Hi David,
Steve Debus did say this in his 23 December post to Birding-aus (via Shirley Cook) on 23 December 2018:
“For starters, the original RAOU Red Goshawk project in the ’80s got some invaluable data on a pair of Red Goshawks that were caught and radio-tracked (female in the breeding season, 2 young fledged) and they bred in the following season after they had shed their transmitters.
“The Weipa study is funded by Rio Tinto but the Red Goshawk work is conducted by expert raptor ecologists (and consultant ecologists as trained assistants), notably Dr Richard Seaton who was employed by Qld DEHP and now by AWC. He has extensive experience radio-tracking raptors. The project is overseen by the Red Goshawk Recovery Team, and the Team is privy to preliminary key data on female home range and juvenile dispersal. Transmitters can fail or fall off, so ‘disappearance’ could be a signal issue rather than goshawk death. Raptors are quite robust, and we only know from satellite transmitters e.g. that kestrel-sized falcons can make the return annual migration journey between Asia and Madagascar over 4 years. “
Re nest sites: If you have information about nest site locations that you don’t want to share with the Red Goshawk Recovery Team (via Richard Seaton), that hinders the team’s ability to estimate the species’ distribution and abundance and to promote the species’ recovery. So I would encourage you to reconsider your decision not to share your information with the Red Goshawk Recovery Team. Sharing that information will result in a better conservation outcome for Red Goshawks.
Stephen Ambrose
Ryde NSW
PS: I have received some email correspondence privately over the last few days from people who have confused me with Steve Debus. Although we are both ornithologists, know each other well, and have similar views on a lot of ornithological issues, we are two different people. Steve Debus lives in Armidale, NSW and I live in Sydney. I suspect the confusion has arisen as a result of me forwarding a couple of Steve Debus’ emails to Birding-aus in the last few days.
From: Birding-Aus <> On Behalf Of business
Sent: 30 December 2018 11:21 AM
To:
Subject: [Birding-Aus] Red Goshawk
While I do applaud your OBSERVATIONAL Red Goshawk and other raptor surveys in Cape York, we are getting away from my initial concerns of trapping Red Goshawks during their breeding season. I'm sure you have made Richard Seaton aware of my and many others concerns.
As for revealing your active Red Goshawk nests, I am not at all interested in their locations as I have many of my own. I know Richard Seaton is aware of this having previously received a phone call for him asking me to reveal my site's, obviously to no joy for Richard.
