morris wrote:
>
> Hi birders,
> Most of us like watching birds for the sake of the birds and there is no
> obligation upon us to tell anyone what we saw. However once we are
> prepared to go into print and tell "The Bird Observer" or "Birding-aus"
> or any other bird group newsletter that we have seen a certain rarity, I
> believe that if we are happy to broadcast our observation, then we
> should also take the trouble to provide a written description for others
> to determine if that is what was seen! The Blue Petrel is a case in
> point. Prior to 1999 it had only occurred in NSW on 3 occasions and all
> were beach cast and some of the specimens ended up as part of the
> collection in the Australian Museum, so that if any one has any doubt
> they can see them for themselves. However, in June & July a number of
> Blue Petrels have been claimed for pelagic trips off Sydney and
> Wollongong and from the mainland. Until today there were only
> observations to report but now I understand that a live, beach cast bird
> came into the Zoo from Newport Beach (one of Sydney's northern suburbs).
> It seems to me that if people want to tell everyone about their Blue
> Petrel (or their Antarctic Fulmar, Kerguelen Petrel etc), that the
> people willinging to broadcast what they have seen, should also be
> prepared to make a submission to a rarities committee. In 1997 (I am
> currently preparing the 1997 NSW Bird Report) much publicity was given
> to claims of a Great Shearwater off Sydney and Bulwer's Petrel seen on
> two occasions of Wollongong, which would first records for NSW for the
> species. It now appears that no submissions were made to either the
> NSWORAC or the BARAC for these birds, and I am am left with the
> difficult task of deciding what do with the records because there is no
> submission, photos, notes etc of the observations. In both cases they
> will be treated as "unconfirmed" because there is no information for the
> records to be treated otherwise. Which brings me to Edwin Vella
> reporting on what his mate (in isolation) has seen off Long Reef. If
> his mate is happy to claim on Birding-aus that he has seen a very rare
> seabird, will his mate be making a submission to a rarties committee
> with notes, photographs, sketches etc?
It all comes down to how much time and effort people want to put into
their reporting. I think a lot of people make a lot of useful
observations, but they are not willing [or able] to jump through all the
hoops of photographs, sketches and highly detailed notes.
I would suggest, however that the rarities committee would do well to
create a "where there is smoke there is fire" file into which
"unconfirmed" sightings go. [If nothing else, it would suggest areas
that are worth following up.]
Most of us have seen birds well outside of their "official ranges", and
if you have a lot of people reporting sightings of a particular species
but there are only a few "official" sightings then that says something
about the system.
Regards, Laurie.
To unsubscribe from this list, please send a message to
Include ONLY "unsubscribe birding-aus" in the message body (without the
quotes)
|
