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7 Nov RE: Re: Recording data ["Andrew Bell" ] 7 Nov The name keeps changing, but the saga continues... [Luke Shelley ] 6 Nov Little Stint (South Drainage Lake, Woorinen VIC) follow up [Peter Lansley ] 7 Nov RE: Wildiaries versus Flickr ["Robert Inglis" ] 7 Nov RE: Wildiaries versus Flickr [Simon Mustoe ] 7 Nov Re: Wildiaries versus Flickr [Dave Torr ] 7 Nov RE: Hall's Babbler Fowler's Gap ["Jeff Davies" ] 5 Nov Re: Hall's Babbler Fowler's Gap ["Chris Brandis" ] 5 Nov RE: Hall's Babbler Fowler's Gap ["Tim Dolby" ] 5 Nov Re: Satin-Leaden Flycatchers again ["Graham Turner" ] 7 Nov Re: Re: Recording data ["Ross Macfarlane" ] 6 Nov RE: Wildiaries versus Flickr [Simon Mustoe ] 6 Nov Re: Twitter Problems [Chris ] 6 Nov Re: Twitter Problems [Chris ] 6 Nov Twitter Problems [Simon Mustoe ] 7 Nov Bowra Report (Short) ["Steve" ] 6 Nov Yellow-backed Lory - Not a new Australian Bird ["Philip Veerman" ] 6 Nov RE: Nepean Weir sightings ["Paul Dodd" ] 6 Nov Nepean Weir sightings [Ákos Lumnitzer ] 5 Nov Rfi. Duraki [John Hammond ] 6 Nov RE: Little Stint at Woorinen VIC 02 November 2009 [Peter Ewin ] 6 Nov Re: Yellow Backed Lory - Not a new Australian Bird ["Tom and Mandy Wilson" ] 5 Nov Re: Rare Bird Alert Website ["Wendy" ] 5 Nov crakes ["ninderry" ] 5 Nov RE: Pay for Rare Bird Alert...surely not? ["Tony Russell" ] 5 Nov Re: Rare Bird Alert Website [Peter Shute ] 6 Nov RE: Pay for Rare Bird Alert...surely not? ["Tony Russell" ] 6 Nov RE: One birder tackles the technology- TwitchathononTwitter ["Paul Dodd" ] 6 Nov RE: Re: Hall's Babbler Fowler's Gap [Peter Ewin ] 6 Nov Re: Night photography [Chris Charles ] 6 Nov Re: One birder tackles the technology- TwitchathononTwitter ["michael norris" ] 6 Nov Re: Pay for Rare Bird Alert...surely not? [Alistair McKeough ] 6 Nov RE: Pay for Rare Bird Alert...surely not? [Simon Mustoe ] 6 Nov Night photography [Ákos Lumnitzer ] 6 Nov Re: Pay for Rare Bird Alert...surely not? [David Stowe ] 6 Nov RE: Pay for Rare Bird Alert...surely not? [Peter Shute ] 6 Nov RE: Re: Recording data [Peter Shute ] 06 Nov Re: Recording data [] 6 Nov Re: Common-Uncommon-Rare [Dave Torr ] 6 Nov RE: Common-Uncommon-Rare ["Tim Dolby" ] 6 Nov Doth Feathers Maketh the Bird, or the Dinosaur? [Carl Clifford ] 6 Nov Common-Uncommon-Rare ["Pine Creek Pictures" ] 6 Nov Papua New Guinea visit Report No. 3 ["Pine Creek Pictures" ] 6 Nov Re: One birder tackles the technology- Twitchathon onTwitter [Alistair McKeough ] 6 Nov RE: One birder tackles the technology- Twitchathon onTwitter ["Tony Russell" ] 6 Nov Papua New Guinea Visit Report No. 3 ["Lisa & Dominic" ] 6 Nov Rare Bird Alert Website [Luke Shelley ] 06 Nov Birds Australia Rarities Committee website [Birds Australia Southern Queensland ] 6 Nov One birder tackles the technology- Twitchathon on Twitter ["Sean Dooley" ] 5 Nov Re: Rare Bird Alert Website [Gary Wright ] 5 Nov Re: Hall's Babbler Fowler's Gap ["Tim Dolby" ] 5 Nov rare bird alerts ["Pat OMalley" ] 5 Nov Tahiti Petrel and Black-bellied Stormie Photos [Simon Mustoe ] 5 Nov RE: Rare Bird Alerts Data Capture ["Tony Russell" ] 5 Nov RE: Rare Bird Alerts Data Capture [Simon Mustoe ] 5 Nov Re: Rare Bird Alerts Data Capture ["Rosemary Royle" ] 05 Nov Re: Rare Bird Alert Website [Ian May ] 5 Nov Hall's Babbler Fowler's Gap [Peter Waanders ] 05 Nov Black-bellied Storm Petrels off Sydney. ["Paul Walbridge" ] 5 Nov RE: BARC website ["Billinghurst, David (RTATECH)" ] 5 Nov Re: Satin-Leaden Flycatchers again [Rod Gardner ] 5 Nov RE: Rare Bird Alerts Data Capture [Simon Mustoe ] 5 Nov Re: BARC website [Alistair McKeough ] 04 Nov Re: [Birding-Aus] Australian Painted Snipe in Dubbo ["Colin R" ] 4 Nov BARC website [Alistair McKeough ] 5 Nov Re: Red-necked Crake etc. ["Alan Gillanders" ] 5 Nov Re: Rare Bird Alert Website [David Richardson ] 5 Nov Re: Rare Bird Alerts Data Capture [David Stowe ] 4 Nov Rare Bird Alerts Data Capture [Richard Baxter ] 5 Nov RE: Rare Bird Alert Website [Peter Shute ] 5 Nov RE: Rare Bird Alert Operator ["Tony Russell" ] 5 Nov RE: Rare Bird Alert Website ["Tony Russell" ] 5 Nov RE: [Birding-Aus] Australian Painted Snipe in Dubbo ["Tony Russell" ] 5 Nov Darwin, Little Grebe still present... ["Peter Kyne" ] 5 Nov Re: Pay for Rare Bird Alert...surely not? [David Stowe ] 5 Nov Rare Bird Alert Operator [Carl Clifford ] Subject: RE: Re: Recording data From: "Andrew Bell" <andrew AT bells.id.au> Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009 21:30:37 +0930 I