Lawrie, and all,
My apologies for not having responded sooner.
I have led a team in the Champagne race of the Victorian Twitchathon for the
past eight years, and look forward to saddling up again in 2000. We have
been lucky enough to pick up the trophy for the past four years, but it has
become increasingly embarrassing as the number of teams we have been
competing against has dwindled year by year until we were on our own last
year. THIS IS SILLY!!
I hereby offer a selection of reasons for taking up the challenge and trying
to knock the Norwegian Blues off our perch in October. If even one strikes
a chord with you, please seriously consider having a go.
There is no need to go so much as 80 km from the centre of Melbourne (but
you can go as far as you like provided you stay in Victoria and earthbound).
You have up to 15 hours' active bird-watching available (assuming the rules
remain the same as previous years), and we will only be working for nine
hours, due to other commitments on the Saturday (unless a Square-tailed Kite
or something flies over the cricket ground).
We really aren't all that good (sorry, team).
You can raise some money for worthwhile conservation or research projects.
You can test your identification skills under a bit of pressure.
You can test your knowledge of habitats and habitat preferences in planning
an efficient route.
You can enjoy a nice champagne, riesling, chardonnay, shiraz or even a
humble stubbie during the compulsory one hour "no active birding" lunch
break (but pick a good spot where the birds will present themselves to your
scrupulously inactive team).
The beer, wine or strong coffee at the finish line tastes GREAT!
You can introduce your friends, business associates, local traders and
family members to the idea of competitive bird-watching(which at least some
of them will find intriguing), and maybe kindle a spark of interest.
You can sting them for a few bucks to get them back for all those useless
raffle tickets of theirs that you've bought.
You can go to some of those spots you've been promising yourself to visit
(especially the ones that aren't that far away) but never seem to find the
chance to get to.
You get to think up a corny team name.
You can meet some of those mythical people whose names you regularly see at
the bottom of birding-aus messages.
How many more reasons could you want??
Let's see a record number of entrants this year. If you've never tried it
before, trust me, it's great fun. Please don't give it a miss because you
think your birding skills aren't up to it, or because you don't think you'll
be able to raise much money. Every few bucks counts, and you may be
surprised how many species you can find and identify once you sort out a
route that touches on several different habitats. After all, even sparrows,
starlings and Silver Gulls count - it's amazing how quickly the list can
fill up once you get going.
Regards,
Jack Krohn
PS: I'm purposely leaving all of Lawrie's original message attached in case
you've deleted it.
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