Hi
Stu Warren and I visited the Red Goshawk site last winter, camping at
the caravan grounds 200 meters down the road. The lady at the reception
there offered us the information iummediately we asked - I guess they
have an interest in preserving the bird, if only from an on-going
financial angle.
I know the birds have nested at different sites over the years - last
year the nest was in the grounds, in fact almost above the house, of a
private property approx 100 meters off the road and in plain sight from
the road - once one knew where to look. The female was in attendance
over the two days we were there and the male returned on the second
morning with a Rainbow Lorikeet to feed her. She appeared to be sitting
on the nest most of the time, but I don't know if breeding was
successful.
We watched from the road until the owner came out and invited us in - to
within 50 meters of the tree - a move which had no detrimental effect on
the birds, considering that when the male returned he perched up in a
tree close to us and preened before sleeping off his obviously late
night...completly ignboring us - or the owner's dog who wandered out for
a scratch behind the ears.
The owner was very friendly, aware of what he had on his property and
related anecdotes regarding the birds hunting his chickens and perching
on his shed while his (the owner, not the bird's) family wandered around
the property. The owner or his wife appeared to be on site almost
continuously and definitely understood the importance of a Red Goshawk -
he had worked for the Parks and Wildlife dept at some stage in the past
and was quite knowledgable.
I am suprised that a number of people camped along the fence - its only
a short distance from the camp grounds and is a narrow rough edge to the
road, I can't imagine anyone staying there too long.
Its possible the birds had moved elsewhere, of course, and we're talking
about a different site altogether? This one just seems to have been too
'protected' to have offered opportunity to anyone wanting to cause harm
- intentionally or otherwise...
Cheers
Colin
On Fri, Aug 17, 2012, at 04:17 PM, Niven wrote:
> I haven't been down to the Red Goshawk site very often, but I've only
> ever
> seen other birders there on one occasion. Those birders were walking up
> and
> down the road. It's a pity that there may be those who choose to climb
> fences (or trees), either to get closer or to look further afield if they
> have missed the birds from the road.
> Many of the birders that I know of have stayed at the cabins at the site,
> which is good practice in keeping up relations with the property owner
> there. On some occasions when I stayed there the birds were nesting not
> far
> from the cabin. I'd say I was more cautious at those times than the
> average
> tourist, oblivious to the birds' presence, may have been. However,
> breeding
> in those years appears to have been successful, so the proximity to at
> least some visitors was not an issue.
>
> I've seen the birds nesting there in different years, at four different
> sites within several hundred metres of each other, with two of those
> sites
> completely beyond view of the road. It may be that the failed year was
> one
> in which one of the 'out of the way' sites was used, although Denise's
> contact may have had direct evidence of its failure.
> If any Birding-Aussies have seen young there in the last few years, or of
> birds sitting on a nest, maybe they could let us know. We may be able to
> gt
> an idea of success rate or otherwise.
> In the meantime, we can only hope that with whatever tourist/birder
> pressure there is, that the birds continue successfully.
> Niven
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Colin Reid
So many birds, so little time......
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