canberrabirds
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To: | Mark Clayton <> |
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Subject: | Little Bittern |
From: | Martin Butterfield <> |
Date: | Thu, 12 Jun 2014 15:37:48 +1000 |
Mark
Your message included "...with most of the records being of the same birds being constantly reported by people seeing them for the first time and putting them on the chat line. "
I'd make a couple of points in regards to this. The first thing is that putting things on the chatline s simply "chat". It doesn't get the information into the COG database which requires that a data record is submitted (either an incidental record, as you later point out, or a full report).
My second point is that the issue of the same bird being reported time and time again is not a reporting problem, but an analytical issue. Adding Duncan's first report of the Australasian Bittern to mine and saying there are two birds is obviously daft. However having repeated information that shows:
is of potential interest in reviewing the status of the species. By way of example, I am currently writing about Plumed Whistling-Ducks in the COGAOI and there are 6 records between Jan and April 1998: however they are all between Nerang Pool and Kingston foreshores so very likely the same bird. This is an example which suggests that while they are very mobile when they get some appealing they may stay around for quite a while.
As I contemplated this, I was reminded of a comment by Bill Oddie about recording migrants in the UK. Everyone records the date of first arrival but few do so for the last date before departure, as that requires daily recording which is far more tiresome. Bill's point was that he got many more mentions in his local Bird Report for last reports than first reports, and who doesn't like seeing their initials in the Annual Report?
Martin Martin Butterfield
On 12 June 2014 14:43, Mark Clayton <> wrote:
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