Richard,
Thanks for the stimulating and informative report.
While there will always be differences of opinion, all birding carries with it
some degree of impact on the birds we're observing. It's mostly a matter of
balancing our desire to get out and see the birds - including the rare and
declining species - with the methods we employ to do so, and the degree of risk
entailed for the birds and their communities.
In this case, it's good to know that, should someone choose to go and see this
bird in the wild, while they still have the opportunity, there are responsible
and sensitive guides and guiding companies who are able to help them do so and
still minimise the impact on the remaining birds.
Your report also alerts the birding community to the dangers and pressures
faced by the birds in this particular case (so people might be spurred to take
some action), and also to the dangers of less responsible birding in general
(so that we might all strive to minimise the impact of our birding).
Thanks Richard,
John Tongue
Ulverstone, Tas.
On 04/06/2012, at 1:08 PM, Richard King wrote:
> Hi All,
>
>
>
> I have just returned from birding for 13 days in southern Thailand, with
> some hard birding, due to it seems climate change according to the guides,
> rain cycles totally out of sync for last year and this year affecting many
> rainforest birds. 250 bird species were seen, including 6 pitta species, so
> I'm happy.
>
>
>
> The info about Gurney's Pitta at Khao Nor Chi Chi is pretty bad, so if you
> want to see one you better hurry (maybe ~ 6 pittas left?). Climate change
> and disturbance in the park are affecting the pitta in a bad way,
> photographers are the main culprits with numerous photographers and
> videographers setting up hides and playing Gurney's Pitta calls all day
> long. It seems they only care about getting the perfect photo, not the
> bird's welfare! Most (not all) of the recent photos and Youtube videos have
> been obtained this way. We saw one of these guys in a hide at another park
> trying to get Blue Pitta photos, playing the call for hours!
>
>
>
> We spent two days looking for the pittas with local bird guide Yotin,
> finally got great views of a male and female Gurney's for about 2 minutes,
> male and female in the same view. Yotin is the pitta expert, but even he had
> trouble finding any Gurney's in the last 6 months, a number of international
> birding companies missed out on seeing them! I would recommend hiring Yotin,
> as he has assistants out with radios to find the pittas, otherwise you could
> spend a whole week walking the overgrown and poorly signposted trails and
> not see one. This was a common statement in the bird log book at the Morakot
> Resort!
>
>
>
> The situation with the 2 Gurney's Pittas we saw is not very good, as it
> seems the male has paired with his daughter! The 'official pitta rescue
> project' also hasn't helped, by 'illegally' taking wild Gurney's for
> breeding, which resulted in the pittas not breeding but dying, a lot of it
> due to lack of experience of the 'researchers'. Maybe they should have tried
> breeding some more common pitta species first! The Gurney's Pitta will
> probably disappear from Thailand shortly and the population found in Burma
> are in hard to get to locations, so it's best to hurry if you want to see
> one.
>
>
>
> As for the birding situation in the far south near the Malaysian border,
> DON'T GO. Extremists are killing people on a daily basis, with guys riding
> motorbikes along forest tracks with machine guns and killing whoever they
> find! Beware, there is at least one southern Thailand birding company that
> doesn't even mention the trouble down there, some just say that no tourist
> has been hurt! Possibly because no tourist go there and the rebels haven't
> been able to find one to gun down or keep as a hostage?
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Richard King
>
> ===============================
>
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
> send the message:
> unsubscribe
> (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
> to:
>
> http://birding-aus.org
> ===============================
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
