Hi Mark,
I do not think you should be held accountable for the stupidity of others. I
believe disseminating information on the location of an unusual bird is
generally a positive thing, both for our understanding of the birds and for
the birds themselves. I'll draw an analogy with my Lewin's Rail posts on
Birding-aus and elsewhere from this year and last year.
Last year saw a large amount of birding interest in the rail and of all the
people who came to see it, 99% behaved responsibly. However, there was one
occasion someone actually tried to get into the pond area by either climbing
the frog fence or circumventing it, no doubt sending the ducks and other
birds into flight. The frog fence is there for good reason; it dissuades the
locally endangered Green & Golden Bell Frogs from venturing onto the road
and it minimizes disturbance to them. Although I have not actually noticed
any G&GBFs in this particular pond, the same protection is afforded to ponds
elsewhere in the park so the principle remains the same. Unfortunately, a
very few individuals will do selfish things to the detriment of the
wildlife. Although I do feel responsible for this, news travels fast in the
birding community and I am sure that a similar amount of people would have
got to see the rail regardless of my post, through word of mouth and
ultimately someone else posting the sighting.
The benefit of additional eyes looking at the rails came when birders
reported that the birds had a juvenile with them, a valuable breeding record
for the park. This almost certainly would have gone unnoticed if birders
were not present at the pond.
A similar amount of interest has been shown this year and again a juvenile
bird has been sighted. Also seen by birders present has been a pair of foxes
in the pond area on more than one occasion and this has been reported to
Sydney Olympic Park. If SOPA can take measures to minimize fox predation in
the area then this will have a direct benefit to the birds themselves that
would otherwise have been overlooked if birders were not present.
Cheers,
Jono
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Mark and Mandy Young
Sent: Saturday, 16 January 2010 11:57 AM
To:
Subject: Re: Recent Ruff Sighting - An apology
G'day everyone,
A few weeks ago I posted a bird that I had seen but that couldn't ID. That
bird turned out to be a Ruff.
At that time I posted it, I wasn't aware just how rarely these birds are
seen. Shorebirds of Australia has these birds as 'Rare and unpredictable in
Australia, but recorded annually'.
In my initial post I gave the exact location of where I spotted this bird,
something I know see in hindsight as a mistake.
Talking to people over the past couple of weeks who have been out to try and
find the bird, it appears that some of the people who have been looking for
it where behaving in quite an irresponsible manner whilst at the lagoon.
>From what I've heard, some people though not all, were so set on seeing
this
bird that they weren't too concerned about scaring the other Sandpipers,
Dotterels, Crakes etc. They weren't overly concerned about where they
walked, or how they walked, just as long as they saw the Ruff.
In part I feel this is my fault, and I feel the need to apologise for not
using a bit of discretion regarding the location of the bird. I shouldn't
have advertised the location of the bird in my post. A mistake I won't make
a second time.
Regards,
Mark and Mandy
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