birding-aus

The things that cause angst on Birding-Aus

To: Laurie Knight <>
Subject: The things that cause angst on Birding-Aus
From: Allan Richardson <>
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2011 13:52:56 +1100
Hopefully Laurie, the lack of discussion on the Wonga Beach incident means that 
everyone agreed that it was a bad thing, but on the other hand, there are 
different ways to look at the Balanagara proposal, both showing some merit. 

To some on the forum, the opinions expressed against Balanagara seem very harsh 
(we all know though, that emails don't come with the benefit of voice cues and 
facial expressions, so are easily misjudged), so they naturally go to their 
defence, because the cause seems good in principle and grew from principles we 
all admire. 

The Wong Beach incident can be looked at in the  some way to some degree, since 
we all enjoy looking at birds, however, those folk went about a noble endeavour 
in the wrong way. It may not be as confronting, but I think many are just 
saying Balanagara went about a good cause in the wrong way??

Kind Regards

Allan Richardson
Morisset NSW

On 19/11/2011, at 11:08 AM, Laurie Knight wrote:

> The discussion regarding the bulk posting from Balanagara soliciting funds 
> for it's lyrebird DVD production provides an interesting insight into the 
> online birding community.
> 
> It appears that the one thing that we dislike the most is being asked for 
> money  :)
> 
> One of the most annoying things about walking through the CBD are the 
> fundraisers on the street trying to get us to sign up for regular financial 
> contributions to their worthy cause.  We develop the ability to walk 
> purposefully so they know we aren't going to "buy" (and then they remember 
> not to look hopefully at us the next day when we pass them again).
> 
> The thing is that you never know whether people are what they say, so you 
> develop a natural suspicion of everyone asking for something, particularly if 
> they are doing in online, and especially if they are "cold calling".
> 
> Anyhow, it is interesting to compare the length of the tread on the 
> Balanagara spam to the follow-up to Del Richard's post about birders behaving 
> badly at Wonga Beach.  The behaviour of the birders intruding on private 
> property to twitch the Spotted Whistling Ducks illustrates an important 
> "cultural" issue that needs to be addressed by the birding community.
> 
> However, we don't want to talk about that.  We want to twitch Hoopoes and 
> avoid fundraisers.
> 
> ;)
> 
> The interesting thing about online forums like birding-aus is that they don't 
> appear to have a basis to reach and record consensus on issues like birder 
> behaviour, fundraising and organised activities ...
> 
> Regards, Laurie.
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