As an amateur birder I humbly submit the following.
I am a recent return-er to the fold of the birding community after a long
period of backsliding due to the pressures of work/family/surfing etc. But I
have birded a lot in Africa.
I am also an avid twitcher (Thanks Sean Dooley)
In regards to publications, I remember as a 15 year old teenager in Malawi
excitedly handwriting my first and only submission to the British Museum of
Natural History on the habits of the family of Green Twinspot that I
observed in my garden while I was suppose to be doing my correspondence
schooling. The reason I did this? Someone asked me to and it was a lot of
fun!
Through this process I was greatly encouraged by one of my mentors Dave
Stead who guided me through this process. Important point!
Since returning to the world of birding information, I have been amazed at
the amount of data that is readily available. Especially the internet. One
Google search will bring up thousands of pages of information on any bird
one might care to mention. Whilst I enjoy entering my findings both here and
overseas in the Birdpedia Database, I am unsure if they are of any help to
anyone else. (stoked you read the Bali ones Lawrie)
Not only that, as the western world has become increasingly hectic as we all
try to make life easier for ourselves (??) I don't have time to attend the
local Bird club meetings or their outings so I can't see myself spending
huge amounts of time writing submissions. This email was hard enough...
As I travel regularly, I thought about Atlas-ing and even enquired of it
once, only to hit the "to hard" button once I delved into it.
Conclusions (actually more questions):
With the amount of data already available, what could one possibly add that
would be helpful?
If one wanted to do something like that, how would one go about it? Ie is
there any one out there who can help others.
If one knew the point of said submissions then one might write one.
What do these submissions do that Birdpedia/Eremaea/Birding-Aus don't except
make for coffee table supplements?
If they are important, then make them simple!! Then others, not only
retiree's and people who have too much time sitting in airports, can write
them.
Also, should said submissions need to be categorised? Point in case -
Pelagic reports. No disrespect to Pete Milburn and Paul Walbridge (both
legends) but as an amateur I always scroll to the "birds seen" part and
never read the "wind was S/E at 30kts. swell at 2.7 meters from the N/E due
to the tropical cyclone off Vanuatu heading in a W S/W direction at
20kts...." part. Obviously some do....
Cheers
Steve Potter
Blackwood, South Australia
In my view it's not BOCA's fault, or BA's fault - not even John Howard's
fault! It's *our *fault - the community of birders. Those who think
publishing naturalist notes and observations is important should be
encouraging that by example and other role modelling wherever possible - and
I don't think I've done enough, or that my peers have.
The skewed representation of twitching over natural history
research/observations in the average Australian birder's timetable is simply
a microcosm of the wider community's obsession with individualistic and
'short attention span' amusements. Birding is not unique in that regard, so
the current trend shouldn't come as any great surprise.
How to fix the problem? Get out there and do it rather than just talk on
here about how dire things are.
I'm off ... have a short paper to write!! :-)
--
++++++++++++
Lawrie Conole
28 Reid Street
Northcote, VIC 3070
AUSTRALIA
lconole[at]gmail.com
0419 588 993
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