Russell,
I accept that you have to draw a line, and respect the occasional high
quality content and serious issues where they crop-up on this mailing list,
but in that case you might want to redraft the banner on your homepage:
"A meeting place and resource centre for
anyone interested in Australia's wild
birds, their conservation and behaviour "
The way I read this is, that it is inclusive of exchanges of incidental
topics and anecdotes by those so interested (because of "meeting place").
In any case, topics relating to people and things circumstantial to the
subject of "Australia's wildbirds, their conservation and behaviour" can be
of indirect benefit to the welfare of wild birds, apart from the fact that
it gives the whole thing more meaning.
Did it ever occur to you for example, that the recent (perhaps unfinished)
debate on the merits or otherwise of birders carrying mobile phones, could
lead to a beneficial outcome for wild birds.
eg, by concluding that we can provide more protection for wildbirds by
generally taking mobile phones with us whilst birding.
CDMA mobile phones have a range of up to 200kms, and thereby are potentially
a useful device to call WIRES where appropriate for help (as I've done for
Azure Kingfisher injured away from its normal habitat), or Parks & Wildlife
where strictly reserved habitat is in the process of being vandalized by
illegal activities such as trail bike riding or horse riding (the latter
leading to the spread of weeds).
Furthermore, talk about birders gives insight into what makes them tick,
which could indirectly lead to growth in the pastime. A greater interest in
birding can of course lead to more interest in the conservation of
environment for birds and other wildlife. If for example you find that there
is a disproportionate lack of interest say in Sydney (notwithstanding the
infiltration of Simon Benson's generous bird-interest write-ups in the
Sydney Tele Mirror - as today's on Steve's book launch), then the
visibility of that could entice Sydney birders to actively drag more family,
friends, colleagues etc on outings which might get them interested.
Regards
-----Original Message-----
From: <>
To: <>
Date: Wednesday, 23 May 2001 12:27
Subject: Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 00:26:58 +1200
>Hi everyone
>
>Thanks to all those contributors who write about BIRDS. Lately any new
subscribers could have been forgiven for thinking this was a literature
discussion group or one where we talk about birders instead of birds ....
>
>The occasional throw-away line or off-topic comment is OK - as long as we
can ignore it after that. If you want to pick up a non-bird topic, please
do so privately with the original sender. And please try to avoid public
discussion of people - list members or otherwise - and their good/bad
points. Join a philosophy or psychology list for that, (checking that your
legal insurance is all paid up).
>
>One last grumble - please remember that messages of a commercial nature
should not be sent to this list. Sometimes there are grey areas, and I'm
usually happy for people to inform us of trips they are getting together -
in order to fill remaining places, or to let people know about a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a difficult species or region. But
please drop me a line about it first. Otherwise it is quite unfair to list
members who ARE involved with commercial tour groups, and who send in trip
reports after the event, but don't advertise the trips as such.
>
>A little discreet information is usually fine- blatant advertising ain't.
>
>Russell
>
>
>---
>Russell Woodford
>Birding-Aus Administrator
>
>http://www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding
>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
>
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