birding-aus

Why the Night Parrot call recording SHOULD be made freely available

To: Alastair Smith <>
Subject: Why the Night Parrot call recording SHOULD be made freely available
From: Allan Richardson <>
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2013 22:24:47 +1000
We are all the richer for the snippets we've received so far - so riveting to 
listen to John speak of his unfolding discoveries.

I think only he can really appreciate the excitement of those encounters after 
the time he's put in, but you can hear it in his voice and live it in your 
mind's eye when he's relating the stories.

It felt like:

He holds him with his glittering eye----
The Wedding-Guest stood still,
And listens like a three years' child:
The Mariner (birder) hath his will.

It's like those stories that came back from new worlds in the days of discovery 
- of duck-billed egg-laying Platypus, of Birds of Paradise, Resplendent 
Quetzals and such.

Long live the love of birds and all things wild and the folk who devote their 
time to share them and conserve them........

Allan Richardson
Morisset NSW
   
On 05/07/2013, at 7:54 PM, Alastair Smith wrote:

> Whether birders think the call should be released is an irrelevance.  I can 
> assure you that John is not going to release the call and I don't think this 
> discussion will make him change his mind.
> 
> Regards
> Alastair
> 
> 
> On 05/07/2013, at 6:18 PM, Stewart Ford <> wrote:
> 
> Hi Mick, Mike, Bruce and others in the yes camp
> 
> John Young has produced the find of the century. His name is indelibly etched 
> into Australia's ornithological history.
> 
> He has discovered an immensely important tool for the conservation of this 
> species. It will enable government and private conservation agencies, 
> ornithologists, environmental consultants and other parties interested in 
> saving the species to finally determine presence, monitor and, importantly, 
> manage impacts to the parrot. 
> 
> In the absence of this, those impacts continue unabated.
> 
> He should be lauded for the incredible personal investment he's made in 
> achieving this. 
> 
> 
> 
> On 05/07/2013, at 15:19, Mick Roderick <> wrote:
> 
>> I totally agree with Mick,
>> 
>> Every birder knows that calls are the key to cryptic species, and it comes 
>> as no surprise that this was the case with the Night Parrot. I just don't 
>> know what people think is going to happen if/when the call is released. 
>> Imagine it - you have the call of the Night Parrot on your phone, CD, 
>> cassette, whatever - then what?? You're still basically back at square one 
>> as far as locating birds is concerned. 
>> 
>> I challenge everyone who has the call of the Regent Honeyeater to go out and 
>> find one! 
>> 
>> Mick
>> 
>> 
>> ________________________________
>> From: Michael Todd <>
>> To:  
>> Sent: Friday, 5 July 2013 2:44 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Why the Night Parrot call recording should not be 
>> made freely available.
>> 
>> 
>> Hello Bob (and everyone else),
>> 
>> I've read all the transcripts and I would say that there are good
>> conservation reasons for releasing the call publicly. As long as the
>> location of these particular parrots at the moment is kept under wraps, the
>> calls being played elsewhere won't harm them, especially given a low
>> likelihood of actual success. Maybe other locations can be located. So
>> little is known about Night Parrots that the more locations they can be
>> found at the better.
>> 
>> Of course those calls have a high commercial value as well and as a
>> consultant, John may want to hold out to see what government is willing to
>> pay. I assume no one was paying for John's fuel costs while travelling all
>> those thousands of kilometres.
>> 
>> It sounds as though they respond well to the calls so this would make it an
>> effective technique. One of the problems from a conservation perspective is
>> that we don't know how long the parrots will stay in this area. If they are
>> nomadic they could eventually leave- maybe never to return, when
>> environmental conditions change. It is essential that the biologists
>> involved (the Night Parrot network people I assume) collect as much
>> information as possible while they can. Others excited about Night Parrots
>> could look elsewhere armed with the call, and hopefully some basic habitat
>> information so that they know where to look. Australia is a big place-
>> there are plenty of places that could be searched.
>> 
>> I'm looking forward to hearing and seeing more about the night parrot in
>> the future, like everyone else.
>> 
>> Cheers
>> 
>> Mick
>> 
>> --
>> Michael Todd,  PhD
>> Molesworth, Tasmania
>> http://wildlifing.smugmug.com/
>> LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-todd/2b/425/605
>> ===============================
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