recently purchased Bird Journal. It's very user friendly uses C&B as an option for Australian lists. It's main issue is that it is new and its reports are a bit limited at present but they seem keen on feedback. Its good as far as locations, and creating location specific lists but doesn't do reports by site and date range together at present, so not so good for multiday trip reports. I've goven them some suggestions for flexible reporting and am waiting to see what the next update includes. It downloads into a format that can be uploaded to eBird. I have found I can move lists from it to Eremaea but I have to do quite a fiddle with the CSV file in excel to make it work. Worth downloading the trial verion, I was soon hooked by its usability and intuitiveness. Andrew Bell Katherine -----Original Message----- From: birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au [mailto:birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of Ross Macfarlane Sent: Saturday, 7 November 2009 11:05 AM To: mandmyoung AT optusnet.com.au; birding-aus AT vicnet.net.au Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Re: Recording data Mark, If you're using Excel and the steps you do to create a chart are always the same, you could try recording the steps as a macro. It's pretty tricky & advanced but if you are relatively computer literate it could be worth a try. Effectively what happens is you create the charts once while having the macro recording function switched on, and Excel records the steps. Save the macro (you can give it a name) and next time you just execute the macro and it runs all the sequential steps automatically on a new data set. Ross Macfarlane ----- Original Message ----- From:Subject: The name keeps changing, but the saga continues... From: Luke Shelley <ldshelle AT gmail.com> Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009 22:05:55 +1100 Simon, Good approach - add to that a good understanding of 'usability' and I think you have a winning formula. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability I know that many of you are great birders, and there are some great web skills and ideas too, but usability is severely lacking in just about everything I see on the web (birding wise) at the moment. Again, I am not here to just criticise, and I am not coming at this from the angle of ideas that will benefit me - I am trying to present ideas that benefit everyone. If anyone is genuinely interested in my opinion, please email me directly. -- Luke =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: Little Stint (South Drainage Lake, Woorinen VIC) follow up From: Peter Lansley <bluenuthatch AT yahoo.com.au> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 18:20:29 -0800 (PST) Hi all, in response to my postings on the Little Stint on Eremaea (Birdline Victoria) & birding-aus, Peter Ewin wrote:Subject: RE: Wildiaries versus Flickr From: "Robert Inglis" <inglisrc AT tpg.com.au> Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009 23:45:19 +1000 I am having trouble with "Wildiaries" (very strange spelling). If I 'Google' "wildiaries" (it took me a while to realise there is only one 'd') the first choice I am presented with is a site with the URL wildiaries.com/. If I 'click' on the link to that site I reach a page titled "wildiaries wildiaries" (I do so hate the lack of capitalisation that is rife these days!). What I see is one of the strangest web-pages I have ever seen. There appears to be some 'links' at the top of the page but when I 'click' on one, e.g., "birds"...........nothing happens. Except there is a message at the bottom left of my screen saying "! error on page". Obviously I am doing something wrong............but what? Do I have to 'subscribe' to the site to be able to access the wonders being touted or am I using the wrong web-browser? I use Internet Explorer 7. However, if, for example, I click on the link provided to Chris Sanderson's Southport pelagic report (in a recent posting to BirdingAus) I go to a page obviously on the same web-site as the one mentioned above but containing the report and several medium quality photos. The photos look like they are in a sort of gallery but it is not possible to simply view the photos in sequence as is the case in most on-line galleries I have encountered before. One has to return to the 'front page' after viewing each photo to select the next photo to be viewed. This can be a very time consuming and frustrating process......enough so that I