We happened to be in Chiltern on the day of the release of the
Regent Honeyeaters bred by Taronga Zoo (17 April) so we joined in the event
along with about 100 others.
After an instruction session, we formed a circle outside the taped
area around the four tents holding the 38 birds to be released. A small number of people slowly worked
their way toward each tent, carefully opened the gauze door and then slowly
retreated making sure they did not cross in front of the tent. Then we sat, and
sat, and sat waiting for something to happen. Eventually about six birds emerged
into the prepared foliage at the front of the first tent opened, and then flew
as a group into the trees above us. Frustratingly they stayed still for a long
time and this made them difficult to locate. After about 10 minutes they started
to move around and flew off. More birds left the tents over the next half hour
or so and one of these, colour banded red over yellow, landed near us and stayed
in the same small tree for over 15 minutes giving plenty of opportunities for
photographs and video. The aerial of the radio transmitter attached to the bird
can be seen hanging down from near the end of the tail in the
photograph.
Radio Transmitters were fitted to 25 of the birds. About 50 people
spent the afternoon tracking the birds.
We joined Kate, Gianna and Dean and quickly determined that the two birds
we had been given to track had not left the tents – easy. We had been told that it is not uncommon
for birds to stay in the tent and at the end of the day 15 had not
left.
As our birds had been easy to locate, four of us decided to track
some of the other birds. After about an hour of following signals without any
success, Gianna set the receiver to the frequency for bird 3.6. We headed off up
the hill above the tents, meeting up with Matthew and Isabella who had been allocated bird 3.6, but had become
frustrated at following the signal but not being able to sight the bird. We
joined them in the hope that the use of two receivers and six sets of eyes might
make the task easier. After following the moving signal for about 150m, it
stopped and was narrowed down to a group of four trees. Despite much looking the
bird could not be located. Gianna kept checking her receiver and was sure it was
in only one of the trees and focussed on a fairly small, thinly vegetated box.
Surely the bird should be easy to see if it was in that tree. After what seemed
like a long time, Gianna finally located the bird and between all of us we were
able to confirm the band colours.
So to answer the question, it is easy to radio track a Regent
Honeyeater which is inside a tent, but surprisingly difficult to locate them and
get a visual sighting once they leave the tent. In fact it was so difficult to
locate the birds even with radio tracking that it makes you realise just how
easy it is to overlook the bird even when they are in high numbers, such as at
the release site, but not calling much. At least that was our experience.
We can thoroughly recommend being part one of these releases if you
get a chance. Everyone involved was friendly and encouraged
participation.
Steve and
Kath
