birding-aus

birding-aus Digest, Vol 84, Issue 41

To: <>
Subject: birding-aus Digest, Vol 84, Issue 41
From: Debbie Lustig <>
Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2013 11:02:02 +1100
Hi again
I've spoken to Laurie (Levy) about this. We would really appreciate if you
contact the police during the daytime hours and say what you've heard. We
were told they don't work at 5 am.
Kind regards,
Debbie

-----Original Message-----
From: 
 On Behalf Of

Sent: Friday, 29 March 2013 12:00 PM
To: 
Subject: birding-aus Digest, Vol 84, Issue 41

Send birding-aus mailing list submissions to
        

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
        http://lists.vicnet.net.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
        

You can reach the person managing the list at
        

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than
"Re: Contents of birding-aus digest..."


Today's Topics:

   1. Re: Freckled Ducks, Hunting and the Bigger Picture (Carl Clifford)
   2. Port Stephens Pelagic Trip Report - Sat 23rd March        2013
      (Mick Roderick)
   3. Port Stephens Pelagic Trip Report - Sun 24th March        2013
      (Mick Roderick)
   4. Re: breaches of ducking shooting regulations
      
   5. Re: Shooters (Dave Torr)
   6. Re: Shooters (Allan Richardson)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:52:54 +1100
From: Carl Clifford <>
To: Dave Torr <>
Cc: Birding-aus <>
Subject: Freckled Ducks, Hunting and the Bigger
        Picture
Message-ID: <>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=us-ascii

Yep, and Game Council inspectors and other authorities will not be able to
enter any such properties, unless they gain prior permission from the
landholder.


On 28/03/2013, at 16:18, Dave Torr <> wrote:

> What a surprise! And being private who will know what goes on!
> 
> On 28 March 2013 16:17, Carl Clifford <> wrote:
>> Dave,
>> 
>> There are plans to allow duck shooting in NSW, on private wetlands.
>> 
>> Carl Clifford
>> 
>> On 28/03/2013, at 13:37, Dave Torr <> wrote:
>> 
>> > True - all depends on local politics. Although of course in NSW 
>> > seems you can shoot almost anything now so long as it is in a National
Park!
>> >
>> > On 28 March 2013 13:27, John Leonard <> wrote:
>> >
>> >> This disparity doesn't explain how duck shooting got banned in 
>> >> various states other than Victoria.
>> >>
>> >> John Leonard
>> > ===============================
>> >
>> > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message:
>> > unsubscribe
>> > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
>> > to: 
>> >
>> > http://birding-aus.org
>> > ===============================
> 


------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2013 03:49:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mick Roderick <>
To: Birding Aus <>
Subject: Port Stephens Pelagic Trip Report - Sat 23rd
        March   2013
Message-ID:
        <>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Port
Stephens Pelagic Trip Report ? Sat 23rd March 2013 ?
Boat:
M.V.Argonaut, skippered by Ray Horsefield ?
OBSERVERS
Ann
Lindsey, Norm and June Harris, Michael Kearns, Dick Jenkin, Mike Kuhl,
Trevor Murray, John Cockerell, Shaun Corry, Lorna Mee, Jim Smart, Adam
Fawcett, Steve Roderick and Mick Roderick (organiser). 
?
CONDITIONS
Following
consecutive cancellations, conditions were probably ?too good? for the March
double-header weekend. Whilst a stiff northerly was forecast (and seas to 3m
by BOM), it was Willyweather who once again got it right, and there was
barely a breath of wind as we left the heads. For the entire day the
combined sea and swell was <1m. Winds were gentle for the most part,
generally from the south, picking up in short bursts out at the shelf to
just under 10 knots. 
?
HIGHLIGHTS
You
know it?s a quiet day when the highlight is a Bar-tailed Godwit! But read on
and it will be easy to see why. 
?
SUMMARY
Departed
Nelson Bay Public Wharf at 0705 returning at 1645.
?
Some
large feeding flocks of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters were encountered just
beyond Boondelbah Island and we picked up a handful of customers from these.
But soon enough some Fleshy-footed Shearwaters started arriving and for the
remainder of the day (until we returned back to greet the inshore feeding
birds again), this was the most common bird around the boat, in contrast to
most of the season where we struggled to find Fleshies. A Wilson?s
Storm-petrel was seen about 5nm out and a few Pomarine Jaegers joined the
Fleshies for the trip out. 
?
We
cut the motors at 32 55.893 / 152 35.742 and drifted south. The oily rag
went overboard and it wasn?t long before double-figures of Wilson?s Stormies
were dancing around in the slick. An occasional Fluttering Shearwater, and 2
Hutton?s Shearwaters provided some excitement as the only ?flashes of white?
seen at the shelf. 
?
But
overall, it was by far the most quiet day we have had off Port Stephens and
at one point I took to the bow and scanned the horizon for about 15 minutes.
During that time I did not see a single bird flying apart from the birds we
had around the stern. Quite literally, apart from the Wilson?s Stormies the
only birds we had around the boat were birds that we brought with us! I had
noticed that the water colour was a green colour, completely different to
the deep, cobalt blue that you can see the sun?s rays penetrate to metres
below the surface. This, combined with the general lack of wind may have
accounted for why we saw so few birds. 
?
The
most excitement occurred when an unusual looking bird flew from the west,
heading south-east. It threw all of us that got brief views and it wasn?t
until Michael Kearns checked the rear of his camera that we realised it was
a Bar-tailed Godwit! 
?
After
a couple of hours I wondered if we could possibly not see a Pterodroma of
any sort for the day. This was indeed to be the case and a decision was made
to head back to the inshore feeding flocks to look for a ?different? type of
Shearwater. We did this and despite finding a reasonable number of ?brown?
birds we could only add a few Short-tailed Shearwaters, Crested Tern and a
Little Penguin to the day?s list. 
?
?
Cheers,
Mick
Roderick
?
BIRDS
?
Species:
Total (maximum number visible from the boat at one time) ?
Wilson?s
Storm-petrel: 30 (22)
?
Fluttering
Shearwater: 20 (4)
?
Hutton?s
Shearwater: 3 (1)
?
Fluttering-type
Shearwater: 20
?
Wedge-tailed
Shearwater: 550 (500)
?
Flesh-footed
Shearwater: 70 (30)
?
Short-tailed
Shearwater: 3 (1)
?
Little
Penguin: 1
?
Australasian
Gannet: 2 (1)
?
Crested
Tern: 3 (2)
?
Arctic
Jaeger: 6 (2)
?
Pomarine
Jaeger: 20 (13)
?
Silver
Gull: 4 (4)
?
Bar-tailed
Godwit: 1
?
MAMMALS
?
Risso?s
Dolphin: 30
?
Oceanic
Bottlenose Dolphin: 10

