Hello Down Under-
I cannot help but join the fray on this one, since it gives me a
good opportunity to put off this lab report I'm writing at 2:00 in the
morning. It seems to me that several points on "ticking" (it's called
listing, everyone) have not yet been aired.
Here in America, the American Birding Association publishes guidelines
on listing. Included are such restrictions as no dead birds, unless the
bird was seen and IDed before it died, no mist-netted birds, unless the
same qualification applies, no post-mist-netted birds unless they are
fully recovered (i.e. return to the area of their own volition) etc...
These guidelines, however, are not in place to restrict birders from
saying "I have or haven't seen such and such a bird" but to give birders
a basis to compare lists on an even field. Now, I don't really care to
run around comparing my list to others, but some folks enjoy it. I
prefer to list birds I have IDed (by sight or by sound although I like
sight the best) naturally, living wild, but I don't worry about my
totals. I do keep general track of "legal" birds, for myself, because
of my own criteria above. I have seen a Northern Goshawk, but it was
brought from a private banding station to be released in public, and
thus not free at the time I saw it. I would like to find a wild bird
for my own birding satisfaction.
I would, however, draw the line at picking up a dead bird and saying I
had seen it, because the circumstances are so different from "normal"
birding. However, finding a dead bird on the shore, in my opinion,
definitely doesn't mean it can't be counted on a general regional list.
The bird was almost certainly (in most cases, I guess...) within that
region when it died, and thus can be counted on the regional list, even
if no "ticker" ticked it.
Anyway, I ramble, but I hope this adds a little more spice to an already
interesting discussion.
Good birding all,
Jesse
Jesse Ellis (the boy who asked about field guides)
Lewis& Clark College
Portland, Oregon, USA
On Mon, 18 Oct 1999 14:01:45 +0000
(Philip Battley) wrote:
>On dead birds,
>
>I am willing to accept that line that if finding a dead bird enables
>it to get on a national list, then it should be able to go on yours.
>Anyone who beach patrols for seabirds is likely to take this view
>also, as for many of us it's the only way we will end up seeing many
>of them (brilliant pelagics notwithstanding). The ethical problems
>then become: do you have to be the one to actually find the bird on a
>beach patrol?; is being there when the corpses are identified enough?
>
>As ever, it comes down to personal satisfaction. I would willing
>tick a bird that I found dead, and fairly willingly tick one found by
>someone in the team I was patrolling with. I would tick (in brackets)
>one that someone else found that I only saw later, and to take things
>to the extreme, would not tick museum specimens!
>
>By the same token, I only provisionally tick birds that have been
>identified by call in my presence, unless they are so distinctive
>that even I, with my great inability to remember calls, have a chance
>of making the ID independently another time.
>
>There are those who would never tick a corpse, and I guess they are
>more often than not from places where you seldom need to.
>
>
>
>Phil Battley,
>Australian School of Environmental Studies,
>Griffith University,
>Nathan,
>Queensland 4111,
>Australia.
>Ph: 0061-7-3875-7474
>Fax:0061-7-3875-7459
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>
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