Milburn says: "Single observer records (of anything) should always be
regarded with
a degree of healthy skepticism. Birds that are obviously in transit
are rarely observed again and seldom offer the opportunity to obtain
a photograph. I believe that it is important to record and publicise
these observations because patterns may become established at some
point in the future, particularly because subsequent observers have
been alerted to the possibility that a species may be recorded in
areas where they have not been reported previously."
On Monday Feruary 26th this year, at Billy's beach near Mystery Bay, south
of Narooma, Bill and I saw a Ringed Plover. Now Ringed Plovers are not
only rare, they are very, very rare. Nobody believed that the bird that we
saw was a Ringed Plover: it was thought we had confused it with the black
fronted or the double banded plover. It is unlikely that the South Coast
Rareties panel will accept our sighting, on the grounds that we could not
supply enough information and there was no expert witness. We were within
3 metres of the bird and saw it very clearly, but we did not on the spot
write down the diagnostic details, and being without a camera, we did not
have a photograph.
Now, that is OK but I believe our sighting should be reported as a
'possible' for this rare bird. Noone has said that we cannot publish,
ourselves, a report of this sighting. We just do not know where we should
put it.
Elizabeth
Elizabeth Compston
8 Wells Gardens
Griffith, ACT 2603
02 6295 3028
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