I have tried to avoid being dragged into this debate. I started a similar
debate earlier in the year and the same arguments, for and against, keep
being raised.
My recent experience has been of "birders" trampling through a swamp to try
and flush breeding Painted Snipe. The main reason was to fit in with their
travel arrangements, i.e. to save having to sit for an hour or two or return
at a later date.
It is only much later that the true enormity of what happened became
apparent. The site is now accepted as an extremely important one for both
conservation and information gathering for the species Rostratula australis.
If the birds had been frightened off or the eggs trampled at that early
date, much valuable information would have been lost.
I might add that it was only after full details on how to find the site were
published in a bird club newsletter and web site that I provided them on
Birding-aus. I had told a few people I trusted, they told a few others,
etc. The BA Threatened Species Network had been notified and that is the
only group to whom I will divulge such information in the future.
A "once bitten, twice shy"
Terry Pacey
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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