Most famous Canberra bird?

[Julian Robinson <>]

It seems that everyone agrees that the Owl, because of its choice of
location, its name and its nuanced staying power (including clever trick
of disappearing for a while then reappearing) the owl is/was Canberra's
Most Famous Ever Bird.  John Rawsthorne also maintains an
alternative National scoring methodology on which Canberra Owl scored a
45/70, just beating the nearest contender "javan pond heron in
Darwin" at 44, so it may be a national winner as well.

I wasn't thinking that this bird would on its own drive people into
joining COG or to become environmentalists, but that the occasion could
have been used, as it partly was, to promote COG. 

Is there a case for leveraging the exposure next time by inserting COG
promotional info along with identified COG expert analysis into press
reports and/or stationing volunteers with "COG" on their lapels
at the bird site (as was suggested by Anthony and Ian)?  Or even for
being more pro-active and occasionally submitting similar stories with
emphasis on COG-the-club to media?

Besides that, from the number of non-bird people who knew about the owl
and mentioned it (and without exaggerating too much - with some awe and
wonder), this bird on its own must have raised public consciousness of
birds in and around Canberra.  By incrementally influencing mindset,
this could only help in encouraging bird-protection support from within
government and from the public, in particular towards modifying and
limiting development proposals to take account of affected birds. 
The best and most topical example would be Lower Molonglo (or 'Central
Molonglo' as it's identified in the proposal).  

Julian


At 04:23 PM 30/05/2007, Geoffrey Dabb wrote:

No, I don?t know of any single bird that has received as much attention from the general public.  There have been plenty of other attractions that have lasted a few days or a lot more for the bird-interested section of the public:  that rail and the stint, Regent Honeyeaters, Swift Parrots, Grey Goshawks etc.
 
For my money, it can top the BFI Index (Canberra Division).  However, it seems to be a reckless assumption that the ranks of COG or the environmental vote will swell as a result of the number of owl-gawpers.  Probably the same people routinely attend fireworks displays and F-111 fuel dumps.  [gawp verb (i)  (sometimes followed by at) to look at something wonderingly or stupidly:  I stood there gawping]    
 
From:
Sent: Wednesday, 30 May 2007 3:44 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Most famous Canberra bird?Re: [canberrabirds [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
 

Well I have to admit that to the uninitiated/novice birder a bird with a name Powerful Owl has more pulling power than lets say a Long-toed Stint. The location also helps. PO is close to a reputable cafe and not at the sewage works. The Lewin's Rail at commonwealth park must be up there - tho' I think it was unable to entice Mark Clayton away from his work. Finally once located for the day there was not much chance of missing it as it stayed roosting until dusk. Nothing ellusive here. The only risk being whether Mr McGregor chased you with his rake ( no offence intended).

cheers
Richard



Julian Robinson <>

30/05/2007 03:22 PM

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[canberrabirds] Most famous Canberra bird?
 



re the illustrious Owl -- is there any other single bird that has received as much attention as (i.e. been more famous than) the ANBG Powerful Owl, ever, in the ACT?  As has been pointed out, this is not a totally trivial exercise when it comes to getting new members to COG and winning environmental arguments, although measurement might be tricky.  A BFI = bird famousness index could be based on the number of people, inc enthusiasts, experts and the public, who a) travel to see it, and b) know about it.  This owl surely must be a good candidate -- or have there been greater stars in COG history?

Julian




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Cheers

Julian
Canberra
Australia
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