don't think I have ever stayed around long enough to view a complete set of photos on any of the similar Wildiaries reports I have so far tried to view. Once again, I may be doing something wrong............but what? In its current iteration I don't think I would be interested in posting any trip reports on Wildiaries, sorry. Cheers Bob Inglis Sandstone Point Qld Australia http://users.tpg.com.au/inglisrc/ =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: RE: Wildiaries versus Flickr From: Simon Mustoe <simonmustoe AT hotmail.com> Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009 06:23:26 +0000 Dave, No room on this forum for taking such suggestions badly...this is a very fruitful and informative discussion. Birding-aus has, in the last few months, reached a point of maturity and is providing some very important dialogue on peak birding matters. The only things I would say are: 1. There is no excuse these days for data being lost. Feeding data to a conservation group is a synch. However, backing up isn't always something that is done properly. 2. It isn't always that east to give away data freely. In fact, trying to sell something 'free' is more difficult than you may imagine. I know it was many years before Eremaea's data started to be seen as something useful. 3. Conservation groups are also ephemeral, but mostly in terms of funding. Occasional funding, however large, will always result in something that is great to start with but can easily flop later. In fact, the impetus to keep it up depends on the individuals who run it, so it's not that different to the 'hobby' sites you refer to. For my part, a solid business plan, good understanding of social networking, and highly diverse potential is the key to success. I am quite excited about where all this might head in the next couple of years. Cheers, Simon. Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009 16:39:38 +1100 Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Wildiaries versus Flickr From: davidtorr AT gmail.com To: simonmustoe AT hotmail.com CC: youcantryreachingme AT yahoo.com.au; birding-aus AT vicnet.net.au A couple of further comments of a general nature which I hope Simon and others who run useful sites here will not take badly :-) I must confess that whilst I have looked at (but not contributed to) Wildiaries and Flickr I have never looked at Twitter or Facebook so that makes me extremely well qualified to comment? To a certain extent this is a classic case of the small company versus the large one. The small sites tend to be very responsive to requests for changes. I know that the owners of both Eremaea and Birdpedia (which has not really been included in the posts I have looked at but is another very useful site) have been very helpful when I have wanted to interface with them both for my own now-defunct site and for the BOCA site. I suspect that such a level of co-operation and willingness to modify their sites would not be forthcoming from the "big boys". This of course is primarily because all these small sites are being run (I suspect) mainly as a hobby and a service to the birding community - whereas the "big boys" run their sites to make money. This raises the second point - successful big sites are likely to continue for as long as they make money - and when they stop making money (or fail to start making money) are likely to disappear - there have been many examples of this over the brief life of the Internet and there will be many more in future. "Hobby" sites (and please do not take this as derogatory term) are likely to be run for as long as the owner has an interest and/or is capable of supporting the site. Hopefully the owners of such sites have some plans as to what will happen when this is no longer the case - I know that at least one of them has - otherwise we stand to lose as a birding community an awful lot of data when the inevitable happens. (Remember birders that whilst it is great to share your sightings, trip reports, photos etc. with others online, do not rely on such systems to hold your only copy of such information!) I guess the "best" option is the sites that are run by organisations such as BA and BOCA (vested interest in the latter one I must confess!) - these organisations have so far lasted a very long time and thus are less likely to disappear than either the "hobby" sites or the big commercial sites. But equally - with the exception of the Atlas/Birdata - they are probably not so innovative as the others! 