Black-necked Stalkers Twitchathon Report (part 1)

Well Twitchathon time is never dull and this year was no different.  One scratching a few days before the race as our scribe, Annette Harrison, became ill and a bushfire in the Gibraltar Range were the only apparent negative issues.  Everything else looked good.  There were birds everywhere and the weather was predicted to be cool, a relief from the sometimes oppressive dry heat typical of Sunday afternoons on Twitch weekends.  The team comprised Russell Jago, Gary Eggins and myself.  Gary took over the role as scribe but was a participating scribe, meaning he could call birds as well.  We only needed two members to call each species.  We had agreed to stay completely within the Clarence Valley this year which can be limiting.  Three-thirty saw us standing at a wetland near Grafton watching a Black-fronted Dotterel and two Comb-crested Jacanas.  Ten minutes before start time a male White-winged Triller lobbed into a flowering Silky Oak.  Russell was allocated to keep it in sight.  White-winged Trillers have been absent from the valley for a couple of years so we wanted this one on our list.  Four o’clock arrived and we called Black-fronted Dotterel and Comb-crested Jacana but the Triller had completely vanished.  By the time we left this wetland eighteen minutes later we had notched up 31 species.  A good start.  Wedge-tailed Eagle was seen next followed by Plumed Whistling-duck and Musk Lorikeet.  The Musk Lorikeet was a real bonus as they had been absent from the Clarence Valley for many months.  They had only returned the week before the Twitch.  At Eatonsville we added 6 species including Grey-crowned Babbler then back to the Gwydir Highway notching up Rainbow Bee-eater and Peaceful Dove on the way.   Between Eatonsville and the Gibraltar Range we added 23 species including Spangled Drongo, Little Lorikeet and Channel-billed Cuckoo.  Gibraltar Range was interesting with a shroud of smoke but surprisingly we heard Paradise Riflebird and Wompoo Fruit-Dove in an area that had been back burnt.  The back burn was in a rather moist area and was relatively cool and low so the damage to vegetation was limited.  A stop to confirm Brown Cuckoo-Dove also produced Green Catbird, Satin Bowerbird and White-headed Pigeon and others.  A toilet stop at a lookout added Bassian Thrush as two were at the entrance to the toilet block.   Our regular Rufous Scrub-bird did not disappoint and a Superb Lyrebird was foraging on the roadside nearby.  The Noisy Pitta also called on cue and after a few nervous minutes of waiting the two Glossy Black-Cockatoos turned up at their usual location.   We arrived at the Emu-wren site but the sun was setting and the cool weather meant that most birds had shut down for the night.  Despite this we ticked off Southern Emu-wren, Variegated Fairy-wren and New Holland Honeyeater.  As darkness fell we heard Australian Logrunner and shortly after a Southern Boobook was calling.  Nocturnal species are difficult to get but we were happy with Southern Boobook, Eastern Barn Owl, White-throated Nightjar, Australian Owlet-nightjar, Masked Owl, Bush Stone-curlew and Tawny Frogmouth as well as Eastern Koel and Latham’s Snipe.  By the time we went to bed at 1.30 am we had recorded 117 species.  To be continued.

Greg Clancy

Head Stalker

Black-necked Stalkers Twitchathon Team 

* GuestSpeak is a feature of North Coast Voices allowing Northern Rivers residents to make satirical or serious comment on issues that concern them. Posts of 250-300 words or less can be submitted to ncvguestspeak AT gmail.com.au for consideration.

Who on earth decided that sending online newspaper readers blind was a good idea?

 

Busy, busy, busy, is the nicest way to describe the updated website now online for The Daily Examiner.

Often violently coloured, with visually distracting animated ads and barely a space for the reader to rest their eyes.

All this serving a local demographic which indicates that the newspaper’s most faithful followers are not young IT experts.

 

 

SNAP!