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2013 03:52:10 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mick Roderick <>
To: Birding Aus <>
Subject: Port Stephens Pelagic Trip Report - Sun 24th
        March   2013
Message-ID:
        <>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Port
Stephens Pelagic Trip Report ? Sun 24th March 2013 ?
Boat:
M.V.Argonaut, skippered by Ray Horsefield ?
OBSERVERS
Craig
Anderson, Allan Richardson, Dan Williams, Mike Newman, Steve Edwards, David
Mitford, Darryl Eggins, Norm and June Harris, Narelle Smith, Michael Kearns,
Dick Jenkin, Steve Roderick and Mick Roderick (organiser). 
?
CONDITIONS
Even
calmer than the day before, the combined sea and swell today was negligible,
owing to the almost complete lack of wind. At one point we were motoring
across a glassy sea that looked like a millpond at dawn. 
?
HIGHLIGHTS
The
avian highlight was a Buller?s Shearwater seen inshore in the late
afternoon, but the overall highlights went to the Cetaceans, with Pygmy
Killer Whales and a pod of very likely Sei Whales that we encountered only a
few miles from the heads on the way back in. Despite some zig-zagging to get
views they remained somewhat elusive, though some on board got reasonably
good views. 
?
SUMMARY
Departed
Nelson Bay Public Wharf at 0700 returning at 1705.
?
The
forecast was for even calmer seas than yesterday and those of us doing the
double-header kept reminding ourselves ?it?s a different day at sea? as we
motored out into the flat ocean again. A couple of trawlers a few miles out
had attending flocks of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters but on this occasion we
couldn?t entice any to join us for the journey to the shelf. In fact, apart
from an occasional Fleshy-footed Shearwater flying alongside, there wasn?t a
single bird join us for the outward leg. 
?
Once
at the shelf break (32 48.990 / 152 39.396) we cut the engines to an empty
and silent sea. Eventually a few brown birds came in and we soon had some
attendant Wedge-tailed and Fleshy-footed Shearwaters. Then one of the most
worn Wilson?s Storm-petrels I?ve ever seen arrived in the slick ? its flight
feathers seemingly reduced to almost shafts only. A few more joined in,
along with the occasional Fluttering and Hutton?s Shearwater. A pod of Pygmy
Killer Whales came quite close to the boat, allowing us to get images of the
white lips. 
?
It
was an identical situation to yesterday from this point on (except we didn't
have a godwit fly-by!) and for the 2nd day running and a total of nearly 5
hours at the shelf we did not see a petrel of any sort. So again, we decided
our chances of finding something different might lie inshore. Literally as
the engine started up our first Pomarine Jaeger arrived. 
?
This
was to be a good decision as we added Short-tailed and Sooty Shearwaters
along with the best bird of the day in a very worn Buller?s Shearwater. The
bird was as brown above as a Wedge-tailed and the thought did cross my mind
before calling it as a Buller?s that it could?ve been a pale Wedgie. This
was our 7th Shearwater for the day and brought some respectability to the
day?s tally. 
?
Closer
in we came across some whales throwing out very large blows. Dave Mitford
urged us to turn around and investigate further and this was another good
decision as it became evident that we were looking at a rare species. These
animals were huge and the likely ID was soon narrowed down to the Fin / Sei
/ Brydes group of rorquals. Based on the blow, dorsal fin and the fact that
they dived without arching their backs and showing tail flukes it was later
decided that the most likely candidate was that they were Sei Whales (though
we cannot discount the possibility that more than one species was involved).
The weekend ended in great style after going very slowly for so long. 
?
?
Cheers,
Mick
Roderick
?
BIRDS
?
Species:
Total (maximum number visible from the boat at one time) ?
Wilson?s
Storm-petrel: 14 (11)
?
Fluttering
Shearwater: 5 (2)
?
Hutton?s
Shearwater: 3 (1)
?
Fluttering-type
Shearwater: 10
?
Wedge-tailed
Shearwater: 600 (500)
?
Buller?s
Shearwater: 1
?
Flesh-footed
Shearwater: 40 (15)
?
Short-tailed
Shearwater: 3 (1)
?
Sooty
Shearwater: 2 (1)
?
Australasian
Gannet: 8 (2)
?
Crested
Tern: 7 (4)
?
Arctic
Jaeger: 1
?
Pomarine
Jaeger: 5 (3)
?
Silver
Gull: 4 (4)
?
MAMMALS
?
Oceanic
Bottlenose Dolphin: 10
?
Short-beaked
Common Dolphin: 6
?
Pygmy
Killer Whale: c.10
?
Sei
Whale: ? 4+

