Sean Dooley wrote "I raced back to get my tape player to try and call it in
closer for a good
video shot, but it failed to respond. And as I stood there on the bridge
listening to the analog reproduction of the call ring out through the
valley, I suddenly was overwhelmed with the gut wrenchingly sad feeling
that I was listening to a ghost call."
I was more than a little disappointed to see this in Sean's posting. Why?
Well, I hate to think of every birder rocking up to a Regent Honeyeater
(and any other bird for that matter) and playing tapes to it merely to get
video footage of it. There has been quite a bit on birding-aus in the
past about this so it's a shame to have to go over old ground. The impact
of playing tapes to birds is not clearly known. It DOES impact some
species while the impact is less on others. I imagine Sean's reference to
the taped call "ringing through the valley" is purely poetic licence and
not overkill.
There are a number of reasons this bird may not have responded to tape.
The main one probably being that almost every commercial tape I have heard
of a Regent Honeyeater is not a typical Regent call. For some reason that
escapes me certain tapes seem to have been used almost exclusively -
possibly because they are "interesting" - that do sound anything like the
more common Regent calls.
Sean also laments (I think incorrectly) that there will not be Regent
Honeyeaters around in 30 years time. The Regent HE Recovery Effort is
working hard to prevent this and I think that real benefits are being seen
in the Capertee Valley, in particular. It strikes me that with this fear
in mind that tapes were still played to the bird. Sean (and I'm sorry for
singling him out - I fear others are just as guilty) was in the Capertee
Valley during this species breeding season - just the time when you might
think that playing tapes to birds would have the greatest impact.
Off my soapbox.
Cheers
David
David Geering
Regent Honeyeater Recovery Coordinator
NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service
P.O. Box 2111
Dubbo NSW 2830
Ph: 02 6883 5335 or Freecall 1800 621 056
Fax: 02 6884 9382
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