 

Friday 13^th July 2012

“MY WIFE’S LOVER

My wife is having an affair with a government executive. His role is to manage a project whose progress is seen worldwide as a demonstration of American leadership. (This might seem hyperbolic, but it is not an exaggeration.) I have met with him on several occasions, and he has been gracious. (I doubt if he is aware of my knowledge.) I have watched the affair intensify over the last year, and I have also benefited from his generosity. He is engaged in work that I am passionate about and is absolutely the right person for the job. I strongly feel that exposing the affair will create a major distraction that would adversely impact the success of an important effort. My issue: Should I acknowledge this affair and finally force closure? Should I suffer in silence for the next year or two for a project I feel must succeed? Should I be “true to my heart” and walk away from the entire miserable situation and put the episode behind me? NAME WITHHELD”

ABC News 10^th November 2012:

David Petraeus: FBI Probe Said to Have Revealed Affair With Biographer Paula Broadwell

 

A lesson taken from the behaviour of fellows and students of the College of St. John the Evangelist (University of Sydney)

 

One NSW North Coast resident’s view on the anarchic College of St. John the Evangelist:

 

I don't understand what all the fuss is about with the Untouchables at St John's College. The men abused someone, the impression was given that disciplinary action had taken place and then they were given positions of power. Looking at the history of the Catholic Church surely they are just carrying on long-held and upheld Catholic traditions and in that tradition nothing has nor apparently ever will change.

Phillip Anderson, Uki

 

 

Background:

 

Why the College of St. John the Evangelist at Sydney University needs to be dissolved now

Exraterrestrial life on the horizon? Don't pick up the phone to ET!

 

A little light-hearted entertainment from the BBC:

 

The BBC's star science presenter Brian Cox thought he might have a scoop on his hands when he trained his telescope at a newly discovered planet in search of alien life.

But the professor said his hopes for an exclusive were brought back down to earth after he was told by the BBC that impromptu extraterrestrial contact would break health and safety guidelines.

Cox, the former pop star turned particle physicist, wanted to use the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire to listen in to the planet, Threapleton Holmes B, on his BBC2 series Stargazing Live.

"We decided that we'd point the Jodrell Bank telescope at the planet that had been discovered by these two viewers and listen because no one had ever pointed a radio telescope at it and you never know," said Cox.

"The BBC actually said, 'But you can't do that because we need to go through the regulations and health and safety and everything in case we discover a signal from an alien civilisation'.

"You mean we would discover the first hint that there is other intelligent life in the universe beyond Earth, live on air, and you're worried about the health and safety of it?

"It was incredible. They did have guidelines. Compliance."…..

* Martian cartoon found at Google Images

"I can testify from my own experience that the church covers up, silences victims, hinders police investigations, alerts offenders, destroys evidence and moves priests to protect the good name of the church"

 
CALL

A similar letter to the article below was sent directly to NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell.

The Newcastle Herald 8 November 2012:

