Hi Peter and all who have posted on this topic.
Just to let you know, Dr Steve Murphy is writing a piece for the upcoming
September issue of Australian Birdlife outlining the progress of much of the
research that has been going on at the site of John Young's initial
discovery.
Without wanting to pre-empt Steve's article, the draft that I have seen has
some pretty impressive results. Being able to attach the radio transmitter,
(even for the few weeks it was operational) has enabled the researchers to
probably learn as much about the ecology and behaviour of Night Parrots as
we had learnt in the previous 150 years.
As to the 50-250 population quoted, I suspect that comes from the Recovery
Team estimates of the entire population. Steve's article will tell us that
there are multiple birds at the site but nowhere near 50 for that location.
And to Paul Dodd, I have to confess that on an interview I did with ABC News
24 today, I think I may have used the phrase "hordes of birdwatchers" who
would want to see these birds! While personally I think the threat of
birders adversely impacting Night Parrots while trying to twitch them is
probably pretty low- certainly far less of a risk than that posed by
wildlife smugglers- I still believe it is wise to keep the location secret
for as long as possible. We can't afford to place these precious birds in
jeopardy and we still don't know enough about them to be able to safely say
they could withstand even a few birders searching for them in their home
territories.
And no, I am not one of the lucky ones to have been out to the site. Nor do
I have the faintest idea where it is, aside from somewhere in Queensland!
Cheers, Sean
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of
Peter Shute
Sent: Monday, 10 August 2015 11:51 AM
To: 'Tony Palliser'; 'david taylor'; 'Murray Lord'; 'birding-aus'
Subject: Night Parrot captured and videoed
It's not clear whether they're referring to the local population or the
national population. Surely there couldn't be even 50 locally, but a
population as low as 250 nationally isn't good news, let alone 50.
Peter Shute
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Birding-Aus
> On Behalf Of Tony
> Palliser
> Sent: Monday, 10 August 2015 10:49 AM
> To: 'david taylor'; 'Murray Lord'; 'birding-aus'
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Night Parrot captured and videoed
>
>
> When reading through the article the following sentence really caught
> my eye " Dr Murphy hopes the next round of netting will attract new
> members of the population which could be made up of anywhere between
> 50 and 250 birds. He is looking at new technology to track the birds
> via Bluetooth".
> I am baffled as to how the numbers are calculated - are there really
> that many there now? Certainly sounds most encouraging indeed.
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