Greetings to all and answers to some:
1. For completeness I think that ALL birds should be included in
Field Guides. Invariably one turns to additional sources for
back-up anyway but as a first resource if the bird's been seen in
Australia it ought to be in the Australian books. (It has
traditionally been done in FG's as well as in HANZAB)
2. Ornithologist, birder, birdwatcher, birdspotter/fancier, dude,
twitcher. Most of us can be put into various of these categories at
different times (Until someone comes up with a better classification
system than Bill Oddie has done, I'm sticking to it!). And to me
birders need more than a general guide (I want more! Publishers out
there take note!).
3. Moi? Arrogant? But then again... Still, the only bird books I've
pored over in recent times have been foreign field guides (and Pizzey
and Knight); HANZAB and a host of other non-field guide material.
Sorry to say (not arrogant) that due to lack of challenging
identification problems locally and lack of domestic travel my real
need for a local field guide is nil (at the moment). I look forward to
the chance to put the Good Book to a field test on something new!!
I daresay that's the case for most experienced birders in their own backyard.
Cheers
Niven
P.S. Nothing new up here but I had an observation of a Black Falcon
(nearly successfully) pirating a small bird from an Australian Hobby
the other day. Seems that Hobbies and Black Falcons dislike each
other immensely. Maybe the Falcon didn't even want the bird and was
just hassling the Hobby which lost the bird anyway. Unfortunately
there was too much to look at all at once and I don't know what
happened to the little bird or what species it was (just that it was
honeyeater size by the look of it).
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