pics
At 12:19 29-10-05 -0700, you wrote:
>
>Another note, how many people here are actually NATURE RECORDISTS?
>I see many posts of "what the latest recorder, microphone is" but how many
>actually tell of their experiences in the field?
OK Martyn,
Just a few words then about the field experiences. I've been tape recording
bird sounds for nearly 20 years now, mainly in South America, but I've also
done a bit in Africa and Australia.
When faced with an unknown bird sound in tropical forests, playback is the
best method to identify the source of the sound. In this way other people
and I have been able to get 'the first recording' of many species which
were previously poorly known, and thanks to learning the sound these
species have subsequently been found in other areas, improving our
knowledge about their distribution. Better distributional knowledge
translates into a better knowledge base on which to base conservation
decisions and strategies.
You can not imagine the thrill of playing back an unknown sound and
suddenly being face to face with a mythical bird which until then was only
known from a few old specimens. With an increased knowledge on the bird
sounds (tape recording is an ideal way of learning) one can also more
quickly pick up anything odd. This is how in the early nineties I
discovered a new flycatcher in Ecuador, which we subsequently described as
Foothill Elaenia.
In the course of the past decade we have - thanks to John Moore who has
also been doing a lot of recording and who headed the project - been able
to publish a series of CD-sets on Ecuadorian bird sounds, an endeavor which
was only possible thanks to many years in the field by the various
co-authors, many hours processing the recordings, and all of the above.
Re. playback by birders, one has to use common sense. If all of a sudden
loads of ABA listers would flock down to the Ivory-billed Woodpecker area
in Arkansas and start playing tapes this could have a severe impact. If
instead you're talking about much smaller numbers of birders in a country
like Ecuador where - in spite of worrying degrees of deforestation - there
is still a lot of habitat to bird, people are usually so dispersed, doing
playback on different territorial birds, so that IMHO the impact on the
birds in negligeable. Yes there is the odd place where one territorial bird
repeatedly gets exposed to tape, and what seems to happen is that, rather
than deserting its territory, the bird just becomes oblivious to the tape,
probably having learnt that there's nothing to worry about.
It is also worth stating that many birds here are year-round territorial,
and that they regularly get exposed to young birds (or old ones driven out
of their territory by chainsaws) who are roaming around looking for a
territory, and as soon as one of these starts singing the territory owner
will come in to drive the intruder away. Many times I have watched
territorial conflicts, and occasional and non-exaggerated playback is
nothing more than yet another floating intruder having a go at establishing
a territory.
We're running a conservation foundation here, the Mindo Cloudforest
Foundation, and we have so far been able to establish two reserves in an
increasingly deforested area thanks to the generous donations received from
some birders whom we've shown lots of birds, some of them with playback.
The birds are still there in spite of the playback, but the habitat in
which they live is now protected thanks to these birders.
Cheers, Paul
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
|