Attempts to use people enmasse to find Night Parrots has of course been
tried and after periods of heavy rain. My wife and I were members of the
RAOU Night Parrot expedition into the Lake Disappointment area of the
Western Deserts of WA in September 1987. See RAOU Report No. 49, 1988 by
Stephen Davies, Mandy & Mike Bamford. The rather wry title 'Princess but no
Night' of the summary of the trip in RAOU Newsletter No. 75, March 1988
indicates the degree of success we had. The site was chosen because the area
had never been grazed and it was timed to follow a period of good rainfall.
The initial party consisted of 20 people in 9 vehicles and the search
spanned 11 days. Four search methods were used: traversing the spinifex and
samphire by day in line abreast using a rope between walkers where possible;
listening at dawn and dusk for calls; driving through spinifex and walking
through samphire at night; collecting old birds' nests and searching them
for feathers. Some of us also watched for birds coming to drink at dams or
waterholes.
I am interested to see that although the search was unsuccessful in finding
Night Parrots, the Report is not cited under that species in HANZAB volume
4, although it is cited in The Princess Parrot text of that volume. As
usual, presence is better documented than absence.
Mike Carter
30 Canadian Bay Road
Mount Eliza VIC 3930
Tel (03) 9787 7136
|
