Hi Keith and all,
I'm sure it's wise not to publicise grid reference to all and sundry
for locations of rare and endangered species.
I'm also aware that there may be 'fanatical twitchers' out there who
do the wrong thing at times. However, I also think comments such as
these tend to reinforce some people's prejudices against people who
might broadly consider themselves 'twitchers', and can lead to people
being reticent about reporting lots of sightings, and thereby limiting
the possibility to have their sightings verified by another observer.
I can think of a case a couple of years ago where a visiting birder to
Tasmania deliberately did not report what he claimed was a Yellow
Wagtail on theWest Coast of Tasmania until weeks later, after he'd got
home. He said this was because he didn't want all the Twitchers going
and disturbing it. Now, I'm not averse to calling myself a
'Twitcher' (among other things), and this birder's tardiness in
reporting, because of some pre-conception about 'Twitchers', not only
denied me a tick, but also denied anyone's possibility of verifying
his sighting of what would be a significant species for Tasmania.
This Birder's impression of twitchers may have come from his own
bitter experiences, but they may also have arisen from other people's
comments, or at least been re-inforced by them.
Let's try to be careful about how we label certain groups within the
birding fraternity.
Cheers,
John Tongue
Ulverstone, Tas.
On 03/11/2009, at 11:28 AM, Keith Brandwood wrote:
Hi Peter, my main concern was the Painted Snipe, and yes I do
believe that there are people who would take a Painted Snipe for
their collection. Its no different than collecting feathers a
subject that as been discussed recently on this forum. Collecting
feathers appears to be a harmless pastime on the surface but you can
imagine someone who as all the feathers of all the parrot species
except for the Night Parrot. I could easily see such a person trying
to find out where to find one and going out and shooting it to get
the feather.You only have to see what some of the fanatical
Twitchers get up to at times to understand the need to be alert to
whom you give information to. Thankfully it is only a small minority
that are involved in such behaviour.
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