taxonomic references [SEC=PERSONAL]

["Geoffrey Dabb" <>]

One of the remarkable things about the British fever is the popular literature that has been generated.  There is a sober history of it in ‘A Bird in the Bush: a social history of birdwatching’ by Stephen Moss, and much on the lighter side of BBRC operations in Bill Oddie’s ‘Little Black Bird Book’ and ‘Gripping Yarns’.  

 

From: martin butterfield [
Sent: Saturday, 14 August 2010 11:11 AM
To:
Cc: ;
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] taxonomic references [SEC=PERSONAL]

 

I have now found a little more information about the workload of the British Birds Rarities Panel.  They publish their Annual Report in "British Birds" and the October 2009 edition included the following:  "Since 1959, BBRC has assessed records relating to over 350 species and at least 26 distinctive subspecies, along with claims of a number not yet accepted onto the British List. Over that period, there has been a total of 69 voting members, who have considered over 40,000 records: ". That works out to about 1,000 records per year (and of course they are not evenly spread through the year).

As I am subscribed to the magazine for this year I will look with interest when the next BBRP report is published.

Martin

On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 1:02 PM, martin butterfield <> wrote:

The workload of assessing British 'rarities is - by our standards - astonishing.  I cannot remember the exact details but in peak periods (when birds are likely to get blown towards the UK from North America or Eastern Europe) the British Birds Rarity Panel can have to deal with over 100 records a week, so no wonder the BOU handballed the later records! 

Martin

 

On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 12:41 PM, <> wrote:

Hi Geoffrey,

 

I might just be nerdy enough to answer that one. I believe that British Ornithologists Union Rarities Committee assesses the first record of a species for the British Isles and Northern Ireland. This falls within their role as the custodians of the official British bird list. I think they made the decision a long time ago that the workload in assessing any further records of vagrant birds to their geographic area (so 2^nd, 3^rd, 100^th, records etc) was too great a task for them and was not part of their ‘scientific’ role.

 

As such once a bird is already on the British Isles and Northern Ireland list, further records of these vagrant species are assessed by the British Birds Rarities Committee.

 

The British Trust for Ornithology has always focussed on ringing projects, bird population studies, and even the major garden bird surveys in the UK.

 

Cheers Dan

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Geoffrey Dabb [
Sent: Friday, 13 August 2010 11:45
To:
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] taxonomic references

 

The BOU was formed in 1858 as a scientific organisation.  The RSPB (founded 1889) is essentially a conservation organisation.  The British Trust for Ornithology dates from 1932.  The BOU for more than a century has been the custodian of the British bird list.

 

Only the most learned students of the arcane world of bird organisations will be able to tell you why there is both a British Ornithologists Union Rarities Committee and a British Birds Rarities Committee.