------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2013 05:57:52 +1100
From: 
Cc: Birding-aus <>
Subject: breaches of ducking shooting regulations
Message-ID:
        
<>
        
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=ISO-8859-1

I live at Leopold on the eastern rise from Reedy lake (a state game reserve
in Victoria) . Nearly every morning I am woken by 'bang bang quack quack'.
This morning shooting started at 5am...2 hours before legal starting time
and in pitch blackness..even the legal half an hour before sunrise is too
dark for adequate species identification in my opinion. Anyway at this hour
of the morning who can this be reported to that would take action? It seems
safety issues renders regulation of this activity near impossible.

------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2013 08:33:24 +1100
From: Dave Torr <>
To: Graeme Gallienne <>
Cc: 
Subject: Shooters
Message-ID:
        <CAMQyua8kNi+b5e11mZ0r633KN28pzjMXYeNyjz0ddtwkyd=>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Very interesting - my understanding is that duck shooters in Vic have to
pass a duck id test but I guess it is like taking a driving test - just
because you pass doesn't mean you follow the rules afterwards!

On 28 March 2013 18:38, Graeme Gallienne <> wrote:

> Hi All,
>
>
>
> I spent last weekend at the SSAA Property at Captain's Mountain (for 
> those of you who need to know the area, this is about 20km west of 
> Milmerran a town on the Darling Downs of Queensland).  I was in the 
> company of my husband, a shooter and also a member of BirdLife 
> Australia, as well as about
> 40 other members of a Gold Coast Shooting Club.  By the way, this 
> property is run as a nature refuge and all wildlife is protected.  The 
> only shooting of guns that takes place is on various ranges at 
> inanimate targets, under the strict control of various Range Officers.  
> The only shooting of wildlife was done by me with my camera.
>
>
>
> I have formed very definite opinions about shooting ducks - IT SHOULD 
> NOT BE ALLOWED!  Not one of the shooters I was with last weekend would 
> be able to identify which species was able to be shot and which 
> species wasn't - not even my husband.  They would not even know that 
> there are such birds as Coots, Moorhens and Grebes - to the 
> uneducated, they are all ducks.
> Unfortunately, most of these people are very nice and very respectable 
> and would not intentionally break the law, they are just ignorant.  I 
> showed them a slide show of the photos I had taken over the weekend 
> and some were very interested but NONE knew what any of the birds 
> except for a Willie Wagtail, were.  Others were not very interested in 
> the photos mostly the younger males who'd shoot at anything if permitted.
>
>
>
> As, to my great disgust, shooting ducks in Victoria appears to be here 
> to stay for a few years - birders could lobby the government for a far 
> better level of training to enable correct duck i.d. by shooters 
> before they get out into the great outdoors if it is possible for 
> these people to become experts at identifying a flying bird whilst the 
> adrenalin is pumping in their veins BUT my other even greater wish is 
> that if shooters go out to shoot ducks or ferals in National Parks, 
> they must take a registered Wild Life Spotter (say 1 spotter to 4 
> shooters) with them, whose job it is to identify the targets and also 
> officially report back to whichever government department controls the 
> shooting, what is shot, how many and how many got away but were 
> injured.  There would be a cost involved to the shooters but they pay 
> quite high range fees etc. to go to shoot at gun ranges and don't seem 
> to mind.
>
>
>
> The other major point that should be made law is NO ALCOHOL should be 
> allowed to be consumed whilst any person is in possession of a 
> firearm, whether in use or locked away in a strongbox in a vehicle at a
campsite.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Sandra Gallienne
>
> ===============================
>
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message:
> unsubscribe
> (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
> to: 
>
> http://birding-aus.org
> ===============================
>


