Interesting thought from Ed who wrote:
<Good luck back in Blighty Tony - you'll be back in a land with more Birders
than Birds!>
The obvious inference being that there are more birders in Britain than
species of birds or, alternatively, that Australia has more bird species
than actual birders. Do we really have fewer than about 1000 birders
throughout Australia?
In round ball figures, we have some 850 species; the Poms around 550.
However, perhaps the geographical maths can be a little more enlightening.
Our 850 include all those species recorded on the mainland [approx. 2 970
000sq. mls.], Australian Antarctic Territories [2 277 000 sq mls] and a few
other spots, including some 6 sq. mls of Cocos[Keeling] Islands. That's a
total of about 5 747 006 sq. mls of territory for 850 species of birds - or
around 1 bird species for every 6761 sq. mls.
The Poms, who do not count their 150 000 sq. mls of Antarctic territory, nor
their Indian Ocean possessions, stretch to 90 504 sq. mls. for 550 bird
species - or 1 species for every 165 sq. mls!
Again, if Australia is approximately 30 times bigger than Britain and the
Brits have 550 bird species, shouldn't our total be nearer 16 500 species
rather than the current meagre 850?
Or was that just a throw-away comment?
Happy birding to all throughout 2013.
Julian
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