birding-aus

Regent HE and "The Big Twitch"

To:
Subject: Regent HE and "The Big Twitch"
From:
Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 09:05:36 +1100
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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