Andrew and others,
Of course, I agree with Andrew's comments and I hope that no-one thinks I
was putting other birders down for wanting to draw on previous
observations. We all do that. As many on this list know, I earn my living
by showing people birds, so I can certainly understand the need to get the
most out of a limited holiday and making use others' observations and local
knowledge is the way to do that. I was merely trying to point out another
approach that can be even more rewarding, if one has the opportunity.
But getting back to the original question of revealing locations to people
who might use that information for the wrong purposes. I wonder how
feasible it might be for someone to compile a list of species which are
prone to being poached, or are particularly sensitive to disturbance etc.
and for this list to be distributed to the birding community with the
request that particular care is taken with regard to publicly revealing
locations for those species. What I'm talking about is basically an
education program for the birding community. A lot of the problem is surely
due to many birders simply not realising they may be putting the birds at
risk by giving out exact details of their observations. Certain parrots and
finches are the obvious ones, but as someone mentioned earlier in this
thread, who would have thought that grasswrens would be a desirable species
for poachers? Just a thought.
Cheers
Carol
At 11:51 AM +1000 19/9/02, Andrew Stafford wrote (in part):
>Carol, David et al,
>
>To a large extent, of course I agree: it's always more satisfying to find
>birds for yourself, especially when our observations add to the
>knowledge/literature.
>
>But it's too easy to put down other birders for wanting to draw on previous
>observations. No form of birdwatching is necessarily more "pure" than
>another.
>
>It's hard to blame others (who might only get a few spare weeks in a year to
>indulge themselves) who are probably only trying to get the most out of
>their holidays.
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
