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Hello Dion and others,
I agree that habitat clearance and alteration are the major
factors affecting woodland bird loss, including the Diamond Firetail. And I'll
say straight away that I don't think Dion has done anything wrong telling us
about the pair of Diamond Firetails at Cobbity, so I don't mean to be
picky!
However, I'm pretty sure that the Dimey is suffering at least
on a local basis from trapping also. It has disappeared from a lot of areas
where it used to exist in the Hunter valley, some of which still would have the
habitat. When I lived in the Hunter I used to keep birds including finches, and
I talked to quite a few aviculturalists who would tell me where they used to see
Dimeys out in the bush. Some of these I have since found out have been convicted
of poaching! I've lost track of the number of aviculturalists I've talked to
over the last few years who are obviously skilled in their hobby (breeding many
and varied species) yet say they can't succeed with their dimeys. Not being an
expert in bird breeding I'd prefer not to speculate on why, but, some of these
people refuse to give up and instead of continually buying more they decide to
take a few from "out the back". I think half the time it is a matter of pride
for them rather than greed, but it still has the same effect in the end if too
many are taken. I've probably tarred too many birdkeepers with the same
brush- that wasn't my intention! Most aviculturalists would frown on such
activity I know.
The one place in the Hunter that I found Dimeys to be regular
and very common was a place with no public access, ironically, due to a large
slab of the area being subjected to coal mining. Enough of the woodland was
untouched for the finches to do well and the presence of coal mining activity
around about two-thirds of the area prevented people finding them. P.S. I wasn't
trespassing there I was working on an EIS there!
While in general I don't think bird poaching is nearly as
important an issue as habitat clearance and alteration there are some cases
where it could have significant impacts, at least locally. I also don't think
that bird trappers are going to flock to Cobbity to chase Dion's pair of
firetails. However, if people say found a large flock of Diamond Firetails in a
similar situation it might be prudent to not broadcast the information
too widely. What is the general opinion of everyone on this? The record could be
sent on to the Atlas without it being otherwise publicised. The problem is where
do we decide to draw the line between releasing information and not. This issue
also crops up with regular nests of rare birds and whether releasing the
locations provides opportunities for egg collectors.
I'm interested to know how people feel about this. I'm still
sitting on the fence- horses for courses and all that.
Cobbity still sounds like a great place, and at least some of
the woodland birds must be hanging on.
Cheers,
Mick
Michael Todd
Finch Researcher
Tropical Savannas
CRC
c/o Stephen Garnett,
EPA, PO Box 2066, Cairns, Qld, 4870
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