Hi All,
The most recent posts regarding the Central Land Council endorsed visits
to the Princess Parrot sites have prompted us to post of our experiences.
We (Brian Johnston, Andrew Silcocks and Rohan Clarke) were granted a
special access permit through the Central Land Council in late August to
visit traditional lands to observe the Princess Parrots. We were
informed that our permit was granted simply because our application beat
the rush by a number of days. Given the difficult situation that arose
we chose not to actively publicise our good fortune at the time. The
granting of the permit was mentioned in an early press release by the CLC
(http://www.clc.org.au/Media/releases/2010/parrot.html).
Over a period of three days we located many parrots at a number of sites
including at least 15 active nests in one small area. One output from
our visit was a 13 page report summarising our observations for the CLC,
traditional owners and other interested parties. The nesting area that
we located became the focus for repeat visits by conservation staff from
the NT Department for Natural Resources, Environment, the Arts and Sport
and we understand was also the principal site for the more recent guided
visits. Our report also contained some recommendations regarding site
protection/confidentiality, access/visits for birdwatchers and research
directions. Since our visit we’ve continued to communicate with the CLC
and NREATA. Although we were clearly not the only individuals to make
representations on behalf of all birdwatchers we’d like to think that
our involvement had a positive effect. For the record we are strong
supporters of the access arrangements that were subsequently negotiated.
Another output from our visit is the Princess Parrot photo-spread in the
current issue of the Birds Australia magazine Wingspan. If you haven’t
seen this, a small selection of these and other Princess Parrot
photographs are posted here…
http://www.pbase.com/wildlifeimages/princess_parrot
Cheers,
Rohan Clarke, Andrew Silcocks and Brian Johnston
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