birding-aus

Re: birding-aus Nice things to do for birds

To: Hugo Phillipps <>
Subject: Re: birding-aus Nice things to do for birds
From: David McDonald <>
Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2000 21:25:17 +1100
Hugo and friends ...

Do not eradicate feral rose bushes in parks,nature reserves, rural properties,
etc., just because they are exotic weeds until the Fairy-wrens, Speckled
Warblers, etc. that use them for shelter, etc, have somewhere else to go.

Make an effort to understand and respect the position of rural landholders,
torn between trying to make a living and conserving the bush for the native
wildlife. It is not self-evident to most of them that these are compatible
goals.

BA to establish and actively promote guidelines/standards for the use of bird
call playback tapes.

BA to establish and actively promote guidelines/standards for spotlighting
birds, including maximum wattages for spotlights in various situations.

Establishing a BA and/or Australian National Code of Birding Ethics which could
incorporate the previous two points, among others.

BA to publish the long promised book on the Aust Bird Count. BA seems to have
gone silent on this. The excellent feature in the latest issue of Wingspan on
this topic is worrying as it makes no mention of the ABC book that Stephen
Ambrose always said, as Research Director of BA, would be published. The
Wingspan article has, underlying it, an unstated hint that, like the Atlas of
Strayan Birds, if we want (our) data we will have to pay for it!

All birders and friends of birders to make a special effort to eradicate the
nests, and the contents of the nests, of House Sparrows around our homes,
despite our natural revulsion at killing birds. (This species is mentioned
specifically as its nests are fairly easy to find and deal with.)

Place emphasis on research into birds in their ecological context, especially
the impacts of environmental changes on bird abundance and distribution. Do so
at the micro (small area) level as well as the macro (large area) level.

Make a greater effort to collect road killed birds and pass them on to the
CSIRO's national collection or to State/Territory museums or other authorities.

Get involved in the anti-logging/woodchipping and anti-land clearing protests.

My two-bobs worth!

David

Hugo Phillipps wrote:

> Hi everybody -
>
> I am passing on a message circulated among BA staff regarding an article
> planned for the next Wingspan (BA quarterly magazine) to challenge your
> lateral thinking capabilities:
> -------------------------------------------
>
> You may remember a while ago I sent an e-mail asking for suggestions for
> things you can do to help Aust native birds.
>
> The article is now due and I am again begging for some good suggestions, we
> are after interesting, specific examples so put on your lateral thinking
> caps and just come up with one or two.

> _______________________________________________________

David McDonald
PO Box 1355, Woden ACT 2606, Australia
Tel: +61 2 6231 8904 (h); +61 2 6249 5618 (w)
Fax: +61 2 6249 0740
E-mail:  



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