birding-aus

Night Parrot captured and videoed

To: Chris Charles <>
Subject: Night Parrot captured and videoed
From: Eric Jeffrey via Birding-Aus <>
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2015 07:55:32 +0000
But your initial post did not talk about offsetting risks by eliminating 
others. Sure, if you preserve the habitat and get rid of major threats, that 
might justify allowing birding. But until you have done that, you are simply 
adding some weight on the side of risk. Humans might also change the balance. 
Assume the parrots are in basic equilibrium with their predators, probably 
because their numbers are too low and they are hidden enough. One thing birders 
sometimes do is unintentionally alert predators to prey or a nest. 

Eric Jeffrey

Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 11, 2015, at 1:28 AM, Chris Charles <> wrote:
> 
> Eric,
> No I am not arguing that.
> I am saying that it is not a simple binary bullets vs bullets case. 
> Relative to the existing risks, birdwatchers are a lesser risk; frequency x 
> impact.
> 
> All birdwatchers have an empathy for their quarry for a start. Yes I know you 
> can quote the exception but again consider the statistical risk. 
> Mitigating the major risks is in the best interest of the birds.
> Chris
> 
> Chris Charles
> +61412911184
> 
> Licole Monopods
> http://www.licole.com.au
> 
>> On 11 Aug 2015, at 2:57 pm, Eric Jeffrey <> wrote:
>> 
>> There is an obvious fallacy to that argument, which should be clear once 
>> explained. 
>> 
>> What you are arguing is that if a species can hang on through 10 hazards it 
>> can hang on through 11. That is like saying if you live through 10 bullets, 
>> the eleventh can't kill you. 
>> 
>> Eric Jeffrey
>> Falls Church, VA
>> USA 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>>> On Aug 11, 2015, at 12:50 AM, Chris Charles <> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Paul,
>>> Yep just a little irritated too.
>>> 
>>> I understand that the researchers want to keep their site free of 
>>> disturbance. I don’t have a problem with that.
>>> But the implication that birdwatchers are a major concern & are discouraged 
>>> from western Queensland is a bit silly.
>>> For a bird that has hung on despite years of cattle, cats, dogs, mustering 
>>> vehicles, roo shooters vehicles, fires,etc, you would think that even the 
>>> most over enthusiastic cack-handed birdwatcher would be the least of its 
>>> worries. 
>>> Independent finding of other colonies must be a useful.
>>> 
>>> But on the bright side, the sub species of ‘photographer' hasn’t been 
>>> singled out this time!
>>> Chris
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Chris Charles
>>> +61412911184
>>> 
>>> Licole Monopods
>>> http://www.licole.com.au <http://www.licole.com.au/>
>>>> On 10 Aug 2015, at 11:14 am, Paul Dodd <> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Yes, tremendous news!
>>>> 
>>>> As usual, however, the article (twice) mentions hordes of obsessive 
>>>> bird-watchers, initially when discussing John Young's original discovery:
>>>> 
>>>> "The location was kept secret to protect the population from poachers — 
>>>> the bird is so rare it could fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars on the 
>>>> black market — and to avoid an onslaught of obsessive bird watchers who, 
>>>> without realising, could present equal danger to the fragile habitat."
>>>> 
>>>> And again, with an apparent quote from Steve Murphy:
>>>> 
>>>> "Hours from the nearest neighbouring property, the land space is so vast, 
>>>> it’s hard to imagine anyone being so lucky as to find the bird without 
>>>> expert knowledge but Dr Murphy said it would not stop obsessive bird 
>>>> watchers and poachers from trying."
>>>> 
>>>> I've never considered myself particularly thin-skinned, so I wonder if 
>>>> it's just me - but this attitude is really starting to irritate me.
>>>> 
>>>> Anyway, I'll leave that for now. Since the gist of the article is that 
>>>> Bush Heritage Australia is leading the conservation effort for the Night 
>>>> Parrot (initially at the request of the farmer on whose land JY found and 
>>>> photographed the bird), it might be best to look at their web site. There 
>>>> is a great section on the bird and the recovery efforts and also some 
>>>> video of the release of the captured bird.
>>>> 
>>>> Here is a link to the Bush Heritage site:
>>>> 
>>>> http://www.bushheritage.org.au/what_we_do/species_protection/night-parrot
>>>> 
>>>> And, in case the link gets truncated, here is a shortened version of the 
>>>> link:
>>>> 
>>>> http://bit.ly/1IRA2WL
>>>> 
>>>> Paul Dodd
>>>> Docklands, Victoria
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Birding-Aus  On Behalf 
>>>> Of Murray Lord
>>>> Sent: Monday, 10 August 2015 6:33 AM
>>>> To: 
>>>> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Night Parrot captured and videoed
>>>> 
>>>> The Australian today has a story about the first Night Parrot to have been 
>>>> captured by researchers.  If you’re not a subscriber, try a Google News 
>>>> search for “Looking for a Night Parrot in a Haystack?”
>>>> 
>>>> Murray
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