Whistler Reporting Rates

["Philip Veerman" <>]

They are two different things. Surely equally interesting or important. It is important to understand that the seasonal pattern and the types of migration have a strong bearing on: (respectively) understanding the annual results and considering the factors that may cause changes in long term abundances. That is why I chose to describe both aspects for every species. Obviously how much there was to say about these things varied widely according to species.

 

What is annoying is seeing the recent ABR in CBN ignore that it is an annual report that should comment on the year in consideration and not give us the monthly histograms of abundance from GBS results. Those graphs would show what happened to the birds during the year but we don't get them any more! This was the way the ABR were done for many years (McComas Taylor's ideas) and that was the basis of my concept that these graphs could be combined into two things: to show the monthly abundance patterns and the long term trends. And those ideas were developed and were reported on by me several years before any GBS database existed. I think those graphs are intrinsically more interesting and certainly more instructive than what we get now. They would allow the reader to see whether the pattern for the year is similar to the long term monthly patterns (by comparison with the graphs in The GBS Report) and give an idea of the overall abundance for the year. Instead the recent ABR trawl out a random selection of the same old boring long term graphs and just add one more dot on the end, which are not about the current year, which are a waste of space and which show almost nothing useful that would not be better described in text.

 

From Paul's comment below sure The data poses more questions than explanations but ideas of ignoring the data (for whatever audience) that we do have available, don't help our understanding much.

 

Nice to report I just had one Golden Whistler in the garden, heard whilst hanging out the washing.

 

Thanks to Geoffrey for the picture / graphic combination, nicely done but I won't resend it, simply as it is my procedural preference to not multiple repeat send the same email additives to the list.

 

Philip

 

-----Original Message-----From: Paul Fennell [ Sent: Thursday, 26 April 2012 10:08 AM      To: 'Geoffrey Dabb';       Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Whistler Reporting Rates

Geoffrey

While I fully agree with your suggestion on the seasonal variation, it would go without saying that someone with a conservation bent would inquire whether the prevalence of the species is on the up or on the down.

 

My view is that with these two whistlers, they abundance is wobbling about over time, with no sharp  long-term upward or downward trends, although the GBS is downish over the long haul. The data poses more questions than explanations, so it may be better to ignore it with some audiences.

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Paul

 

Paul Fennell

Editor Annual Bird Report

COG Databases Manager

 

026254 1804

0407105460

 

From: Geoffrey Dabb [ Sent: Thursday, 26 April 2012 9:15 AM      To:
Subject: FW: [canberrabirds] Whistler Reporting Rates

 

In view of the information provided by Paul for more recent years, I shall, with Philip’s permission, choose a slide showing seasonal variation rather than trends over the years.  This has a secure observational basis, and will probably be of more interest to the audience in any event.

 

 

From: Paul Fennell Sent: Wednesday, 25 April 2012 12:09 PM      To: 'canberrabirds chatline'
Subject: [canberrabirds] Whistler Reporting Rates

 

Hello everyone, including whistlers, tweeters, and chirpers!

 

I have constructed two graphs, one from the GBS data, and one from all non-GBS surveys, showing the reporting rates of both Golden and Rufous Whistlers.

 

I calculated the reporting rates by:

For the GBS survey, counting the number of weeks the species was recorded each year, divided by the total number of weeks recorded that year, to arrive at a percentage.

For the other surveys, counting the number of data sheets recording the species each year, divided by the total number of sheets recorded that year, to arrive at a percentage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The two graphs show some interesting ups and downs, including one would suspect, the effect of the bushfires on Rufous Whistlers.  I leave it to you to make further interpretations.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

 

Paul Fennell

Editor Annual Bird Report

COG Databases Manager

 

026254 1804

0407105460