birding-aus

House Crow and ship assists blah blah

To: <>
Subject: House Crow and ship assists blah blah
From: "Philip A. Veerman" <>
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 11:51:49 +1100
Do some of us take ourselves too seriously? If you saw the House Crow, good for you, count it or don't count it. What does it matter? 
I haven't counted the number of species I've encountered for about 15 years, so I have no idea. That lapse does not impact adversely on my effectiveness as an ornithologist, nor as a conservation advocate, nor my enjoyment of the hobby. It is not that I am averse to numerical data, far from it. I manage a very sophisticated long term database of bird records for COG. That has figures on every imaginable interpretation of the data that has a real value to a consistent survey with a defined method. Personal lists are just that, personal. As to whether my last new species was my 475th, 340th or 522nd, who cares? It was there and I enjoyed it.
 
Of course others will have different views but I for one think blah about any more on this issue.
 
 
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