Makes the fuss about leaking the location of a couple of snipe seem
ridiculous!
Seriously though even though we will no doubt never reach this level
of "twitching" i hope that we can all work together on the subject of
rare bird locations.
I think it will be a sad day when you need to be a member of the "Old
Boys Club" to be able to hear about the location of a rare bird.
I was very blessed last week at being able to see my first Painted
Snipe thanks entirely to someone who trusted his fellow birders to do
the right thing.
In return of that trust and the warnings given by many about the
fragility of the situation i was much more cautious than ever before
and let the prospect of excellent photos slip away so that i didn't
disturb the birds. A hard thing indeed for a photographer!!
I know there are situations when it might just have to be that a rare
bird sighting isn't revealed. But if we do reach the "in-the-know"
situation then the general level of interest in birding will suffer
and that in turn will reduce the effectiveness of bird conservation.
While watching the Snipe last week (from a safe distance) I was able
to talk to 2 Environmental Protection officers who came to
investigate a complaint of someone filling in part of the wetlands
where the snipe were and show them the birds. They thought it was
great and i was also able to stress again the importance of these
birds. I will also be supplying them the photos that i did get so
that it might in turn help the conservation of this stunning bird.
So revealing the location of a rare bird isn't always bad.
On the other side of this is that we who are given the information do
actually take their trust seriously and do all that we can to limit
the impact we have on the birds. That might mean not getting out of
the car or making do with a view further than we would have liked or
not getting that shot of the bird in flight!
So let's keep the love alive and be positive and supportive of each
other in our quest to see these beautiful objects of our passion!
Happy birding everyone.
Dave Stowe
www.davidstowe.com.au
On 13/11/2006, at 4:22 PM, wrote:
G'day all
Our British chums are getting excited at the moment. A Long-billed
Murrelet has appeared off South Devon. This is a first for Britain
(although apparrently not a first for Europe). The L-bM is a Pacific
Ocean bird normally. Check out the photos of the bird and the twitch:
http://www.dawlishwarren.co.uk/birdlatest.html
I don't think I'll go for it...
Cheers
Steve Clark
Hamilton, Victoria
http://members.datafast.net.au/clarkja/sw_birds.htm
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