I am personally always delighted to see a new bird.
I am prepared to get in the car and drive a moderate distance to go and
see one. I have been known to pay money for people to show me birds in
Cape York and the Kimberley.
But I am extremely concerned - no, appalled, to hear of some person
seriously suggesting that spinifex should be fired in order to give him
a chance of "ticking" a Night Parrot, or anything else. Or trespassing
on indigenous people's land to see a Princess Parrot, as happened a few
years ago.
My personal opinion is that far too much effort is spent on ticking
species and building life-lists. If the same effort was put into
studying the life-histories of even common birds, we would know very
much more than we do.
Certainly atlassing has greatly built up our knowledge of bird
distribution and migration, and Twitchathons etc. have provided a great
deal of fun for those energetic enough to do it - so has digital
photography. But first and foremost, please let us consider the birds.
Anthea Fleming
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