Subject: [Tweeters] Playing tape : Poll Responses (long)
Date: Jul 22 11:47:41 2008
From: Guy McWethy - lguy_mcw at yahoo.com


Hey Tweets!
Here are the results from my poll about using tape to bring in the American Redstart at Juanita Bay Park.
Very wide distribution of responses! All the way from Yes to Hell No!
I've included all the comments (anonymously), so the Email gets long.
Thanks to all the participants!
I think playback will be an issue in the future, so getting a feel for everyone's views is always worthwhile!

A) Would it be OK to play tape recordings to draw in the American Redstart at Juanita Bay Park?
NO - 2
Yes - 8

B) Would it be OK to play tape recordings to draw in an American Redstart in a more isoloated area?
NO - 4
Yes - 5
Depends - 1

My Views:
A) - Yes - This individual is out of place, and obviously not breeding this year. So any disturbance will be minor if it even responds. If there were signs of a breeding pair, It still might be OK for limited use. NOT prolonged use. Get a look, and turn it off quickly. Call it in for a group of birders if you can, rather than just singles.

B) Yes - More isolated areas will more likely NOT be re-visited by other birders. And if there are more pairs around, the birds will be chasing each other a lot anyway, and one more incident should not impact them greatly. EXCEPTIONS - A few rare birds (even locally rare) in an area that all the birders know to come and look. THEN it becomes dicey. They are probably on marginal habitat anyway, so repeated calls for prolonged periods should be avoided. More exceptable if done as a group, rather than each visitor calling it in repeatedly.

My Caveat - If you come to a public area, like Juantita, and other birders are around looking for the bird, ASK if it is OK to play tape! Some will say yes, some will say Hell Yes, others will object. I would be courteous and conservative with tape playback. If someone there objects, wait until they leave to give it a try! ;) And once the bird responds and you get a look, turn off the tape. Do not let it loop continuously for long periods. This is too easy for photographers to do. And I have been guilty of this on occasion, myself. uner some circumstances it might be ok Just try not to cause undue stress to the bird just for the sake of some pictures. And doing this in a large park is probably a bad idea. Someone is sure to object anyway! ;)


Comments:
1)
A few years back, my husband got us an MP3 player and made his own file of North American bird calls using available recordings. On occasion we have successfully used these calls to bring in a bird we could hear calling near us. We have, for instance, had great looks at Wilson?s Warblers and Orange Crowned Warblers using the MP3 player. Last year, we were on a birding tour in North Dakota and our tour guide asked us to please use our MP3 player to try for a Yellow-breasted Chat, which we did and the bird came right out where the whole group could see it. As it happens, we have also called in American Redstarts in western Montana and North Dakota . In all cases, the birds we have called have been in an area where they breed. They?ve probably established territories which they want to protect and, hence, they come out for us to see. This practice is by no means a guarantee that we will see a bird, however. Very often, the bird will not come
close just because we have played a tape of its call. I will be curious to hear what other birders say about this kind of activity.

Regarding the American Redstart in Juanita, I would be surprised if it responded to a taped bird call. It?s out of its normal breeding territory and will probably remain silent. I don?t generally go chasing after birds like the redstart?price of gas and all. I wouldn?t go to Juanita and play the American Redstart call.

Obviously, in places in Arizona where hundreds of birders converge on a rare species, such as an Elf Owls or Trogons, people shouldn?t play calls.
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2)
I believe restrictions on playback ought to be applied only when a realistic risk of disrupting survival or reproduction exists. This individual is extremely unlikely to be breeding, nor can I envision playback contributing directly to this bird's demise, nor is the Redstart population endangered, so I don't see a problem with any playback. I have done field work on bird behavior, including radiotelemetry. A bird's day typically includes several hours of what we would call "down-time." Even multiple playbacks a day, in my estimation, don't risk disrupting this behavioral buffer to stress. Non-breeding birds often become unresponsive to incessant playback, a clever evolutionary behavioral strategy. Singling out playback for restrictions when people unintentionally disrupt birds more frequently just by walking by seems irrational: if the effect on the birds is the same (disturbance), whether it was intentionally caused by people (playback) or
unintentionally (walking by, driving by, loose dog, loose cat, feral cat, etc.), the rational management approach is to curtail the activity, regardless of intention, that produces the most disturbance. Playback only rarely qualifies.
The interesting questions, in my mind, are how the quality of the playback song affects behavior: a crappy male song could change receptivity of a female mated to a studlier male, reducing her extra-pair fertilizations; a vigorous male song could stimulate testosterone production of territorial males, possibly trading off higher productivity in that season against a shorter life; repeated playback of different males could stimulate fertility in females who settled in what appeared to be crappy habitat without neighboring territories held by higher-quality males and downregulated her fertility for that season as a result. The point is, playback isn't just anonymous bird song: for birds, each song and its pattern of repetition is loaded with signals, most of which we don't yet understand. Those signals mean different things depending on the attributes of the target individuals and their social environment; we shouldn't be surprised that there are
behavioral effects of these signals, but they needn't just be interpreted as "bad" even in our stunted ethical vocabulary.
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3)
My personal feeling is that the bird is more 'valid' if it's seen spontaneously, and I would have preferred more than ten minutes to look for it yesterday before the man with the tape showed up!

