Tim and all,
There is one other extremely important matter that has come out of the Princess Parrot situation that urgently needs to be addressed. It has come up on birding-aus on many occasions before: the divulging of nesting locations of rare birds.
On my visit to the site on 3 December I was shown 4WD tracks that led off road (really, off-track) straight to an advertised GPS location for the birds – in fact, straight to a nest tree. Those tracks were made by a person who has inquired about Princess Parrots on this site before.
I am glad to say this person was “sprung” and his vehicle photographed by someone from the NT’s Natural Resources and Environment Dept, who was studying the birds. I have seen these photographs and on his vehicle was a large ladder. Although he says he is a photographer himself, the implications and dangers should be clear to all (quite apart from the extraordinary environmental and cultural insensitivity involved). The fact that Princess Parrots are common aviary birds doesn’t mean that poachers won’t attempt to capture eggs/specimens of wild birds in an event such as this.
One other matter. Buffel grass is an environmental menace in northern Australia. It is a weed spread via soil, and is common around Alice Springs. Since almost everybody who went to see the birds would have come through Alice the potential for birders being a vector for the spread of the grass (which is otherwise uncommon in the area where the parrots were breeding) is a legitimate concern. Our vehicle was not checked for this before our entry to the area – it’s something I became aware of after the fact – and it’s something I hope the CLC will endeavour to guard against in any future trips. I think it’s fair to say, though, that there is a better chance of infestations being controlled if they know who is heading out there!
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