Great Crested Grebes, good news and bad news.

[michael mulvaney <>]

Thanks Shorty _ actually as you can read below it is an offence under section 127 and 128 of the Nature Conservation Act to interfere with the nest of a native species or something in the immediate vicinity of the nest. Most of our Ranger staff are ignorant and not trained in our wildlife laws and they certainly aren’t supported by a legal team - it is not that we don’t have wildlife laws is that those who are charged with enforcing them are either unaware of their responsibilities or turn a blind eye. You could raise the matter with the Conservator of Flora and Fauna who has the ultimate responsibility in protecting nests of native species. You would need photographic or other evidence as to who was actually causing the damage - which is the hard bit and you should not directly approach offenders. A photo of the people causing the damage and one of their number plate would be good.

Cheers Michael Mulvaney

Division 6.1.2         Native animals

127           Definitions—div 6.1.2

In this division:

interfere with an item, includes damage or destroy the item.

nest, of an animal, includes—

                   (a)   a place, structure or object that is being, or has been within the previous 2 years, used as a nesting place by the animal; or

                   (b)   a partially constructed nest that has not been used as a nesting place by the animal.

prohibited fruit netting means netting that has a mesh hole size greater than 5mm x 5mm when fully stretched.

128           Offence—interfere with nest of native animal

          (1)   A person commits an offence if the person—

                   (a)   interferes with—

                            (i)   the nest of an animal; or

                           (ii)   something in the immediate environment of the nest of an animal; and

                   (b)   the animal is a native animal.

Maximum penalty:  20 penalty units.

Note     Interfere with an item—see s 127.    

On 20 Jan 2025, at 2:18 pm, shorty via Canberrabirds <> wrote:

Hi All,

Last Wednesday the GCG's started building a nest at West Belconnen Pond and the small number of us birders that knew have been keeping it quiet in fear that what I call the Social Media Photographers ( SMP's ) would find out about it.

This group that I call SMP's are not birders and have no respect or care of the wellbeing of the birds that they photograph, in the past they have been known to set up chairs over Rainbow Bee-eaters nests to get shots of the adults with food for the young in the burrow just to get some photos, they have also been known to cut branches to get better shots of nesting birds.

On Sunday a Ranger visited the location and with dismay he noticed that someone has been trampling the reeds to get closer to the nest, this is environmental destruction and against the laws of wildlife harassment. Not being a Nature Reserve the Ranger has no power to block off the area. Perhaps someone would know who to contact to try and get this done?

Also if anyone is out there and see's one of these SMP's in the reeds take a photo and report them please.

Not my photo but supplied to me to post with permission taken from the opposite bank.

Shorty

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