[TN-Bird] Re: OT: Ethics, Legality, etc.?

  • From: Chris Sloan <csloan1973@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: Bill Pulliam <littlezz@xxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2014 10:32:59 -0500

Ken-
I would like to review the peer-reviewed literature you cited.  I've looked
into this in the past and haven't found much that was definitive, so would
you please post the citations?


Chris Sloan
Nashville, TN
http://www.chrissloanphotography.com


On Fri, Jun 6, 2014 at 10:29 AM, Bill Pulliam <littlezz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> My thoughts on the conservation value would be...
>
> If documenting the presence of the bird in an area is valuable, then
> breeding-season playback could be warranted.  But, it would seem, as soon
> as the bird responds and is documented, the playback should stop.  No
> drawing it in to get a visual (unless visual ID is necessary) or a better
> photo.
>
> I wonder about wintertime pishing?  Has that been studied?  One could
> argue that CBC data are valuable for conservation, and pishing/screech-owl
> imitations are very widely used.  How much harm might there be in a
> once-a-year exposure to one intense bout of pishing and tooting, I wonder?
>  Might be hard to study, you might set up paired plots, pish one regularly
> the other never, then do point counts without pishing regularly during the
> study period.  Would need a lot of replicates, but could be a good student
> research project...?
>
> And along the ideas of conservation value, filtered higher-quality eBird
> data (complete checklists covering small areas) are also being used for
> large-scale "big picture" monitoring of birds at regional and continental
> scales.  So if one ^could^ argue that if consistent use of pishing as part
> of collecting these data helps elucidate the spatial and temporal patterns
> of distributions of species that might be harder to detect without it,
> maybe it can be justified...?
>
> I don't pish in the nesting season, but I do in the winter.  I am
> judicious around my house, because the birds could be exposed daily, and it
> seems that they also become resistant to the pishing as the winter wears on
> if I do it too often -- "Oh, just the big hairy one again."  Which, one
> might wonder, could impair the legitimate mobbing behaviors in response to
> a real threat?
>
> Lots of question marks.  An interesting topic.
>
> Bill Pulliam
> Hohenwald TN
>
> On Jun 6, 2014, at 8:46 AM, Mcdonald, Kenneth wrote:
>
>  Hi,
>>
>> My name is Ken McDonald and I am a biologist with the USFWS in
>> Cookeville. Usually, I'm the point of contact for calls regarding the
>> Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
>>
>> While this shouldn't be construed as legal advice, I point out The
>> Migratory Bird Treaty Act  of 1918  states it is "unlawful at any time, by
>> any means or in any manner, to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill . . . [or
>> transport] any migratory bird, any part, nest, or egg of any such bird"
>>  (16 U.S.C. 703). The only exception to this is when regulations authorize
>> these activities for the purpose of conserving migratory bird trust
>> resources.
>>
>> Some agencies interpret "take" to include harassment from pishing or
>> playbacks because these activities can lead to bird mortality. For example,
>> a bird responding to a playback may become more visible to predators, may
>> inadvertently signal to predators the proximity of nests, or may abandon
>> the nest, entirely if they believe the source of the pishing or playback
>> poses as risk to themselves.  Additionally, many agencies (such as the
>> National Park Service and the Department of Defense) have even more
>> stringent mandates and legal authorities to implement regulations even more
>> protective of Migratory Birds than is found in the Migratory Bird Treaty
>> Act.
>>
>> My own view is there is a great deal of peer-reviewed, published
>> scientific literature which indicates phishing and playbacks can knock
>> individuals off of territories, make birds vulnerable to predators, or
>> cause birds to abandon nests. Given that pishing or playbacks can increase
>> risk to birds, the question I ask is "Does interacting with a bird through
>> the use of pishing or playbacks contribute to the conservation of the
>> bird?" In my own birding experiences I refrain from doing anything that
>> causes a bird to alter its behavior unless my doing so somehow contributes
>> to the well-being of the bird.
>>
>> Ken
>>
>>
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