An interesting comment from the article about online databases:
"Surprisingly, records from website trip reports were even less well
georeferenced than museum records. We strongly recommend that authors who
intend their observations to be of practical use to others carry a GPS and
include co-ordinates as well as fuller descriptions of their bird-watching
localities."
Data's not much use if no one can tell where it was collected. There are, of
course, other ways of getting coordinates than using a GPS, Google Maps
probably being the next easiest.
Peter Shute
________________________________________
From: On
Behalf Of Laurie Knight
Sent: Saturday, 5 June 2010 1:11 PM
To: Alan Gillanders
Cc: Birding Aus
Subject: The twitching naturalist's contribution to conservation science
It may be worth examining the original [available online]
http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1000385
Distorted Views of Biodiversity: Spatial and Temporal Bias in Species
Occurrence Data
Elizabeth H. Boakes1*, Philip J. K. McGowan2, Richard A. Fuller3,4,
Ding Chang-qing5, Natalie E. Clark1,2, Kim O'Connor1,6, Georgina M.
Mace1
PLoS Biol 8(6): e1000385. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000385
Published: June 1, 2010
On 05/06/2010, at 12:30 PM, Alan Gillanders wrote:
> A definite, "Yes, but!" would be my response.
>
> "But there are numerous examples of citizen science projects
> recording less charismatic taxa ... "
>
> One example of a change sliding in under the radar may be that of
> Purple Swamphens. My farmer neighbour used to say that he had 300 of
> them and they ate the same as five cows. At that time I could never
> count more than sixty. Last month we were chatting over the fence
> and he commented that there were now only about fifty. I could count
> less than twenty at the time and have just counted 18 but know I
> missed one young one and its parent; so say 20.
>
> Yesterday I was at a friends place near the water on Tinaroo Dam and
> she asked where have all the Swamphens gone? There used to be many
> between her house and the lake and they would raid her garden every
> day. None were to be seen and none had been seen for some months.
> Her husband added that he had not seen them along the roads where
> they cross creek lines either and I didn't on my return home either.
>
>
> Regards,
> Alan Gillanders
>
> Alan's Wildlife Tours
> 2 Mather Road
> Yungaburra 4884
> Australia
>
> Phone 07 4095 3784
> Int +61 7 4095 3784
> Mob 0408 953 786
>
> http://www.alanswildlifetours.com.au/
> Alan's Blog http://alanswildlife.blogspot.com/
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Laurie Knight" <>
> Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 9:51 PM
> To: "Birding Aus" <>
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] The twitching naturalist's contribution
> toconservation science
>
>> see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10206710.stm
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