What an absolute tragedy. And such an overall reflection on our great nation's attitude to our wildlife. I do hope that the Queensland government's culture will change quickly to allow it to step into the shoes of Fortescue Mining should the price of iron ore fall much further.
that is a great shame; there are a number of interesting feral cat control options being discussed on birding-aus
I do not want to defend either the most recent or the new Queensland government but I undersatnd that John Young has not advised the appropriate government department of the general locality of the NP site and therefore they cannot be heald responsible for a specific targeted control prgram
I don't necessarily agree with it but I believe the rationale behind the secrecy pertaining to the actual location is to prevent 2k twitchers appearing and scouring the habitat, potentially causing undue disturbance to the birds for the sake of a 'tick'.
Also the potential for illegal trapping of the birds for black market trophy-seeking aviculturalists/ underworld figures.
Triodia sp. is pretty unpleasant stuff to tread through, though.
We don't know whether Young's birds represent a relict population or whether they aren't doing too badly somewhere in the vast interior (perhaps wishful thinking), who knows, maybe there are more Nights than Orange-bellied Parrots.
FWIW I note there was a possible sighting of a NP in the NT reported on eremaea.
I can remember years ago in a effort to protect some small native animals (bandicoot or bilby I think ) a fence was put up around their patch of bush and a count was done ,the researchers returned sometime latter and were shocked to find less than half the origanal number ,then their guide pointed up and they saw a number of cats sitting in the trees, insted of protecting them the fence had traped them in and made them easy pickings for the cats.
After much deliberation about the quickest and most humane way to slove the problem the army was brought in to shoot the cats living inside the fence ,when this was shown on the news the switchbord was jamed for more than an hour with people ringing in outraged that the cats had been shot most were more concerned about wellfare the cats than the bandicoots, sadly I don't this atttitude has changed much over the years.
I read a rumour that some twitcher was purported to have considered lighting the triodia on fire in order to flush out a NP for the sake of a tick for their life list.
I hope that's just a rumour, zosterops. However, in a society where the wants of the individual voter are so often paramount we shouldn't be surprised if it's more than a rumour.
there has been a series of emails on birding-aus; started with 1 person quoting from an email sent to him from John Young; the replies have ranged from a lynch mob mentality to the very considered 'he must have been joking'; I favour the latter as I have a sense of humour that can be easily misunderstood; and I really want to believe that no birder would make this statement seriously
the email trail included some saying that we should all put our cameras away and be totally involved in conservation work; I liked some of the replies to this as I am a lister and travel a bit to add to my list;
I had hoped they were indeed just taking the mickey.
Just to be clear I am a birder but not a twitcher (though i certainly do get a thrill out of seeing a new species, especially where unexpected, though i'm not going to drive 100s of kms for views of the latest vagrant, not do I have the means to do so) but I don't have any problem with said activity provided disturbance is minimised. Twitching records if collected and amalgamated such as on online databases do contribute valuable information for the bird distribution knowledge base.
I've also met many twitchers whom were very passionate about birds and bird conservation, and all too keen to talk about aspects of bird behaviour etc., some also being members of reveg. and bird conservation projects and the like... as well as some whom were much more list-orientated and boasted about their current life-list species count within seconds of meeting them in a seemingly ostentation display and who would appear to be much more interested in numbers than wildlife, but each to their own.
there is a John Young - Night Parrot presentation organised by Chris Watson soon in Melbourne with a small entry fee of i recall $65 (I apologise if my memory is wrong)
interestingly one recent email asked whether the story was a beat-up (my words) to further encourage attendance
You have to enjoy a story that keeps giving - the following was posted to birding-aus yesterday
Yesterday evening, i received an email from John Young. In this email Young said that the suggestion by a birder of using fire to flush Night Parrots was done “in jest”. A pity that this had not been mentioned in his original email. If I offended anyone by my words in this matter, I sincerely apologise. Hopefully this matter can be put to rest. Carl Clifford
Yes it defaults to the home page because The Australian wants me to take out an online subscription. Fair enough, but if I took an online subscription for every newspaper I browsed, I would go broke. There should be special rates for "glancers".
There was a segment on ABC TV last night, 7:30 report I think. They are keeping the find area very secret. I can understand their concern for a bird that has been presumed extinct for so long.
I guess the birds would be easy quarry for feral cats.
Not all that secret, I would have thought, Night Parrot. There were a number of shots of the terrain in which the Night Parrot has allegedly been found. With modern technology showing them the way I can easily imagine the Earth wreckers gearing up to catch as many Night Parrots (present company excluded) as they can. I would have preferred the ABC to have not shown those shots on 7.30 last night & I fear that the national broadcaster is leading the way for an invasion of all other TV stations et al to invade the area.
What an absolute tragedy. And such an overall reflection on our great nation's attitude to our wildlife. I do hope that the Queensland government's culture will change quickly to allow it to step into the shoes of Fortescue Mining should the price of iron ore fall much further.
that is a great shame; there are a number of interesting feral cat control options being discussed on birding-aus
I do not want to defend either the most recent or the new Queensland government but I undersatnd that John Young has not advised the appropriate government department of the general locality of the NP site and therefore they cannot be heald responsible for a specific targeted control prgram
Peter
I don't necessarily agree with it but I believe the rationale behind the secrecy pertaining to the actual location is to prevent 2k twitchers appearing and scouring the habitat, potentially causing undue disturbance to the birds for the sake of a 'tick'.
