Hi David,
Clearly not everyone is going to want to pay for a service reporting rare
birds - it's a fairly specialised area within birding to begin with, and
Australians take for granted that they can get birding information for free,
though the cost is sometimes speed or accuracy of said information. I also
know that a birding hotline just can't be run for free. The time involved
in manning it, checking facts and getting them online would be prohibitive.
I can't speak for Birds Australia anymore, but when I worked there,
something like a hotline would not have got a look in - this sort of thing
was just not a priority for the organisation as it was neither research nor
conservation, and the staff have more than enough on their plates as it is.
Things might have changed, however I suspect it would still not be
considered a responsible way to spend donated money to hire a staff member
for this kind of thing.
I think to make a hotline work it has to be a commercial venture, perhaps
supported in principle by Birds Australia, but run independently. The key
elements are that information is checked carefully, but distributed quickly,
and is to a high standard in terms of detailing where to find the birds as
well as access requirements and further information on habitat and behaviour
if possible. And yes, mistakes will be made occasionally, but one of the
great things about putting all the information out there for people to see
is that you can discuss and come to a consensus with everyone having the
evidence in front of them. I don't mind admitting when I'm wrong (like I
was with the Stints), and I think most birders I've met in my time would
agree that even great birders makes mistakes sometimes, but the best birders
are willing to admit to them. As for people being afraid to report
something rare because they won't be believed - I can assure you when I
worked at the Broome Bird Observatory that I took everyone's reports
seriously. If someone reported a difficult to identify rarity (like
Nordmann's Greenshank say) I would ask how they identified it and listen for
key field marks. If a photograph was available, great, but it didn't
preclude a report going out. Seriously, how sad would you be to learn
someone didn't report a national rarity in your area because they were
worried they wouldn't be believed? At the very least I would put out a
report as "possible" with directions to the site and a request for more
information.
Is the Australian birding community ready for something like this? Perhaps,
perhaps not. The next year or so will answer that for us. But I think we
have an opportunity here to improve the way birding information is collected
and distributed to birders in this country, and I for one think that can
only be a good thing.
Regards,
Chris Sanderson
On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 9:00 PM, David Stowe <>wrote:
> No offence to Simon, but having a number is one thing - having to pay for
> the service will cut out the vast majority. I consider myself to have
> twitching tendencies but $5 a month for something that won't be used that
> often isn't something that I personally would pay for. I suspect that this
> sentiment would be shared by alot of birders hence the slow take up of the
> service.
> I totally understand that we can't expect everything in birding to be free
> and that many many people give tirelessly to the birding community in a
> million different ways without perhaps a just reward.
> As has been said, if people don't report anything then no system will work
> - but especially one that we have to pay for.
> I agree that a national number is a great idea and having it in field
> guides would be fantastic. However I think for it to have a bigger take up
> rate etc it would be better for it to be incorporated into Birds Australia
> and therefore seen to be coming from arguably a more authoritative voice in
> Australian birding. I don't know the numbers but i would suggest alot more
> people are BA members than Birding-Aus members?
> (I'm no doubt in the minority here but I would also much more readily use a
> web/email based service than a phone service.)
> The other thing to bear in mind is that a very large number of birdwatchers
> may not feel confident in reporting something rare in the fear of getting it
> wrong. I thought it was excellent that Simon recently stated he was wrong
> about the Stint in Cairns, but most aren't confident enough to face that
> possibility, or in fact knowledgeable enough in the first place to pick a
> female Northern Pintail from a Grey Teal for example.
> Just my 2c anyway :)
>
> Cheers
> David Stowe
>
>
>
>
> On 26/07/2010, at 7:50 PM, Richard Baxter wrote:
>
> Excellent, I've put it in my phone, now how do we get it in the field
> guides??
>
> Cheers
> Richard
>
> There is one already. It's at the top of http://www.bird-o.com
>
> 02 6100 4425
>
> It's a local call anywhere in Australia. It goes to a message bank which
> tells you info to leave. If we need to, we'd call people back for
> clarification.
>
> Regards
> Simon
>
> --- On Mon, 26/7/10, Simon Mustoe <> wrote:
>
>
> From: Simon Mustoe <>
> Subject: RE: [Birding-Aus] RARITIES PHONE NUMBER
> To:
> Received: Monday, 26 July, 2010, 7:57 AM
>
>
>
>
> Richard,
>
> There is one already. It's at the top of http://www.bird-o.com
>
> 02 6100 4425
>
> It's a local call anywhere in Australia. It goes to a message bank which
> tells you info to leave. If we need to, we'd call people back for
> clarification.
>
> Regards,
>
> Simon.
>
>
>
> Get a free e-mail account with Hotmail. Sign-up now.
>
>
>
>
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