birding-aus

The Biggest Twitch

To: "'BIRDING-AUS'" <>
Subject: The Biggest Twitch
From: "Alastair Smith" <>
Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 09:02:53 +1100
It's interesting the way this news has been received on this forum. Why
can't we just be happy for them and supportive of their quest rather than
lambasting their carbon usage? I am in awe and will be eagerly following
their postings as I did for Sean Dooley's Big Year. If I had the money I
can't think of a better way of spending 12 months, though it would probably
be more enjoyable to do it at a less frantic pace.
Good on them!
Cheers
Alastair  

-----Original Message-----
From: 
 On Behalf Of Keith Weekes
Sent: Wednesday, 2 January 2008 8:30 AM
Cc: BIRDING-AUS
Subject: The Biggest Twitch

Impressive isn't quite the word that I would use for it. If they succeed in
their attempt they will have achieved nothing more than spent a lot of money
and burnt a lot of fuel, while contributing virtually nothing to the
scientific body of knowledge, since most birds will be from tip offs from
someone else.

On 02/01/2008, Dave Torr <> wrote:
>
> Certainly an impressive attempt! Most taxonomies have the number of
> species
> just under the 10,000 mark so as a %age it is slightly lower than your
> estimate Laurie. Guess they will collect a lot of frequent flyer points?
> (and probably fly on some pretty dubious airlines as well!)
>
> On 01/01/2008, L&L Knight <> wrote:
> >
> > The challenge would seem to be a case of moving on so that you see an
> > average of 11 new birds per day.  It's a similar challenge to
> > rogaining where you are trying to choose a route that will maximise
> > the number of points you can collect within the allocated time.
> >
> > It is very much a case of collecting the "low hanging fruit" so that
> > you can whip through an area and catch the readily seeable birds.
> > From memory, I think that there are 9000 species of birds in the
> > world, so 4000 birds would be ~ 45% of the total .  In Australia's
> > case, 45% is about 330 species [need to exclude OS migratory birds to
> > eliminate double-counting], which an organised twitcher could probably
> > get in a couple of weeks.  Other parts of the world may be harder
> > work, so perhaps the twitchers could try to rack up 450 in Australia
> > in a month to generate a bit of slack.
> >
> > Ultimately, it is a case of $$$ as well as stamina, birding expertise
> > and intelligent decision-making [based on the acquisition of many
> > "where to find the birds of _______" books].
> >
> > Regards, Laurie.
> >
> >
> > On 01/01/2008, at 9:29 PM, Rosemary Royle wrote:
> >
> > > Hi Birding Aussers,
> > >
> > > You may be interested to know that two birders from Wales - Alan
> > > Davies and Ruth Miller - have just started an attempt to see the
> > > most birds in a year. The current record is 3662 and their project
> > > is called, not surprisingly, "The Biggest Twitch".
> > >
> > > They have a good website and their progress will be logged on a
> > > regular basis. See
> > > http://www.thebiggesttwitch.com/
> > >
> > > Happy New Year
> > >
> > > Rosemary Royle
> > > Wales, UK
> >
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