Hi,
I'd like to echo the sentiments of Rob Morris, Mick and others. Putting
together books like this is an extraordinary feat. It's taken years of
production.
Some failures to map sites correctly could come down to author error. In other
cases, it's due to lack of advice from Australian birders ... in at least one
recent example, the authors tried to get more information from a local expert
but it was not forthcoming, leaving them to use material that was available
from other sources, such as birding-aus. That's quite normal and the authors
have invited comments for future print runs for this reason.
So can those who criticise the book, suggest an alternative source of
information? Birding-aus seems to be considered one seminal source about
Australian birds - where to find them, what they look like etc.? There's no
doubt it's a fantastic archive but the information isn't quality-checked. There
is always information that's wrong, misleading, out of date and most of it is
buried in a mass of less than pleasant dialogue. So it takes a level of
expertise to weed out the relevant and reliable content but we don't hear it
criticised for that.
As I described in my review on Bird-O:
The exponential growth of birding info online has foregone attempts
to reasonably catalog it so far. Google searches increasingly throw up
content of varying quality, discordant and widely distributed in sites
that aren’t easy for an outsider to find. For reasons of time more than
anything else, it’s impractical for anyone – let alone any amateur
birder – to sweep the web and compile comprehensive information for a
trip. This is why The Complete Guide to Finding Birds of Australia is
an indispensable addition to the library of anyone looking for a
general introduction to bird finding on the continent. If Australian
birders are to find any small fault, it’ll be in the fine detail of some
local information. For this, there has had to be some trade-off. At 463
pages and for a mega-diversity continent like Australia, the
publication was an encyclopaedia undertaking.
http://bird-o.com/2011/03/09/book-review-the-complete-guide-to-finding-birds-of-australia/
So before attacking a well-produced second edition that has served the birding
community well for many many years, think about the alternatives and FOR THE
LOVE OF BIRDS, be nice to each other ; )
Regards,
Simon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Simon Mustoe
Tel: +61 (0) 405220830 | Skype simonmustoe | Email
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> Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:02:05 +0000
> From:
> To:
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Thomas & Thomas guides - for the world birder.
>
> I ought to put in my bit from an international perspective and especially as
> I
> know the Thomas duo (no financial interest, just supporting a classic book!).
>
> Richard kindly loaned me a pre-issue chapter for my Dec 10, trip to WA as the
> new book wasn't out then. Having used T & T 1st ed for my 11 visits from UK
> since the nineties it was the one book that I would always make room for in
> the
> limited hand luggage allowance, usually a jacket pocket! As it was
> originally
> written for the visiting (serious) birdwatchers from Europe rather than
> Australian folk the emphasis was on being a 'complete' guide and it surely
> fulfilled this niche for many years. I don't believe there has been a single
> publication since that one could use to the sort of level of detail. Written
> effectively before the Internet it was written very much following the old
> fashioned (more reliable?) paper trip report with proper sketch maps that we
> all
> used to write. So yes I discovered that Mt Magnet golf course wasn't there
> last
> December or at least there was no-one playing on the 'greens' but the new
> guide
> gives you the best all around info for finding your own birds something that
> seems to be a diminishing art nowadays as it seems to have become
> 'mandatory'
> to employ guides everywhere one goes birding. (Admittedly I used an excellent
> guide in Vic for the Plains Wanderer but then would I have ever found one
> myself
> before my visa expired!) Back to the point then, I think Oz birders
> shouldn't
> need to rely on the new T & T but for the international visitor who only
> wants
> one site guide along with a basic field guide there is no competition as yet.
>
> Must order my full version ready for next trip.
> Good birding..
> Matthew Rodgers,UK
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