurance and were ‘accredited’ they were taken on board. On raising issues of bad behaviour I was accused of professional jealousy.
However, private individuals appear to be a bigger problem, as with the Goshawk, and also at Leanyer Sewage Ponds – there the manager was so upset by the behaviour of some that he threatened to have any birder found in there without a permit, arrested.
American birders involved in my PhD research sometimes mentioned a dislike of guides who disturbed birds. But again, in the opinion of respondents (who included some of the US’s top birders) private individuals were more often the problem, and in particular photographers. Interestingly the main reason given for disliking photographers was not the welfare of the birds they disturbed, but that they could prevent a birder from seeing a target species.
Conservation is not a top priority for some really serious listers (I don’t have time at the moment to dig up the research on this, but it is around). Indeed, the American Birding Association was founded by birders more interested in the activity as competition and ‘sport’.
The ABA is now promoting conservation as are many other birding organisations all over the world. Yet some birders will join an organisation that promotes conservation, and even donate to such causes. However, their desire to “collect” a target species can over-ride all sense of what’s right (and safe, in some instances). And that goes for some guides as well. One couple (again PhD respondents) reported that on a South American trip they left a guide and his other clients who spent hours bashing bushes in the hope of seeing one particular species.
Other guides or tour operators will go along with whatever their client wants. A pet hate of American respondents who were not mad keen listers was guides who bowed to the wishes of clients who would do anything to see a bird. So when training Indigenous relatives in Arnhem Land as birding/natural history guides I ran a course on how to deal with inappropriate behaviour by clients (and tour operators), and that included birders or photographers likely to pressure them to chase particular species. However, because of the difficulty some were likely to encounter dealing with such people, I excluded them as a market.
As long as there are listers with the resources and the obsession, the welfare of birds will run a poor second to the ‘list’.
Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow PO Box 71, Darwin River, NT 0841 043 8650 835
PhD candidate, SCU Vice-chair, Wildlife Tourism Australia Nominated for the Condé Nast international ecotourism award, 2004 by the American website, Earthfoot. Wildlife Adviser, BBC¹s Deadly 60¹
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Hi Denise,
Thanks for your reply. It will be interesting to see how the Night Parrot situation pans out. Your experiences are very useful information, so thank you. My concerns about call-playback were stimulated by a local (Clarence Valley, NSW) Ecologist and Birding-wildlife Guide, who is conducting call-playback and spotlighting tours for 4 Threatened species of Owl, in the middle of their breeding season. I suspect he will also suggest professional jealousy on my part, regarding that issue. Strangely, he is choosing to conduct his tours away from tourist centres such as Coffs Harbour & Yamba, closest to him, and compete with our conservation business instead! So we have no business competition other than the local birding guide, who claims to be a conservationist. Stranger than fiction!
We’re currently applying for a NSW Nat Parks Ecopass, and will be joining WTA as a part of that. I hope to be in touch with that soon.
I’ve also recently approached Birdlife Australia, to ally ourselves and provide an avenue to recruit more members, and give discounts. I’ve not heard back yet.
Hoping to hear Masked Owl fledglings soon, their nest tree is close by, and I’m looking forward to any noises coming from that direction.
Many thanks, Simon Clayton
The radio interviews left me confused. John Young mentioned recording a call at 1.5km which would suggest a call louder than an Eastern Ground Parrot but he also talks about calls being very quiet and once also loud.
He mentions calling in response to playing of a call and he mentions birds approaching with apparently agonistic behaviour after playback – suggesting a territorial response but he also suggested the reverse with playing of call suppressing activity for several days.
It would be really interesting to know what calls were played – individual recognition is possible and may affect response.
John Young suggested there were less than 200 Night Parrots left. There is a vast area of possibly suitable habitat (depending on rainfall) so I don’t understand how any estimate can be offered. The birds photographed might be the last or there might be 10000+ – unless you know something that hugely reduces the potential habitat.
None of the above is criticism – you won’t expect a radio interview to provide this sort of precise info – may more was said at the Qld museum?
Andrew ===============================
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David I totally agree with you about the kneejerk “hordes of twitchers” comments in the sense that I am constantly saddened how people throw these generalised labels at people. Even though in this country at least, twitchers are no different from any other bird watcher – they simply travel further. What a shame though that you have taken the sting out of your argument by making other sensationalist generalisations about another group of “evildoers” – bird photographers! And once again given examples not even from this country! How can you say “its not twitchers that are the problem, its photographers” and then ask people not to write in? Shifting the blame to yet another group is not going to fix anything.
Cheers David Stowe Twitcher AND Bird Photographer (if it wasn’t for Jesus I would surely be going straight to hell)
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I must have listened to a different interview with John Young this morning………. Or perhaps I read something about playback of the call somewhere else………
Doesn’t anyone understand what John Young has been saying about how the parrots reacted to the playback?
Geeeez!
Bob Inglis Sandstone Point Qld ===============================
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Hi David Having listened to John and seen his presentation – I am just beginning to get a sense of how sensitive this species is and how sensitive the habitat is, and the pressures the area is under. I am a bird watcher, ecologist and nature conservationist. I would love to see, watch and study night parrots. However, in this situation, and probably for the foreseeable future, I think that birdwatchers should not be allowed to go near the site – they should forget about getting another tick and if they really care about the parrots, they should donate towards their conservation without expecting to go and see them. With regards to publicity – I think that John and his team should be able to raise awareness without opening this precious population up to possible disturbance. I’m not sure how keeping the site safe and undisturbed while the species is studied will be counter-productive. Perhaps in the future, your dream might be realised, but that might be 5 or 10 years away!
