I think something like this would be wonderful - the only problem is that it
might make things just a bit too easy?? (Sort of joke)
It is perfectly true that understanding the general abundance of species and
their degree of localisation is not at all well covered by the guide books. We
did a huge amount of homework before our trip to Australia last year, but still
were not really sure where we were likely to see a number of the species on our
list. Our saving grace was that we spent 3 months in the field which allowed us
to pick up some species simply by being in the right kind of environment for
enough time.
It is always informative after a trip to look at all the species which were
only seen once - some of these will be a as result of a specific effort e.g.
Eungella Honeyeater, but others are just sheer luck and field time. Those
latter species are the ones which are hard to rely on finding, especially in a
limited time period. Actually knowing in advance that they will be hard to find
woudl be very helpful, and pointers as to the best place to find them even
better.
However, in Australia, as I understand it, a bird can be hard to find some
years and easy in others - we did not find a Brown Songlark and Phil Maher said
he hadn't seem them for several years - after the rains this year I expect they
will be all over the place!
Rosemary Royle
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