I have investigated so many sexual assaults in my 35 years of policing I’ve lost count.
Having spent most of those years at the coal face I have seen the worst society can dredge up, particularly the evil of paedophilia within the Catholic Church.
I am not in an executive position or relying on statistics or reports being shielded from reality, I speak from first-hand experience with victims and their abusers.
It is not an easy story to hear and the reason so many cover their ears and turn away. I’ve visited victims in mental hospitals and listened to families tell of suicides. I have looked into their faces, seen their tears of pain, anguish and despair, listened to the hurt of betrayal and felt their isolation from not being believed.
We all hear the words ‘‘paedophile’’ or ‘‘child molester’’ but what do they really mean? The term ‘‘child abuse’’ sweeps over the acts sanitising images of this appalling crime. It’s our inbuilt defence to protect us from those horrific images.
Listening to their stories, typing their statements, I relived their pain. I haven’t blocked those images and they still haunt me. I visited them in psychiatric wards and saw the damage to their families. A solicitor from the DPP broke down reading one of my statements. The abuse was so abhorrent she asked to be relieved of the case. Is it any wonder people don’t want to hear and turn away?
Victims are coming forward in ever-increasing numbers but they need our support. They need your support, Mr Premier. Police are making arrests but still the abuse goes on. It is not enough to say, ‘‘I welcome the police decision to arrest another person [priest] accused of paedophilia’’, when on average it takes 21 years to report these crimes and the priest continues to prey on more little children.
Often the church knows but does nothing other than protect the paedophile and its own reputation. It certainly doesn’t report abuse as revealed by the current Victorian inquiry.
I can testify from my own experience that the church covers up, silences victims, hinders police investigations, alerts offenders, destroys evidence and moves priests to protect the good name of the church. None of that stops at the Victorian border.
Convicted priest Vincent Ryan was sent to Victoria when the church learned of his abuse, returning the following year after things cooled down to pick up where he left off.
Many police are frustrated by this sinister behaviour, which will continue until someone stops it. You have the power to do that, Mr Premier. The whole system needs to be exposed; the clergy covering up these crimes must to be brought to justice and the network protecting paedophile priests dismantled. There should be no place for evil or its guardians to hide. Then and only then will the arrests begin to slow, signalling fewer children are being raped.
It is no longer enough to just arrest the wrongdoer 21 years after the crime.
Removing the support that harbours these criminals is like cutting the head from the beast. It tears down the veil of secrecy behind which these vile animals operate with the self-assurance of immunity.
A priest once gave evidence that the church’s handling of child sex allegations was under control.
That priest was named by victims as having allegedly helped to cover up the rape of children.
His name continues to appear in other matters. Clearly everything is not under control. Alarm bells are ringing.
I have many family and friends who are Catholic. My children attend Catholic schools so I am not anti-Catholic. I voted for you, Mr O’Farrell, at the last election so my call for a royal commission is not politically motivated. My reason is from the suffering I have witnessed and a desire to make it stop.
There are more than just the victims and their families who want to see a royal commission. I have spoken to teachers who no longer want to be intimidated and silenced. I have sat with a priest and nun who were so distraught they felt forced to leave the church when they couldn’t remain silent. I have taken reports of ostracism and reprisals against victims’ families for giving evidence against priests at trial. If this doesn’t warrant a royal commission something is very wrong.
Apologising is not enough. Compensating victims for treatment is not enough. Mr O’Farrell, please don’t block your ears. Many priests don’t want a royal commission nor does the hierarchy of the church, but God knows we need one.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox is a Hunter police officer with more than 35 years’ experience in the force.

RESPONSE

Courier Mail  9 November 2012:

A SPECIAL commission of inquiry will probe allegations made by a senior police investigator into child sex abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy in the NSW Hunter region.

The commission, announced by Premier Barry O'Farrell on Friday, will be headed by senior counsel Margaret Cunneen to look into claims made by Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, alleging cover-ups by police and the Catholic Church in the Hunter.

Mr Fox had publicly challenged Mr O'Farrell to launch a royal commission, writing an open letter to the premier and criticising the state government's continued failure to launch a judicial inquiry on national television.

Mr O'Farrell said while he had "full confidence" in police commissioner Andrew Scipione and the police force, the matters raised were serious.

"They go to the question about whether there has been interface, either within the police force, or by the Catholic Church, in relation to specific allegations of pedophile activity in the Hunter," he told reporters in Sydney on Friday.

 

CODA

 

In a somewhat weak response the nominally Catholic NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell is forming a special commission of inquiry with very limited terms of reference confining investigation to the Hunter district and the specific allegations made by Peter Fox.

Apparently he agrees with Cardinal George Pell that a state-wide royal commission into sexual abuse within the Catholic Church is not warranted despite the overwhelming evidence now in the public domain.

Peter Fox's response to the formation of a special commission.

 

One cannot help speculate that if O’Farrell was not worried about the Catholic vote, he would have established a full Royal Commission.

UPDATE:

Prime Minister Gillard announces Royal Commission

On the subject of political combovers

 

Never trust a bloke with a comb-over – adelcrow

 

ABC News 5 January 2010:

 

Tony Abbott is at a stage in this happy process when he is faced with the dilemma of what to do with that increasingly isolated forelock, once the thick, centrepiece of an admirably intact hairline.

If you look at the opposition leader on different days, or even different hours, he variously combs those remaining strands forwards, sideways, brushes it back or tousles it about. All in an attempt to achieve a look of maximum coverage while seeming unfussy.

 

	PjN @Pamela_November	30 Oct 2012
	@Thefinnigans Notice Abbott has changed his hairstyle? Previously short at the front...now swept across....hiding the >bald spot?

 

 

	Musca vetustissima @Mvetustissima	30 Oct 2012
	@Pamela_November @Thefinnigans Abbott has always used the comb-over style to cover his lack of policies.