Rob Morris
Brisbane, Australia
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Hi David,
I agree with your approach to bird conservation & tourism for sought after species. The welfare of the bird must come first, particularly with Threatened species. Good points
I think most birders are prepared to pay to view a bird, for the habitat conservation of the rare species they may see, it may well be beneficial for the species & associated ecosystems.
Unfortunately, some tourism operators do use call-playback, spotlighting and other disturbance during the breeding season of threatened species, for profit, without the welfare of the birds in mind.
As a birding tourism business, we don’t use call-playback, or spotlighting. Night vision equipment is becoming more affordable, and disturbs the fauna less, and we are having success with this viewing Masked Owls here, amongst other fauna. Hopefully any money from those prepared to pay to see Night Parrot, will support their conservation by doing it responsibly.
Cheers,
Simon Clayton
Manager
Birdrangers, Gibraltar Reserve
Cangai, NSW, 2460
http://www.birdrangers.com
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Naturally I was excited as anyone to hear of the first photos of Night Parrot; I congratulate John Young and look forward to seeing the video footage. And naturally I have a few comments:
Any notion that the public (read: birdwatchers) should be prevented from seeing NPs is bound to be counter-productive. It should be obvious that only a limited number of people would be prepared to travel to SW Qld to look for Night Parrots (which may continue to be elusive), not ‘slavering hordes of twitchers’, to paraphrase someone else on this forum. (I am always amused by the notion that any rare bird sighting in Australia will automatically trigger an invasion of ‘twitchers’. This is not the UK – birdwatchers simply do not exist in the same numbers here. The most so-called twitchers (all of them scientists or bona fide researchers, as well as birdwatchers) I have ever seen in one place was on the Strzelecki Track, shortly after the whereabouts of Chestnut-breasted Whitefaces became generally known (again, thanks to the efforts of a largely solo, dedicated birder), where a ‘horde’ of 14 people descended to look at the birds for a few minutes.) Which brings me to a fact that is still true today as it was then (more than 20 years ago) when I first started birding – public interest in birds, while increasing, is still minimal in Australia. The vast majority of the country hasn’t heard of, and probably doesn’t give two hoots about, the Night Parrot. The unfortunate corollary of this is that birders, ornithologists and bird conservations are too few to put any real pressure on politicians to allocate funding and resources for Night Parrot research or conservation. In my view, if these birds prove to be resident then the area should be managed by an organisation such as Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC), which fences some of its reserves and intensively controls feral animals. Night Parrots are already protected under state and federal legislation; government decision-making is slow and subject to available funds and political whims; and governments have already demonstrated a lack of resources and will in matters such as the extinction of the Christmas Island Pipistrelle and the recent decimation of Bilbies at Currawinya. Justifiably, birdwatchers (me included) will want to see this amazing bird for themselves. And of course Mr Young is entitled to profit by his find: the practice of paying to be shown exciting birds and other wildlife by local experts is well established around the world; I’m sure many people would be happy to pay to watch Night Parrots. Disturbance to Night Parrots has been self-regulating for decades and a few – even a few dozen – ‘twitchers’ are unlikely to cause any lasting harm if managed sensibly. But if birders are prevented from seeing the bird (and what would be the point of that?) the recent sightings will probably only cause intensified searching elsewhere, possibly with undesirable or unforeseen consequences. In further defence of the comparatively benign practice of birding, in my experience photographers have recently become a more intrusive presence at some sites than birders armed only with binoculars. With the advent of cheap digital SLRs it is easier than ever to photograph birds. However, it is just as hard as ever to obtain a good bird photo, a fact which doesn’t seem to stop both amateurs and professionals from trying. Recently, I have encountered photographers (comically attired in heavy camouflage gear) playing Gurney’s Pitta calls loudly and incessantly in Thailand (no sign of the pittas, unsurprisingly); a kindly and concerned lodge operator in India who refused to take anyone to see a den of Desert Cats because photographers constantly and blatantly ignored requests to keep their distance; and a female Snow Leopard forced to stare down the barrels of literally dozens of telephoto lenses or risk abandoning her kill at a remote valley in the Himalaya. In my experience, birdwatchers tend to look and move on; photographers continually strive for the best possible shot (even when hopelessly under-equipped and often to the detriment of the subject) and may spend hours or days in its pursuit. (Naturally there are exceptions to these generalisations but please don’t write in.) Even if there is a flurry of ‘twitchers’ wanting to see Night Parrots, interest will soon die down and the alleged ‘flood’ will quickly slow to a trickle. The birds themselves will continue to stymie the efforts of casual birders, even if the call becomes well-known (I’m betting it won’t).
Ideally John would allow other responsible people also to see the parrots, but even that won’t stop people looking anyway; it won’t prevent accidental or serendipitous discoveries of this or other populations; and the nature of the bird’s ecology will probably keep it safe for some time yet, slavering twitchers notwithstanding.
Happy trails,
David Andrew
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What a wonderful recapitulation of the experience.
Almost feels like you are there with them!
Cheers, Charles Hunter +61 402 907 577
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