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Sorry
My email may be interpreted as an
attack.
It wasnt meant to be. I was in a rush for a meeting and our
building has to be vacated today. We are moving into civic
Monday.
I just tried to get the main points down and suggest
reasons as to why I think it isnt a good idea. Personal enjoyment is why we all
do 'birding' there is nothing wrong with that. Birds also live in an 'everyday
world' where they experience many unusual things. I just think we need to think
about the purpose of the action and the potential impact.
Call playback is almost a necessity for scientists studying
threatened (and rare) owl species, to determine numbers, so the impact is
justified. But is the potential impact worth other types of
purpose?
I have carried out research where we deliberately
elicited a response. So that people can understand the animals
response.
Also, stress is a normal and useful part of everyday life.
The question is how often, how intense, and what other stressors are also
occuring. 'I am only one person' is a common phrase I hear from tickers,
but how many 'one persons' visited the Powerful owl at the Botanic gardens.
There are some sites that are well known for owls, how many call-playbacks
are done at those sites? Threatened species presumably also have other
stress in their life.
I think we need to think about these things. There is no
right or wrong answer, just more or less.
Benj
I have a bit of a problem with
this.
I see a few forms of
birdwatching.
Passive
Active, and
Afrontational
Passive is obvious, active could be like ‘flushing’
and afrontational is actually causing the birds to come to you. Much like people
who clap and shout at the zoo to get the animals
attention.
Although this is worse, because you are playing the
territorial call of their own species. If I was an owl, and another owl called
in my territory, this would raise my stress (eg corticosterone/adenalin) and testosterone levels (longer term).
As 3 species of owls are listed as vulnerable in NSW
this is even less desirable. Particularly when you have no real reason except
for personal enjoyment.
Benj
See below
Powerful Owl - profile
What needs
to be done to recover this species?
-Minimise visits to nests and other disturbances,
including surveys using call playback, when owls are
breeding.
http://www.threatenedspecies.environment.nsw.gov.au/tsprofile/profile.aspx?id=10562
Recovery
Plan for the Large Forest
Owls
-The Powerful Owl is highly sensitive to nest
disturbance during the egg and
chick stages and will readily abandon the nest if
disturbed. Pg 11
http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/PDFs/TS_recovery_plan_forest_owls.pdf
Is there a set up for the owls calls for
spotlighting as part of COG gear? I was thinking of taking such a set up to the
Ulladulla trip in Feb. in case there is a chance to do some evening
spotlighting.
Alternatively. How would I best set up such a
system with what magic electronics that seems to be around now?
Where would I get the recorded calls
from?
I was thinking of
Powerful Owl
Southern Boobook
Barking Owl
Barn Owl
Tawney Frogmouth
Aust. Owlet-nightjar
White-throated Nightjar
Does this seem an appropriate list?
Julienne
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