Jon,
A good point and one that is brought up again and again. As with all areas of
conflict there are both positive and negative sides. I agree that the welfare
of the bird should always come first and when using tapes a common sense
approach is needed. There are restrictions on sensitive species such as the
Noisy Scrub bird in WA and for good reason. To totally condone the practice
does have a negative side though. Some species (e.g. Lewin Rail, Marbled
Frogmouth) may go undetected and therefore suffer unnecessarily due to habitat
loss etc. Sometimes the additional information is a positive thing.
Generally I have found that Australian birders are decent people who know when
not to do something and care about the birds and the environment. Without
wishing to appear cheeky I recall several incidents a few years when Golden
Bowerbirds were getting very distressed at their reflection in the mirror of a
car. Is this so very different? And just think how many cars there are on
the road.
Do I have it all wrong?
Regards
Tony
PS something to really worry about take a look at this
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS/IMAGES/SEAWIFS_GALLERY.html
particularly the Indonesian smoke haze photo
>Tony
>That is an issue I feel should receive a lot of attention the use of
>taped calls. I do not condone this method at all and would indeed feel
>ashamed to claim a bird by such method. It would be interesting to see
>what the other users feel about this method of birdwatching.
>Comments welcome
>Jon Wren
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