Back in the early nineties, the Gould League Bird Study Camp Club went to the
John Hobbs Eremophila Patch. While there Bev and I met Lindsay Cupper and he
spoke about the Letter-winged Kite. I remember him saying how once you used to
go out to their area and you would see large numbers, but increasingly what you
were finding were cats in their trees and nests. In the spotlight, the cats
eyes lit the trees up "like Christmas trees".
So, the cats have been a problem for a long time.
Our first sighting of the LWK was the year before Peter Waanders took the photo
of the ginger cat on the nest that is in the magazine. We were back there a
year later, about two weeks before Peter took his photo. We saw probably the
same ginger cat on the nest, but only managed a pretty ordinary photo before it
took off out of the tree and into the distance.
While we did see a couple of Kites in the area, it was a sickening experience.
Last year, there was a bit of a stir about feral cat control. I got responses
from minister Hunt's office and NSW NPWS, and NSW NPA at the time. I just hope
that the issue is still high on the agenda of ministers and conservation
authorities.
This discussion and the article by Sean Dooley make it timely to do some
follow-up.
Peter Morgan
The conservation battle is never finally won; the development battle is.
> On 1 Jan 2016, at 4:05 PM, Greg Roberts <> wrote:
>
> I have put together some notes on the dire predicament evidently facing the
> Letter-winged Kite. This iconic species may be at risk of extinction due to
> increasing feral cat populations. It could be the case that dingoes are
> part of the solution to securing the future of the world's sole nocturnal
> raptor.
>
> Birdlife Australia has published a feature on the subject in its December
> 2015 edition, though I've not yet seen the article. It is encouraging that
> this problem is beginning to get the attention it deserves.
>
> More here:
>
> http://sunshinecoastbirds.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/letter-winged-kite-on-brink.html
>
>
>
> Greg Roberts
> http://sunshinecoastbirds.blogspot.com.au/
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