angst

[John Gamblin <>]

G?day everyone,

As was requested of me, by many much loved folk on this list, I put a white and grey rinse through my "hare" (it wasn?t always this colour) and I promise I will not go rabbiting off from my mouth with steam from my ears. The white aural steam is in fact my hair. So a few days of calming has elapsed and I do now feel becalmed. With these few days of calm surrounding this lad, born of Portsmouth, Hampshire, England it has afforded me thee opportunity to look at all that has passed. A chance to use the birding-aus archive, as it should be used, as the brilliant resource which it is. Leaving no trace that you have used it or any damage trail behind you.

With that I now write: Are you sitting comfortably? Then I?ll begin.

Once upon a time I was a neighbour of Charles Dickens, that lad that wrote so much bad fiction, just like I?ve been accused of doing. But, what seems to me now, to be a long time ago, I drew a line in the Oz sand; the line I drew was my own benchmark of standards. Yes I do have some; many in fact, despite what I?ve further been accused of; most originate from here in Australia, my chosen land of domicile that I love so dearly. Many years of my life have been spent "patching up" wild birds not only here in Hastings but at two other locations on the Mornington Peninsula and then getting the patched up/fixed up/degreased and oil changed victims back outside as fast as THEY can safely go back in to their safe area.

Always, until recently, out of my own pocket, I?m now on a health pension and my funds are limited. Bless you Terry Pacey and Tony Russell for helping me out financially. I am a man of my word and I will repay you both as soon as possible. Bless you both, my promise is here now on record.

Sometimes in life you are stuck, not only financially, but also from an overload of either harmed or injured wild birds. This can result from a multitude of reasons, but sometimes you get a wild bird that just doesn?t want to go back to the outside world for instance. Another added financial cost factor to my life but when this happens it reminds me I?m NOT perfect. I am lucky as friends and folk around these parts help out a lot. Although Mullet Street now has some strange eerie early morning cawls. Still a great deal of fun prevails. Rainbow Lorikeet (Rene) on the shoulder of my friend and neighbour is seen talking over the garden fence to Eggy, my magpie, who?s on my shoulder, whilst the two human males chat with each other. All conversation goes over the garden fence ?.. Oz life can be like that eh. Sometimes a magpie lark pops up on another head.

A thought though that is now in my head is this "I/we patch them up for a professional ornithologist to kill" silly thought that eh but not impossible to perceive as to why I think that way. So when that thought popped into my head I gave thee issue further thought. I thought to myself, there is a body of these fine people all over the globe doing what they do, I now pull no verbal punches for they are killing wild birds in the name of "Bad Science" and it is just that, very bad science. They perhaps must have a union of sorts I thought? An amalgamation/brotherhood perhaps, and somewhere within this amalgamation/brotherhood the worldwide Occupational Health and Safety standards must prevail above all else. Somewhere surely Ornithologists must have health and safety representatives who have copies of the law they impose on themselves, the law that binds "Ornithologists" to a strict code of practice on a world wide basis, I and others thought this would be so. Thee best plac e to have this code of practice/conduct I thought would be for the whole world to see it. Best place I can/could think of is for it to be living on the Internet/World Wide Web. So I used three of thee most powerful search engines plus my eyes, ears and hands. Have fun searching for that legally binding document folks.

So it?s a case of olde JAG (dare I say it) walking on eggshells, sorry about that, when in fact thee "Ornithologists" strict code of practice should be out there for the entire world to see. Totally clear and umbiguous in it?s language and totally transparent. We live in an English speaking nation not exclusionary Latin. The next internet/phone/snail mail search I did was brought about by my personal viewing of a presentation at the "Birds Australia" head office a little while back and the presentation featured a gentleman known to many on the Birding-Aus email list.

I/we intend to have goes at him for the rest of time immortal and anyone else who backs his misguided belief that killing wild birds is an okay thing to do because it is for the improvement of science, perhaps. The reason why I/we feel this way is, if you use a system that causes angst with other members of the bird world, especially the wild birds themselves, you would do your best to change that system, modify your actions or stop the process entirely. Especially if they are protected wild birds. You would also explore ALL possible process alternatives. This has NOT been done.

Especially if the system you use causes pain and suffering, and due to thee action undertaken is more then likely to cause death in the wild birds you?ve captured without using an anaesthetic of any sort.

You would surely talk with ALL Australian government departments and overseas NGO?s, all companies world wide to find out what new blood testing and analysing equipment is in the marketplace and how good it is. On this issue I decided I should investigate the forensic world. I?m fortunate in having a brother-in-law that has recently retired after many years service with the UK police force plus the female fairy from the bottom of my childhood garden grew up to join the UK police force and married a fine fellow who is also UK police but of a higher status.

The company I once worked for, here in Hastings, has spectrum analysers and whilst talking with local chemists I am informed the amount of blood needed these days to perform a complete and total spectrum analysis of wild bird blood is less then one millilitre per sample, two faint smears onto a small piece of special glass. This is in FACT nowhere near the volume I saw depicted in the moving image presentation being drawn up into a syringe (the syringe and needle that I and others saw in the presentation was designed for human usage NOT avian). Wild bird blood samples can be obtained without thrusting a needle into the bird.

To quote the words of another in an email he sent privately to a fellow ornithologist, quote "I don?t think he likes me" unquote; he is wrong to think that I don?t like him. I think its okay for him to try to get the sympathy vote though. BUT when he threatens me that is a totally different kettle of fish, I do not take kindly to being threatened especially in an email from a government funded email base. Along with this I have now had two more threats, from two other males, clouding their veiled threats but they are still threats all the same. In my years of life I have been threatened before, proof on that issue can be found with unemployed ex BHP bosses and others whose careers will not advance much further.

Therefore, with a chastisement coming from my friend Russell Woodford to me, and I still want to be a friend of Russell, despite the fact I firmly believe Russell is wrong on who threw the first verbal punch (use of the BA archive proves this) but a much bigger picture now emerges?

Is the BA list in fact supporting the killing of wild birds even if in the name of science, be it yet to be proven that the science is either good or bad? It?s a tough one to ask but even tougher is thee expectation of me to continue to be a member of a list that flies in the face of ALL my benchmark standards?

I could never deliberately kill a wild bird and I don?t know how others can. On that issue you?ll get a bad headache attempting to sway me. It has been said to me that staying on the list gives the opportunity for me to keep track of who?s killing which bird and where? I suppose that?s what they call police profiling. I can?t do that either and it is not my job.

So I?m left with only the one option, which sadly I now take. So to ALL the most wonderful folk and friends I?ve gained from the Birding-Aus email list my heart felt warmth and permanent gratitude is eternally yours. I hope I?ve helped out a few folk, spread a few laughs, nearly as many that have been given to me, real bird life in the wild is like that, filled with love and their laughter.

If I "meat" up with you outside my bird food supplying butchers "Stewie?s" who creates some artificial worm master pieces, then terrific. Or whilst shopping at "Coles" or "Safeway" for more healthy bird food supplies then marvellous.

Take care everyone, my love to many, my disgust to a few, until recently it?s been a pleasure for me and I hope you still get to see some wild birds out there whilst we still have them.

Yours sinned cere Lee, John A. Gamblin

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