Dear Mauro,
I think you are far too harsh in your judgement of the recent content of
Birding-Aus. The discussion of favourite birds, ugly birds & cute birds (as
you put it) has attracted a bigger response to any other thread in recent
times. To me, this seems that a good proportion of Birding-Aus subscribers
have actually enjoyed contributing these lists, as well as reading other
peoples' lists.
I'm sure that some ecotourism operators, in particular, have been reading
peoples' responses with interest. It's an opportunity for them to learn
about what some bird-watchers want to see, or not see, when they are on a
bird-watching tour.
Personally, I enjoyed Wim Vader's account of his bird-watching experiences
during his Australian visits. It highlighted the thrill of an overseas
visitor encountering a completely new suite of bird species. It also
demonstrated that we Australians (I'm also an ex-Pom) may take our bird
species too much for granted. For instance, it's hard to imagine many of us
in south-eastern Australia getting excited at seeing a Pied Currawong, but
it was obviously a highlight of Wim's first visit to Sydney.
Many bird-watchers like to tell others what excites them in the bird world,
and this includes what species excite them the most. Birding-Aus provides
this forum extremely well.
I don't think you should automatically think that an individual no longer
subscribes to Birding-Aus because he/she is dissatisfied with it. For
instance, there are many who go away on holidays at this time of the year
and don't want Birding-Aus mail to pile up in their absence. The number of
people unsubscribing should also be examined in relation to the number of
people subscribing or resubscribing.
If you are interested in discussing interesting bird observations, then I
suggest you and others make some contributions (I like reading about these,
too). But please don't spoil the fun that many people have had in listing
favourite or least favourite birds over the last few days.
Dr Stephen Ambrose
Research Manager
Birds Australia (Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union)
Australian Bird Research Centre
415 Riversdale Road,
Hawthorn East,
VIC 3123.
Tel: +61 3 9882 2622
Fax: +61 3 9882 2677
Email: S.Ambrose <> (at work)
<> (at home)
At 12:25 PM 3/23/98 +0930, you wrote:
>have you all noticed how many people are unsubscribing lately??
>is it because of all of this drivel about favourite birds, ugly birds, cute
>birds etc etc etc.
>Let's cut the crap as it just wastes all of our time. Lets get back to
>observations and items of REAL interest.
>Mauro
>
>> Mauro M. Maurovic
>> Manager, Customer Relations Unit
>> INFORMATION MANAGEMENT DIVISION
>> SA Health Commission
>> *
>> * P.O. Box 65, Rundle Mall, SA 5000, Australia
>> * 61-8-8226 7342 Fax 61-8-8226 7341
>> Mb. 015 61 66 88
>>
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