I do agree that with Philip's idea that it is your own personal preference
whether you count or do not count birds. To some of us it is a enjoyable
game to list the birds you have seen. The game (I?m afraid) needs rules.
Dion has succinctly summed up the rules so I don?t want to harp on about
that.
I have a couple of thoughts though. If people don't agree with the rules of
the game, play another game. If you don't want to play at all- then don't
play. Philip asked if 'some of us take ourselves too seriously? and then
proceeded to lecture us all about his contribution to avifaunal
conservation. I think Philip?s point was that he does not have to be a
ticker to contribute to bird conservation. I agree with Philip BUT what we
have to remember is that Australian tickers/ twitchers have made an enormous
contribution to the overall understanding of avifauna in Australia. It has
been the Mike Carters, John Izzards, Fred Smiths, John McKeens, Glenn
Holmes, Niven McCrie's etc of Australia - and not the ?professional?
ornithologists that exist in our universities - that have redefined the way
we think about our waders and seabirds in Australia. And it is nearly always
the hearty twitcher walking through the worst conditions in the worst
weather that finds a bird that is not supposed to be there. And this changes
our perspective on this bird?s distribution, which in turn is valuable
information on its overall conservation.
The game is fun. I say to all the twitchers- lets keep on tallying and while
doing it, lets keep expanding our knowledge on birds.
First to 800 wins...
James Watson
From: "Philip A. Veerman" <>
To: <>
Subject: [BIRDING-AUS] House Crow and ship assists blah blah
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 11:51:49 +1100
Do some of us take ourselves too seriously? If you saw the House Crow, good
for you, count it or don't count it. What does it matter?
I haven't counted the number of species I've encountered for about 15
years, so I have no idea. That lapse does not impact adversely on my
effectiveness as an ornithologist, nor as a conservation advocate, nor my
enjoyment of the hobby. It is not that I am averse to numerical data, far
from it. I manage a very sophisticated long term database of bird records
for COG. That has figures on every imaginable interpretation of the data
that has a real value to a consistent survey with a defined method.
Personal lists are just that, personal. As to whether my last new species
was my 475th, 340th or 522nd, who cares? It was there and I enjoyed it.
Of course others will have different views but I for one think blah about
any more on this issue.
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