birding-aus

How not to behave when a vagrant species appears

To: L&L Knight <>
Subject: How not to behave when a vagrant species appears
From: Carl Clifford <>
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:55:48 +1100
Laurie,

If you Google "rose starling dead twitchers" you will find quite a few links to the story on a variety of sites and not just from the UK, so I think that there is probably a good deal of truth in the story. I personally find it quite plausible, based on my experiences with other birders in several countries. I have even seen what I thought were responsible birders throw rocks into bushes to flush a recalcitrant bird which had the hide to regard its own safety more highly than the birders desire to see it. This sort of behaviour is why I generally prefer to bird on my own.

Cheers,

Carl Clifford


On 19/01/2009, at 3:27 PM, L&L Knight wrote:

Well Carl,

There is limited information in the article. Was the bird only viewed by 80 twitchers over a three-day period [a rather low number for a rarite in the UK] or were there up to 80 twitchers at a time honing in on the bird? How close were the twitchers getting to the bird? Were they entering people's yards to get close to it?

You might certainly get an interesting scenario where a bird with a territorial call turned up in an area of limited visibility and several twitchers independently visiting the site started to play call recordings at the same time.

Regards, Laurie.

On 19/01/2009, at 11:40 AM, Carl Clifford wrote:

Dear all,

There is a down side to all-and-sundry knowing about a vagrant species turning up.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article65356.ece

Not that I am saying that any member of the list would behave in this manner, would they?

Cheers,

Carl Clifford
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