OK - a stab at what I would like to see - but as I don't run any of the
systems then it is not up to me!
A national birding discussion group - Birding-Aus is clearly the only real
candidate for that
Both national and state birdlines - here is where we get into middy waters
as Eremaea does a good job in the 6 or so state/areas that it covers but is
lacking in some places. But the Eremaea national birdline seems to get
little traffic, as people report national rarities more on Birding-Aus.
Would be nice in my humble opinion if all rare sightings went to Eremaea
rather then Birding-Aus and the relevant moderators decided whether to
escalate to the National one.
And finally a recording database of which the Atlas is the only serious
contender - again I would love it if Eremaea and Birdpedia moved out of this
area - but I do think there needs to be more consensus as to what is really
needed in this area. As I said - subspecies to me are essential. Many
birders (like myself) want to keep all of their lists in one place and
whilst the Atlas is great for formal surveys it is less good for "birds I
saw whilst driving from Melbourne to Canberra" - which are still valid for
my personal year list but not much good for scientists.
Finally I wonder about the long term future of any site that is maintained
and run essentially by one person. In the short history of the internet many
websites have come and gone. It is I guess my experience that individuals
are much more likely to have good ideas and implement them quickly than
organisations, but that organisations (such as BA and BOCA) are much more
likely to be around in some form or other running whatever passes for a
website in 50 years time than the excellent sites that today's dedicated
individuals run. So how does one harness the dedication and drive of the few
dedicated enthusiasts behind Birding-Aus, Eremaea, Birdpedia and others
whilst at the same time trying to ensure that their data will be still
available to researchers in 50 years time when unfortunately some of the
individuals behind these sites may no longer be as active as they are now!
2010/1/5 michael norris <>
> Hi Dave
>
> But what are the objectives of all these reporting/recording systems?
>
> It would be great if you and other people managing them were to set up a
> private blog or similar to work for greater clarity on what each of you is
> trying to achieve.
>
> For instance, Birdline Vic (on Eremaea) is ".....a site for the reporting
> of rare or unusual birds outside their normal range, unusually high or low
> numbers, early or late arrivals or departures for migrant species and
> interesting behaviour or unusual habitat usage.'
>
> So it's like the lists (also moderated and also unauthenticated) printed in
> the Bird Observer.
>
> Quite different from the Atlas which, to my mind, should be regarded as the
> authoritative archive for monitoring bird distributions (and sites). It
> also needs to be resourced properly (pay per view?), in the same way that
> Simon Mustoe proposes an "instant" rarity reporting system would need to be
> funded.
>
> Michael Norris
>
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