birding-aus

Re: rant against twitching

To:
Subject: Re: rant against twitching
From: Frank O'Connor <>
Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 00:09:19 +0800

"Graham Turner" < >  wrote :
> Why would this be incorrect?
>
> If birding-aus is anything to go on, there is way
> too much emphasis on twitching the latest blow in on
> some fringe territory than on valuable and useful
> research on (real) Australian bird species.

This sad attempt at humour (I assume it was a joke?) proves Stephen Debus wrong.

As a result of the latest blow at Christmas Island, it is likely to result in 3 or 4 papers for AFO.  Tiger Shrike, Edible-nest Swiftlet / Mossy-nest Swiftlet / House Swift, Pallas's Grashopper Warbler and probably Elegant Tern.  Maybe not research papers, but certainly articles for AFO and equally well researched.  A lot has been learnt about swiftlets, and Elegant vs Lesser Crested Tern.

And looking through my copies of AFO for the past few years, there are not many articles by any Turner, G.  My excuse is I was on CI.  I assume Graham was at home researching real Australian bird species in preparation for a useful research paper :-)

BTW.  CI is a part of Australia, and the birds of CI deserve study equally as much as real Australian birds.  And I can assure you that the locals were interested in hearing about what we were doing, and very appreciative of the tourism.  The local economy is suffering badly with the phosphate mining winding down, and the detention centre largely empty.

Many of the twitchers happened to be on the island for the Indian Ocean Seabird Conference.  CI is very important with two endemic seabirds.  The conference was very important for the local economy.

_________________________________________________________________
Frank O'Connor           Birding WA http://birdingwa.iinet.net.au
Phone : (08) 9386 5694              Email :

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