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My opinion is that if you are submitting a list of
any one species at a site and time, then you should include ALL species noted at
the particular site and time. This is what I attempt to do, and probably mostly
succeed. This is so that as much as possible (because it will never be total),
all species are recorded at a statistically comparable manner. This is not to
say that biases don't exist. If I go somewhere and don't see anything that I
find interesting, I usually don't do a data sheet and so none of that data
goes into the record. However if I do find something interesting, I usually
put in a data sheet. I doubt I am the only one who thinks like that. That choice
in itself creates biases towards over recording the rarer species. However when
I do, I include everything observed on that visit. The reason is that, not to do
so, would, for example give the impression that the Grey Fantail was not at
Kambah Pool on the day I saw the Sea-Eagle there. That would distort the
statistics on the Grey Fantail. It is the same reason that the GBS instructions
says: "At the end of each week, check down the chart to
ensure that you do not miss out species."
COG has an incidental record form and that is a
very useful way of recognising reality, that often there is just the one-off
type of observation. Provided that it is considered separately from the stats on
other species, which it is, then that is fine for obtaining data on just that
species.
Philip
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