birding-aus

Regent HE and "The Big Twitch"

To: birding-aus <>
Subject: Regent HE and "The Big Twitch"
From: Vicki Powys <>
Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 12:27:52 +1100
on 21/11/02 9:05 AM,  at
 wrote:

> Sean Dooley wrote "I raced back to get my tape player to try and call it in
> closer for a good
> video shot, but it failed to respond. ..."

>David Geering replied:
> I was more than a little disappointed to see this in Sean's posting.  Why?
> Well, I hate to think of every birder rocking up to a Regent Honeyeater
> (and any other bird for that matter) and playing tapes to it merely to get
> video footage of it.....


I too was horrified to read of playback being used, in the breeding season,
in an attempt to gain a better look at a rare and endangered species.  Any
Regent Honeyeaters breeding in Capertee Valley this year would already be
having a hard time as the valley is very drought stricken and white box
trees are dying.  In the UK there are laws protecting rare and endangered
birds; playback and interference with those species is prohibited.  As a
person who actively records birdsong, I am now reluctant to publish my
recordings knowing that their main use may be for the dreaded PLAYBACK!!
The topic of playback does need further discussion, bird clubs and groups
such as birding aus should continue to come down heavily on people who use
playback indiscriminately.

Vicki Powys
Capertee Valley NSW













There has been quite a bit on birding-aus in the
> past about this so it's a shame to have to go over old ground.  The impact
> of playing tapes to birds is not clearly known.  It DOES impact some
> species while the impact is less on others.  I imagine Sean's reference to
> the taped call "ringing through the valley" is purely poetic licence and
> not overkill.
> 
> There are a number of reasons this bird may not have responded to tape.
> The main one probably being that almost every commercial tape I have heard
> of a Regent Honeyeater is not a typical Regent call.  For some reason that
> escapes me certain tapes seem to have been used almost exclusively -
> possibly because they are "interesting" - that do sound anything like the
> more common Regent calls.
> 
> Sean also laments (I think incorrectly) that there will not be Regent
> Honeyeaters around in 30 years time.  The Regent HE Recovery Effort is
> working hard to prevent this and I think that real benefits are being seen
> in the Capertee Valley, in particular.  It strikes me that with this fear
> in mind that tapes were still played to the bird.  Sean (and I'm sorry for
> singling him out - I fear others are just as guilty) was in the Capertee
> Valley during this species breeding season - just the time when you might
> think that playing tapes to birds would have the greatest impact.
> 
> Off my soapbox.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> David
> 
> David Geering
> Regent Honeyeater Recovery Coordinator
> NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service
> P.O. Box 2111
> Dubbo  NSW  2830
> Ph: 02 6883 5335 or Freecall 1800 621 056
> Fax: 02 6884 9382
> 
> 
> 
> 
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