There was a very useful meeting between Anthony Overs, Ian Fraser, Anne
Duncan (Director of the ANBG) and myself earlier during the week to
canvass ideas about the Powerful Owl in the ANBG and how COG and the
ANBG might work together. Anthony will discuss with the COG Committee
and I am confident that the outcomes will be good for the ANBG, COG and
the Powerful Owl.
Con
Julian Robinson wrote:
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
To
<>
cc
Subject
[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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