------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2013 11:35:02 +1100
From: Allan Richardson <>
To: Dave Torr <>
Cc: Graeme Gallienne <>, 
Subject: Shooters
Message-ID: <>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi David,

As birders we know how difficult quick identification of flying birds can be
- the test is not conducted in the field and anyone can learn pictures on a
page sufficiently to get, what I understand is, the required 70% pass mark.

Split second decisions in often poor light made all the more difficult by a
rapidly flying quarry, and then multiplied by the desperation to actually
shoot "something" with feathers - mean that in reality the test is in most
cases window-dressing at best.

Allan Richardson
Morisset NSW


On 29/03/2013, at 8:33 AM, Dave Torr wrote:

> Very interesting - my understanding is that duck shooters in Vic have 
> to pass a duck id test but I guess it is like taking a driving test - 
> just because you pass doesn't mean you follow the rules afterwards!
> 
> On 28 March 2013 18:38, Graeme Gallienne <> wrote:
> 
>> Hi All,
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> I spent last weekend at the SSAA Property at Captain's Mountain (for 
>> those of you who need to know the area, this is about 20km west of 
>> Milmerran a town on the Darling Downs of Queensland).  I was in the 
>> company of my husband, a shooter and also a member of BirdLife 
>> Australia, as well as about
>> 40 other members of a Gold Coast Shooting Club.  By the way, this 
>> property is run as a nature refuge and all wildlife is protected.  
>> The only shooting of guns that takes place is on various ranges at 
>> inanimate targets, under the strict control of various Range 
>> Officers.  The only shooting of wildlife was done by me with my 
>> camera.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> I have formed very definite opinions about shooting ducks - IT SHOULD 
>> NOT BE ALLOWED!  Not one of the shooters I was with last weekend 
>> would be able to identify which species was able to be shot and which 
>> species wasn't - not even my husband.  They would not even know that 
>> there are such birds as Coots, Moorhens and Grebes - to the 
>> uneducated, they are all ducks.
>> Unfortunately, most of these people are very nice and very 
>> respectable and would not intentionally break the law, they are just 
>> ignorant.  I showed them a slide show of the photos I had taken over 
>> the weekend and some were very interested but NONE knew what any of 
>> the birds except for a Willie Wagtail, were.  Others were not very 
>> interested in the photos mostly the younger males who'd shoot at anything
if permitted.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> As, to my great disgust, shooting ducks in Victoria appears to be 
>> here to stay for a few years - birders could lobby the government for 
>> a far better level of training to enable correct duck i.d. by 
>> shooters before they get out into the great outdoors if it is 
>> possible for these people to become experts at identifying a flying 
>> bird whilst the adrenalin is pumping in their veins BUT my other even 
>> greater wish is that if shooters go out to shoot ducks or ferals in 
>> National Parks, they must take a registered Wild Life Spotter (say 1 
>> spotter to 4 shooters) with them, whose job it is to identify the 
>> targets and also officially report back to whichever government 
>> department controls the shooting, what is shot, how many and how many 
>> got away but were injured.  There would be a cost involved to the 
>> shooters but they pay quite high range fees etc. to go to shoot at 
>> gun ranges and don't seem to mind.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> The other major point that should be made law is NO ALCOHOL should be 
>> allowed to be consumed whilst any person is in possession of a 
>> firearm, whether in use or locked away in a strongbox in a vehicle at a
campsite.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> 
>> Sandra Gallienne
>> 
>> ===============================
>> 
>> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message:
>> unsubscribe
>> (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
>> to: 
>> 
>> http://birding-aus.org
>> ===============================
>> 
> ===============================
> 
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message:
> unsubscribe
> (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
> to: 
> 
> http://birding-aus.org
> ===============================



------------------------------

_______________________________________________
birding-aus mailing list

http://lists.vicnet.net.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus


End of birding-aus Digest, Vol 84, Issue 41
*******************************************

-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2013.0.2904 / Virus Database: 2641/6211 - Release Date: 03/28/13

===============================

To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 

http://birding-aus.org
===============================

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • birding-aus Digest, Vol 84, Issue 41, Debbie Lustig <=
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU