All fair considerations but let us not over dramatise or be overly
critical. Does it matter at all whether these people ("irresponsible
lot") are locals? Yes best if people do not go into the long wet grass
area on the south-western side of KS, as that is clearly their preferred
hidey spot. Certainly that is an issue if the birds are breeding. These
birds spend most of the day time almost completely hidden in grass
tussocks, regardless of what people are doing. I see no reason to
attribute that behaviour, other than to a small extent, to people trying
to take photos. So I don't accept the "obviously" in Marnix's comment
as obvious at all.
On the day I saw them (27-9-2011 and I have not been there since), I sat
on the eastern side for about 40 minutes and for most of the time they
were hidden in grass tussocks. Indeed for about 10 of those minutes I
could see the adult female crouched still in the grass but was not sure
that I was looking at a bird, I could only see a white V in the grass.
Only when she stood up and walked around could I confirm that the white
thing was a bird. After being out in the open for a few minutes, they
did hide again when a Little Eagle flew over and I imagined some
connection there, but that is a guess. Ben and I did go around to the
western side (rather more than 10 metres) for a few minutes but there
was no point in doing so, the birds were not visible from there (but we
did see a Spotted Crake), far better direct views though from a greater
distance, were easy from the southern end and the eastern side. Indeed
only about ten minutes after we went back to the southern end than the
birds came right out in the open and even spent a long time bathing in
the puddles. I did not see any evidence that their behaviour was
impacted at all from being watched. They are at far greater danger from
a fox or from having any possible nest (?) trampled by cows or predated
by Swamphens or a water rat.
The PS that turned up in Melbourne about ten years ago was watched by
very many more people over a period of several weeks. Although I recall
that was from a distance of about 30 metres.
Philip
-----Original Message-----From: Ian Fraser
Sent: Saturday, 8 October 2011
2:49 PM
Cc: Subject: Re: [canberrabirds]
Kelly's: painted snipe still present
Totally agree, Marnix and Con. I've just made a phone call which I'm
hoping will get some action to keep people away from the west bank
'refuge' area - I'm assuming with some confidence that this
irresponsible lot are NOT locals. Please continue to report such
infractions.
cheers all
Ian
On 8/10/2011 12:52, Marnix Zwankhuizen wrote:
> The birds are still present at Kelly's Swamp this morning. They
> remained almost completely hidden in grass tussocks for most of the
> time I was watching only occasionally stretching their wings or
> preening.
>
> I ended up leaving around 12:45 since several people armed with
> cameras and powerful lenses were trudging within 10 meters of the
> birds hoping to catch a pic. The birds obviously weren't going to show
> after that.
>
> Marnix
> **********************************************************************
>
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