Powerful Owl at the Botanic Garden - some considerations

["Overs, Anthony \(REPS\)" <>]

Thank you Con for your considered email.

We would like to throw in a couple of points.

We had several lengthy discussions with colleagues over whether we should have advertised the presence of the bird. We felt that the bird was probably passing through, so took the opportunity for people to see it. We also concluded that if the bird became tired of being gawked at it would move.

Our approach regarding the 'mental welfare' of the bird is to ask it, as it were. Owls see quite well in daylight, and an owl that has been disturbed would have no trouble moving roost if it's unhappy (any unsuspecting boobook caught at a roost by wattlebirds, bowerbirds, etc will attest to that). Likewise, it would not have returned to a roost it associated with an unpleasant experience; you'll note that the bird was at a low perch on the first day it was seen. It then moved to a higher more closed perch the following day, probably to get further away from prying eyes. However, on the third day it was at the low perch again.

Had we considered that the bird by some remote chance was to establish a territory here then we would have left it alone.

Regarding your last question ('Did the Owl leave because it was not allowed to roost in peace?'), we can answer "almost certainly not".

I think the following questions should be considered alongside your last question:

- How long was the bird in the gardens before it was discovered?

- Is the bird still there?

- Given temporary visits to urban areas by other birds, is such a brief stopover unusual?

- Would the bird stay and establish a territory, if it remained undisturbed?

(We think it is very likely that the bird is still there somewhere; why would it leave such an excellently provided B&B place? The wonder is that it chanced to roost in such an exposed position.)

Given that we don't believe the bird was being unduly disturbed, the benefits to conservation and education arising from a 'personal experience' and the feeling of 'ownership' engendered by it were considerable. People were excited by it, and that can only be a good thing for nature and for the ANBG.

We would have thought that the ANBG would have jumped at the chance to have those extra visitors. And we're not just thinking of the money in the car park. We'd suggest that the gardens staff missed an opportunity to promote the gardens to people that may not have even been there before. Would having one person posted at the roost site during visitor hours for a few days, providing extension and interpretive material, really be considered impossible? Obviously, poor behaviour by particular people observing the owl was regrettable. ANBG could well have entered a partnership with COG for interpretive and 'policing' purposes, adding considerably to the information that the ANBG doesn't have, and significantly easing the work load for gardens staff. Maybe this is worth considering for the future.

We would also like to point out that several people found one particular gardens staff member to be rather misinformed, unhelpful and patronising to the point of being downright rude. We would suggest that this person's behaviour was detrimental to the garden's professional image and could possibly have discouraged people from ever returning.

Regards

Anthony Overs and Ian Fraser

-----Original Message-----

From: Con Boekel

Sent: Wednesday, 23 May 2007 8:47 PM

To:

Subject: [canberrabirds] Powerful Owl at the Botanic Garden - some considerations

By way of background, I manage the Branch that includes the ANBG. I was

concerned about some of the stories I heard in relation to the Owl. I

offer the following observations from Gardens staff to help individual

COG folk decide what they will do in the future should another Powerful

Owl be sighted in a public place close to the city.

We estimate that there were about 400 extra visitors to the ANBG just to

look at the Owl over four days.

It is likely that for most it was a once in a lifetime experience to see

a Powerful Owl.

The increased revenue from parking would just about offset the

additional costs in staff time.

Resource-wise, we are not in a position to maintain full-time owl guards.

Most people behaved appropriately.

The twitchers were duly twitched by staff and noted to be behaving well.

But the behaviour of some of the visitors was unpleasant to staff.

Children in particular tried to make the Owl react.

Some of visitors trampled the garden beds in order to get that special

shot or a closer look. Dedicated horticulturalists can get upset when

they see others trampling their work.

We welcome visitors - numbers are tracking up and we are aiming for half

a million a year.

I should close by observing that we pride ourselves on providing a

wonderful urban amenity, a place for science and a place for sharing

knowledge. The Owl does sort of fit in there pretty well but for me an

uncomfortable question remains: 'Did the Owl leave because it was not

allowed to roost in peace?'

Con

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