birding-aus

BOTH BIRDS ARE ARCTIC TERNS

To: Simon Mustoe <>
Subject: BOTH BIRDS ARE ARCTIC TERNS
From: Laurie Knight <>
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2010 18:39:51 +1000
If you spend a bit of time on Birdforum, you will get an appreciation for why people from all round the world use it. Yes, most of the posts on Home > Forums > Rare Bird Sightings > Rare Bird Information relate to UK sightings, but anyone who wants to discover the identity of a bird they have photographed can get global feedback. Just the thing if you think you might have seen a bird that normally occurs in another continent.

Then again, perhaps it comes down to the high profile of Birdforum on the web.

LK

On 07/10/2010, at 6:21 PM, Simon Mustoe wrote:


I wasn't having a dig at bird forum. I was more interested in whether Australian birders would want something more immediate. I guess Bird Forum could never accommodate that because global birders aren't likely to want to twitch Arctic Terns in Victoria.

So why are birders from Australia putting these things on a global forum and not in any manner that causes information to get out quickly on the local birding networks? Is it that birders don't realise that the birds are rare? Don't realise others would like to see them? Don't care whether anyone else finds out locally? etc etc. I don't have the answers. All I know is that we don't really communicate bird sightings very well compared to other countries. If one wanted to twitch birds locally, it would be very hard to do so.

Just interested...not trying to have a go at anyone.

Regards,

Simon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Simon Mustoe
Tel: +61 (0) 405220830 | Skype simonmustoe | Email 


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> CC: 
> From: 
> To: 
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] BOTH BIRDS ARE ARCTIC TERNS
> Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2010 18:14:52 +1000
>
> Birdforum is a global forum, Simon.
>
> It is used by thousands of birders posting in a range of forums. Most
> go to the 'what bird is this' list, as was the case with the arctic
> tern thread - Home > Forums > Birding > Bird Identification Q&A >
> Smaller Terns from Melbourne, Australia. Sometimes the comments are
> very good, sometimes it's a case of the blind leading the blind.
>
> At the moment, there aren't many Birding-Aussers using that forum, so
> it took a while to get into our network.
>
> LK
>
>
> On 07/10/2010, at 1:59 PM, Simon Mustoe wrote:
>
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I've just been discussing these birds with Jeff Davies. The bird in
> > flight is also an Arctic Tern. It clearly has pale centres to the
> > primaries, lacks the dark wedge that one would expect on common, has
> > a short bill and white gape above the bill. It is also starting to
> > moult from the centre of the crown...thanks Jeff.
> >
> > In terms of the recent reports, can I just clarify:
> >
> > 1. There is a report of 2 terns from Mordialloc on the 2 / 3 October
> > (we don't know which date, as they are reported from different
> > dates, depending on which page of Eremaea we look at).
> > 2. There is a SEPARATE report of arctic terns from Portland. It was
> > initially unclear to me as the links provided by Rohan were to two
> > different records.
> >
> > I still need Arctic Tern and they can be a difficult bird in Aus. It > > seems odd to be finding out about these birds possibly 5 days after
> > the event, via a UK birding forum. From a completely personal
> > perspective, is there any way that we can try to get records like
> > this out to birders quickly? It would also be very useful to try to
> > ensure that birders accompany records with information relevant to
> > finding the bird. What we know about these Arctic Terns at present
> > is largely academic and though of some interest, it doesn't actually
> > help birders like me to find them.
> >
> > In the case of any coastal bird like this, tide is always very
> > useful. Was it high or low? Time of day is good - were the birds
> > seen am or pm? When was the last sighting? Finally (and most
> > importantly), where are they? Opposite what street? Or maybe a lat
> > and lon.
> >
> > This is all meant to be as constructive as possible, whilst at the
> > same time, drawing our attention to some clear shortfalls in the way > > we currently present information. If we raise the bar just a little
> > and provide better information we could make birding a lot more
> > accessible and rewarding.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Simon.
> >
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
> > Simon Mustoe
> > Tel: +61 (0) 405220830 | Skype simonmustoe | Email 

> >
> > Visit BIRD-O at http://www.bird-o.com
> > Follow BIRD-O on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/birdodotcom
> > Like BIRD-O on Facebook? Visit http://www.facebook.com/? ref=logo#!/
> > pages/Bird-O/117732794921095
> > Email BIRD-O at 
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> > send the message:
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> >
> > http://birding-aus.org
> >
>

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