After having a yak with the Scammells and with the ranger at the info
centre at Tibooburra, it is clear that it is important that birders do
the right thing when they go twitching the chestnut-breasted whiteface.
There are probably a lot of landholders who curse the day that Thomas
and Thomas visited their patch. T&T don't discuss the niceties of
getting access to private holdings and a lot of twitchers annoy the
landholders by camping and traipsing about without permission. The
ranger at Tibooburra regularly gets a earful from Wompah station, and
the lignum swamp much visited by twitchers seeking grey grasswrens is
now off-limits.
In the case of the two-gate whiteface spot, it is a privilege to have
access to a spot where it is easy to find an endemic species that is
not regularly found elsewhere. The Scammells provide access to that
site, and it was apparent to me that the vegetation in that paddock was
in much better condition than that in the neighbouring paddocks. They
make a bit of money from allowing people to stay in the shearers
quarters, but their primary focus is on pastoralism.
It is important that twitchers chasing the whiteface [or grasswrens]
don't aggravate the Scammells by not getting permission or
[particularly] camping at the T&T sites.
Personally, I think that people who see the chestnut-breasted whiteface
on their property should make a donation [of say $10] if they don't
stay in the shearers quarters - I think it is fair that the Scammells
get a bit of a return from permitting access and maintaining the
vegetation in good condition for the birds, rather than closing it off
and running more stock on it.
Regards, Laurie.
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