Also the potential for illegal trapping of the birds for black market trophy-seeking aviculturalists/ underworld figures.
Triodia sp. is pretty unpleasant stuff to tread through, though.
We don't know whether Young's birds represent a relict population or whether they aren't doing too badly somewhere in the vast interior (perhaps wishful thinking), who knows, maybe there are more Nights than Orange-bellied Parrots.
FWIW I note there was a possible sighting of a NP in the NT reported on eremaea.
I can remember years ago in a effort to protect some small native animals (bandicoot or bilby I think ) a fence was put up around their patch of bush and a count was done ,the researchers returned sometime latter and were shocked to find less than half the origanal number ,then their guide pointed up and they saw a number of cats sitting in the trees, insted of protecting them the fence had traped them in and made them easy pickings for the cats.
After much deliberation about the quickest and most humane way to slove the problem the army was brought in to shoot the cats living inside the fence ,when this was shown on the news the switchbord was jamed for more than an hour with people ringing in outraged that the cats had been shot most were more concerned about wellfare the cats than the bandicoots, sadly I don't this atttitude has changed much over the years.
Great to learn that the Army was protecting Australia. Those ringing the switchboard to complain may need investigation as potential alien threats.
I read a rumour that some twitcher was purported to have considered lighting the triodia on fire in order to flush out a NP for the sake of a tick for their life list.
I hope that's just a rumour, zosterops. However, in a society where the wants of the individual voter are so often paramount we shouldn't be surprised if it's more than a rumour.
there has been a series of emails on birding-aus; started with 1 person quoting from an email sent to him from John Young; the replies have ranged from a lynch mob mentality to the very considered 'he must have been joking'; I favour the latter as I have a sense of humour that can be easily misunderstood; and I really want to believe that no birder would make this statement seriously
the email trail included some saying that we should all put our cameras away and be totally involved in conservation work; I liked some of the replies to this as I am a lister and travel a bit to add to my list;
if you want to read http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/birding-aus/2015-02/msg00232.html
Peter
I had hoped they were indeed just taking the mickey.
Just to be clear I am a birder but not a twitcher (though i certainly do get a thrill out of seeing a new species, especially where unexpected, though i'm not going to drive 100s of kms for views of the latest vagrant, not do I have the means to do so) but I don't have any problem with said activity provided disturbance is minimised. Twitching records if collected and amalgamated such as on online databases do contribute valuable information for the bird distribution knowledge base.
I've also met many twitchers whom were very passionate about birds and bird conservation, and all too keen to talk about aspects of bird behaviour etc., some also being members of reveg. and bird conservation projects and the like... as well as some whom were much more list-orientated and boasted about their current life-list species count within seconds of meeting them in a seemingly ostentation display and who would appear to be much more interested in numbers than wildlife, but each to their own.
there is a John Young - Night Parrot presentation organised by Chris Watson soon in Melbourne with a small entry fee of i recall $65 (I apologise if my memory is wrong)
interestingly one recent email asked whether the story was a beat-up (my words) to further encourage attendance
Peter
You have to enjoy a story that keeps giving - the following was posted to birding-aus yesterday
Yesterday evening, i received an email from John Young. In this email Young said that the suggestion by a birder of using fire to flush Night Parrots was done “in jest”. A pity that this had not been mentioned in his original email. If I offended anyone by my words in this matter, I sincerely apologise. Hopefully this matter can be put to rest. Carl Clifford
Peter
Whew! I hope the jest didn't inspire a group of anti-Night Parroters to set the landscape alight.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/looking-for-a-night-parrot-in-a-haystack-found-one/story-e6frg6nf-1227476639242
NP, the link defaults back to the home page. I googled "looking for a night parrot in a haystack" and it came up.
thanks
Ipswich Shire Eastern flanks
Yes it defaults to the home page because The Australian wants me to take out an online subscription. Fair enough, but if I took an online subscription for every newspaper I browsed, I would go broke. There should be special rates for "glancers".
There was a segment on ABC TV last night, 7:30 report I think. They are keeping the find area very secret. I can understand their concern for a bird that has been presumed extinct for so long.
I guess the birds would be easy quarry for feral cats.
Not all that secret, I would have thought, Night Parrot. There were a number of shots of the terrain in which the Night Parrot has allegedly been found. With modern technology showing them the way I can easily imagine the Earth wreckers gearing up to catch as many Night Parrots (present company excluded) as they can. I would have preferred the ABC to have not shown those shots on 7.30 last night & I fear that the national broadcaster is leading the way for an invasion of all other TV stations et al to invade the area.
I gather that we are now talking about the recent tag and release of a Night Parrot by Bush Heritage? http://www.bushheritage.org.au/what_we_do/species_protection/night-parrot . Hope it goes well.
Sue
An opportunity to help save the night parrot.......
http://www.bushheritage.org.au/what_we_do/protect-animals/night-parrot
Let's hope it proceeds well.