There are so many hits for "side hunt" related to the history of the bird
counts that it's hard to find other references to them that explain exactly
what they were. I found this one at:
http://archive.org/stream/cu31924073178224/cu31924073178224_djvu.txt
in a scanned copy of ""The American natural history; a foundation of useful
knowledge of the higher animals of North America", published 1904.
"You may be sure that whenever you find one
of these valuable birds at work, there is need for
him. To-day, a great many persons know their
value, and protect them. Occasionally, how-
ever, men who are so thoughtless or so mean as
to engage in the brutal pastime known as a "side
hunt," do lower themselves, and injure the land-
owners about them, by killing every woodpecker
that can be found, - for "points." If all farm-
ers only knew what a loss every "side hunt"
means to them, such wicked pastimes would not
be tolerated. "
If side hunt participants were happy to shoot woodpeckers to add to their score
then I assume they were shooting everything in sight.
Peter Shute
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Birding-Aus
> On Behalf Of
> Denise Goodfellow
> Sent: Monday, 17 February 2014 11:16 PM
> To: Eric Jeffrey
> Cc: birding-aus
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] the Great Backyard Bird Count
>
> Thanks Eric and Gary
>
> I've got quite a lot of this info for my PhD study of
> American birders, but had not heard of the "side hunt".
>
> Regards
> Denise
>
>
> On 17/2/14 9:29 PM, "Eric Jeffrey" <> wrote:
>
> > Denise
> >
> > Simply google Christmas bird count the go to the National Audubon
> > society history, which discusses how Frank Chapman led the
> use of the
> > CBC as am alternative to the side hunt.
> >
> > Eric Jeffrey
> > Falls Church VA
> > USA
> >
> > Sent from my iPhone
> >
> >> On Feb 17, 2014, at 12:55 AM, Denise Goodfellow
> >> <>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> Gary, do you have a reference for this information? I'd
> never heard
> >> of the "side hunt".
> >>
> >> Regards
> >> Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow
> >> PO Box 71, Darwin River,
> >> NT 0841
> >> 043 8650 835
> >>
> >> PhD candidate, SCU
> >> Vice-chair, Wildlife Tourism Australia
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>> On 17/2/14 7:05 AM, "Gary Davidson" <> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Hi Philip,
> >>> I don't know for certain why the GBBC is done in late winter, (in
> >>> North America), but I suspect that you're right in saying
> it is an
> >>> attempt to monitor resident birds exclusive of the neo-tropical
> >>> migrants that arrive from Central and South America in April and
> >>> May. The GBBC was conducted for several years in North
> America only,
> >>> before it was expanded to include other parts of the world. I do
> >>> know, however, the origin of the Christmas Bird Count (CBC).
> >>> In the late 1800's there was a tradition of the "side hunt" on
> >>> Christmas Day.
> >>> The idea was to go for a walk in the afternoon and shoot as many
> >>> birds and small mammals as you could! The CBC was proposed as an
> >>> alternative in New York in 1900. It has grown from that
> one group in
> >>> New York over 100 years ago to the tradition it is today. 60 000+
> >>> people participated in 2013.
> >>> In the breeding season the North American equivalent is
> the Breeding
> >>> Bird Survey (BBS) program. This is less publicised because it
> >>> requires participants to be able to identify birds by song. So
> >>> casual birders, cannot participate.
> >>> Gary Davidson
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Sunday, February 16, 2014 9:05:24 AM, Philip Veerman
> >>> <>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> There appears to be a tradition both in Europe and USA of doing
> >>> annual Northern Hemisphere bird counts in (the middle of)
> winter or
> >>> as a christmas day count. And publishing these results.
> It perplexes
> >>> me too as to why they do that then. Maybe because it is easier
> >>> without all the (more difficult to
> >>> identify) migrants such as the warblers, that would be present in
> >>> their summer. Maybe they are interested in tracking the
> population
> >>> changes of resident species.
> >>>
> >>> Philip
> >>>
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> From:
> >>> Birding-Aus
> On Behalf
> >>> Of Laurie Knight
> >>> Sent: Sunday, 16 February 2014 3:22 PM
> >>> To:
> >>> Subject: [Birding-Aus] No submissions from Darwin,Broome
> or the bulk
> >>> of the outback for the Great Backyard Bird Count
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> So far about 31,000 checklists have been submitted today.
> (I put in
> >>> two for my neighbourhood). If you look at the map
> >>> (http://ebird.org/ebird/gbbc/livesubs?siteLanguage=en
> >>> ), you can see the checklists being submitted in real time -
> >>> obviously a lot coming in from the USA. There is fairly good
> >>> coverage of NZ and southern India, but outback Aus
> observations are
> >>> few and far between.
> >>>
> >>> The number of species reported is currently 2713, so they
> are a fair
> >>> bit behind last year's total of 4258 species. I suspect
> there are
> >>> over 200 Australian species that could easily be added to
> the list
> >>> by people who have been out this weekend (any pelagics?)
> >>>
> >>> The one question I have is why did the Audubon society choose
> >>> February (the depths of winter in the northern
> hemisphere) for its
> >>> annual birdcount? Perhaps they were hoping for strong
> participation
> >>> rates from southern observers?
> >>>
> >>> Regards, Laurie.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> On 13/02/2014, at 6:19 PM, Laurie Knight wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> The Great Backyard Bird Count is Feb. 14-17. According to the
> >>>> following article, birders in 100 countries will be
> participating ...
> >>>>
> http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/11/global-backyar
> >>>> d-b
> >>>> ird-count/5233847/
> >>>>
> >>>> The deal is that participants do 15+ min bird list for a
> geographic
> >>> location and load their sightings on www.birdcount.org
> >>>>
> >>>> Regards, Laurie.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Birding-Aus mailing list
> >>>
> >>> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
> >>>
> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Birding-Aus mailing list
> >>>
> >>> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
> >>>
> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Birding-Aus mailing list
> >>
> >> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
> >> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Birding-Aus mailing list
>
> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
>
_______________________________________________
Birding-Aus mailing list
To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
|
