wrote:
> Ian,
>
> I am surprised that you haven't had any comments, but maybe they have
> replied directly to you (as I have).
>
> This sounds like a very worthy cause, and even if it is never completed
> some useful information will have been taken from people's heads and
> archived for wider use. ~800 species at 1 per week is 16 years! 1 per day
> is 2 to 3 years. If you have a schedule, then I recommend that you publish
> it ahead (maybe those for the next week, fortnight, month or whatever) so
> that people can prepare at least a few days ahead.
>
> I strongly feel that we should follow the current standard list. This is
> currently the list by Christidis & Boles 1994.
>
> Rather than one species per day, it might be easier for say 10 or 12
> species for the week?? This would solve problems like a vagrant being the
> bird of the day, followed by a species common across Australia. With 10
> species for the week, then this could even it out. It might risk one
> species being missed, but this could happen anyway for vagrants. Rather
> than start from the beginning of the list and getting 10 waders, seabirds,
> raptors for the week (or several weeks), I would recommend maybe 2 or 4
> starting places in the list for the week. i.e. Southern Cassowary, Emu,
> White-faced Heron, Little Egret, Pied Oystercatcher, Sooty Oystercatcher,
> Spotted Pardalote, Red-browed Pardalote, Striated Pardalote, Crested
> Shrike-tit for one week, followed by the next couple of species at each
> point the following week. Try to keep similar species together where
> possible, but maybe not possible for large families. It would need someone
> (say you) to specify the list of species for the week. If there a lot of
> rarities in the next 10 or 12, then perhaps increase it by a couple, or if
> they are species likely to generate a lot of input, then maybe reduce it to
> 8 or whatever.
>
> For some species you would need to include information about each of the
> significant races (e.g. Crested Shrike-tit). For some I would recommend key
> points of identification. e.g. Black-eared Miner, Wandering Tattler, etc.
>
> I don't think that you can restrict comments as this is an unmoderated
> list, although of course you can give preferred guidelines. People will
> send whatever they want. I don't think that it would hurt what people
> send. It can be opened up for any comments, observations, migration,
> nesting, whatever that people want to contribute for that list of species
> for the week. e.g. for Australian Pelican an observation that it took a
> cormorant but released it. This will unlock a lot of unpublished
> information that is in people's heads. Hence I don't think that it is
> necessary to have a standard form, although perhaps one person can be
> assigned to put together a definitive header for each species.
>
> All the best
> Frank
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