As far as that individual bird is concerned, I don't feel that playing a tape at it once or twice is an ethical problem. Clearly she's not breeding there, so there are no issues about dragging her away from feeding a batch of hungry young at this time of year, when parent birds need to spend every second foraging. I would have more concern about tape-playing in a breeding zone. Although, Juanita being so accessible, if dozens of birders show up playing tapes all day every day, that might become stressful for her.

So I guess my answer is, yes it's okay, but conditionally.
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4)
My feeling is that there is nothing unethical per se in using recordings to attract a target bird, other things being equal. The "other things" being if the bird is likely to be harmed as a consequence (as in the case of a representative of a very rare species in great demand) or if repeated playbacks are likely to drive the bird away so that others will be unable to see it. In the present redstart case I suspect the bird, a female or immature male, is not likely to be particularly responsive to playback in any case, as it is clearly not territorial. In any case, there are quite a few species that would be seen very rarely if at all without the aid or tapes, e.g., rails and many owls. While it is hard to write a hard and fast rule, I believe it is always best practice to use playback conservatively, if for no other reason than to be able to enjoy the quiet and to minimize stressing the bird.
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5)
A. Yes, because it's obviously not breeding. However, if there are hordes of birders around, they should consolidating this and not all do it individually and serially.

B. With any breeding bird, it should be limited to maybe just a couple of times. If nonbreeding, see above. And of course not in a park where it's explicitly forbidden.
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6)
Basically, I'm pretty skeptical of the negative effects posited by some on birds by playing tapes. Sure, it distracts birds and thus
must disturb them from some extra bit of their routine. I just think that routine is pretty distracted to begin with -- it seems there is room the daily routine of most birds to allow for some responding to sounds - Even when a bird is being repeatedly called in by tapes, I think it is a big leap to claim that we know that it is obviously not finding time to do what it normally needs to do.

The exceptions where I'm more willing to err on the side of caution :
Nesting birds in general, and nesting threatened birds in particular. Stray birds who are not burdened with the obligations of nesting [like the Juanita Redstart] are if anything less in need of my protection because it is out of the gene pool, at least for this season.

I think a lot of the dislike of tapes has to do with aesthetics dressed up as concern for the birds. It is tacky to play tapes, on
some level. It seems less 'pure' to bird with a gadget that brings the birds in. It disturbs the illusion of being at one with nature, an objective observer not having any affect on the birds. For me the biggest objection I have to playing tapes seems to boil down to just not liking the interruption in the regular sounds of being outside.
Even though it is a recording of birdsong, it breaks the continuity of the chorus around me.

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7)
The impact of playing taped calls obviously depends on when and where. Playing calls to bring in non-breeding migrants -- eg our Redstart -- has little or no impact on the bird. He's not defending a territory , and no nestlings are at risk. Probably make himn less responsive to tapes, also.

Playing tapes on breeding grounds, especially where it's done frequently, would be much riskier to the birds.

Worst of all would be thrashing into the habitat to find the bird.
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8)
I have an Ipod, but the American Redstart is too rare a bird in these parts
to disturb.
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9)
My answer is it depends. If you are in a known area where they breed and it is during breeding season not ok. (It amazes me how many people do this anyway and/or pish/owl toot like crazy.)

Probably at Jaunita for an obviously out of place bird it doesn't bother me so much.

I prefer to find birds naturally but will occasionally pish for them. I prefer not to, and don't have an IPOD yet...

Guy McWethy
Renton, WA
mailto: lguy_mcw at yahoo.com