Greetings List Members
It occurred to me a while ago, that with Russell?s permission, we could
developed a register of the best locations for finding our Australian
Birds using the birding-aus list site with its comprehensive archive and
search facility. This would serve a most useful purpose, particularly
if it was produced in an easily recognized form to avoid confusion with
other list discussion.
The concept is that any member could write about a species that is
familiar to them in a brief, consistent format and over a period of
time, a comprehensive register would evolve. To keep us focused, what I
had in mind was that we could produce a time schedule to cover all our
species over a period of say two years using an agreed order, perhaps
from one of our accepted field guides. The idea of a schedule is to
help maintain interest over the period of time required, to avoid being
swamped by too much info early in the project, and to adequately cover
each species with a period of time dedicated for each one.
In most cases we could focus on just one species each day restricting
comment to the best site that we know of to find a particular bird using
geographical co-ordinates for GPS where possible, its habitat
preference, local seasonal considerations, any useful hints to help find
it, a rough estimate of expected sighting frequency (by an average to
competent observer) and species abundance. We could also include a
one-line comment about other special considerations such as conservation
cautions, access permission, contact names (not commercials) etc.
If a participant is away, they could address previously covered species
at any time but to avoid info overload, a suggested guideline should be
to avoid posting discussion (using project format) about species that
are scheduled for future discussion but to encourage enough flexibility
to allow anybody to write about a one off any time.
Some other considerations would be:
1 Consistent format for the subject title (header) showing species
name so that info can be searched for easily and also separated from
other discussion. This would also allow recipients who are not
interested to delete, block and filter easily if they want to.
2 Content format and size. (Perhaps someone could suggest a simple ½
page form)
3 We should restrict comment to species that we are familiar with and
where we know that the site is a good one.
4 A volunteer or two to communicate as moderators. (I am happy to
help)
5 Is the idea feasible? What list order should we use.
6 Political or conservation crusade comments are discouraged.
The intention is that this concept should complement existing sources of
info, be relatively informal and provide opportunity for all interested
observers to participate while compiling a really useful guide.
How about somebody suggesting a simple (say) half page form that would
be consistent with archive requirements that can be easily identified
and separated from other discussion? What do others think?
Regards
Ian May
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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