In '68, in my ignorance, I caused extreme distress to a male Albert Lyrebird
by persisting with playback of his taped song. I had tape recorded his
display song including territorial songs. It was my first such recording.
Naturally I wished to hear what I had recorded and played some of the tape.
He immediately returned to his display platform and sang again.
Some days later I again played his territorial song. His response included
strange calls that I had not heard before, in 30 plus years of interest in
lyrebirds. I now believe them to be threat calls. He made them while
racing through the bush clearly trying to find the supposed intruder.
Recording them using a parabolic reflector was difficult. And I persisted
with playback. His final response was remarkable, and showed the extreme
distress I had caused him.
Though normally so shy that he would never let me get more than the briefest
glimpse of him, and rarely even that, he climbed up to a perch about 5m
above the ground, in full view of me and poured forth an amazing torrent of
sound - effectively a voice drama in three scenes.
Scene 1: Mimicked alarm notes of several species of birds, as well as his
own, plus miscellaneous sounds such as the calls of a small frog and a
neighbouring farmer whistling his dog, interspersed with his threat calls
indicated probable danger.
Scene 2: Lasting more than a minute and consisting of nothing but mimicked
calls of Grey Goshawk, interspersed with ominous silences, spelt out danger
in no uncertain terms.
Scene 3: Back to the material in scene 1, but added to it, horrifying sounds
of extreme distress as from physical attack.
Surely the ultimate in lyrebird threats, saying in effect, "Get out of my
patch, or I'll deal with you like this!" A performance worthy of what is
probably the only species of wild bird to accompany its' song with a musical
instrument.
I do not now use play-back. I suggest that it is only justifiable if the
particular use is for a purpose that will help conserve the species or will
significantly add to human knowledge of the species. For personal
gratification, no. I have used play-back on another occasion, at the
request of the late Norman Robinson then of CSIRO Wildlife. He had found
that not only the territorial songs but mimicry alone brought a reaction
from a male Superb Lyrebird, and he wished me to test this with the Albert
Lyrebird. It took very little play-back to ascertain that a male Albert
will react to territorial songs, to mimicry alone, or to 'gronking' alone.
Squeaking is surely a very different matter. It arouses curiosity but is
not seen as a territorial threat - unless, as Alex Farias suggests, you
learn to use the squeaker to imitate the call of a particular species. I've
not heard anyone do that, but if one could, then it would be just as
undesirable as playing a tape. It is not necessary to have a hi-fi
reproduction of a call to cause a bird to suspect an intruder of the same
species. Any reasonable approximation will do.
An anecdote to make a long posting even longer. (My apologies - but at least
it's not yet another disputatious posting on banding.) My mother's interest
in birds commenced in 1898 when as an 8-yr-old she went with her family to
live on a then totally unspoiled Tamborine Mountain (S. Qld.). When I first
knew her some 30 plus years later, she regularly squeaked birds. No fancy
Audubon gadget, but simply by 'kissing' her fingers. Very effective too,
especially for "small brown birds" in dense rainforest undergrowth and, I am
convinced, simply attracted them out of curiosity.
A few decades later again, she was in a Tamborine Mt National Park and heard
a strange bird call around the next corner of the track. By then she knew
every call of every local species, so great was her keenness to see what it
was. Fearing to frighten it away, she didn't move, but 'squeaked' at it.
The bird appeared to answer. More squeaking; more answering whistles ...
from another 'birdo' around the corner. Betty Temple-Watts, artist who
painted some of our bird stamps, if I remember correctly.
Syd Curtis
Some fairy-stories begin,'Once upon a time...'; others begin, 'If I am
elected ...'
- Kemsley
> From: Vicki Powys <>
> Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2002 09:08:56 +1100
> To: birding-aus <>
> Subject: Re: [BIRDING-AUS] Use of tapes
>
>
> Judie Peet and Colin Reid have both asked if the use of bird squeakers would
> be the same, in effect, as using bird tapes. I guess the squeakers are not
> targeting a particular species, so a bird would be unlikely to actually
> vacate its territory. Bird squeakers seem to imitate the sounds of a group
> of smaller birds as they 'dizz' an intruder. On occasions I have been
> standing quietly observing, (not squeaking), and a Brown Thornbill or a
> White-browed Scrubwren might spot me and begin to 'dizz', which would then
> cause other small birds to emerge and join in the 'dizzing', which is
> usually very short-lived. So the effect of squeaking, in my view, would
> have less impact than the playing of tapes, but it would certainly have some
> impact, and my instincts say "don't use it".
>
> A ranger in Central Australia once told me he had been squeaking with no
> success, in an attempt to get birds to come closer. So he paused in his
> activities to blow his nose rather vigorously and extendedly; he happened to
> be half-obscured in a witchetty bush at the time. He said that this
> nose-blowing sound, and the fact that he was obscured from sight, caused any
> number of birds to come and investigate!
>
> Vicki Powys
> Capertee Valley NSW
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 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
>
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
|