2009/11/7 Simon MustoeSubject: Re: Wildiaries versus Flickr From: Dave Torr <davidtorr AT gmail.com> Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009 16:39:38 +1100 A couple of further comments of a general nature which I hope Simon and others who run useful sites here will not take badly :-) I must confess that whilst I have looked at (but not contributed to) Wildiaries and Flickr I have never looked at Twitter or Facebook so that makes me extremely well qualified to comment? To a certain extent this is a classic case of the small company versus the large one. The small sites tend to be very responsive to requests for changes. I know that the owners of both Eremaea and Birdpedia (which has not really been included in the posts I have looked at but is another very useful site) have been very helpful when I have wanted to interface with them both for my own now-defunct site and for the BOCA site. I suspect that such a level of co-operation and willingness to modify their sites would not be forthcoming from the "big boys". This of course is primarily because all these small sites are being run (I suspect) mainly as a hobby and a service to the birding community - whereas the "big boys" run their sites to make money. This raises the second point - successful big sites are likely to continue for as long as they make money - and when they stop making money (or fail to start making money) are likely to disappear - there have been many examples of this over the brief life of the Internet and there will be many more in future. "Hobby" sites (and please do not take this as derogatory term) are likely to be run for as long as the owner has an interest and/or is capable of supporting the site. Hopefully the owners of such sites have some plans as to what will happen when this is no longer the case - I know that at least one of them has - otherwise we stand to lose as a birding community an awful lot of data when the inevitable happens. (Remember birders that whilst it is great to share your sightings, trip reports, photos etc. with others online, do not rely on such systems to hold your only copy of such information!) I guess the "best" option is the sites that are run by organisations such as BA and BOCA (vested interest in the latter one I must confess!) - these organisations have so far lasted a very long time and thus are less likely to disappear than either the "hobby" sites or the big commercial sites. But equally - with the exception of the Atlas/Birdata - they are probably not so innovative as the others! 2009/11/7 Simon MustoeSubject: RE: Hall's Babbler Fowler's Gap From: "Jeff Davies" <jeff AT jeffdavies.com.au> Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009 13:42:06 +1100 G'day Tim, Their residence at Gundabooka Nat Park is another 150 km closer to Mootwingee than Brewarrina. Cheers Jeff. -----Original Message----- From: birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au [mailto:birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of Tim Dolby Sent: Thursday, 5 November 2009 5:10 PM To: Peter Waanders; Birding Aus Subject: RE: [Birding-Aus] Hall's Babbler Fowler's Gap Hi Peter, I'm not sure about Fowler's Gap Research Station, but they are found nearby at Mutawintji (Mootwingee) National Park, 130 km nth of Broken Hill. Restricted to the gorge systems of Mutawintji (such as Amphitheatre Gorge), they are also present within the restricted northern area of the park. They are also recorded recently around the township of Brewarrina, east of Mutawintji. Hall's Babbler are listed in the 'Birds of the Milparinka District and Cooper Creek Basin' (which is perhaps where you saw the reference to Fowler's Gap?) by E Wyndham, Emu 78 (4) 179 - 187. Really interested to hear if any other records turn up Peter. Cheers, Tim Dolby -----Original Message----- From: birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au on behalf of Peter Waanders Sent: Thu 11/5/2009 4:35 PM To: Birding Aus Subject: [Birding-Aus] Hall's Babbler Fowler's Gap Hi birders, I recently came across a mention of Hall's Babbler for the Fowlers Gap Research Station in far-western NSW (north of Broken Hill). Does anyone know if they're actually present at this location? Has anyone been there? cheers Peter ==========www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ========== This email, including any attachment, is intended solely for the use of the intended recipient. It is confidential and may contain personal information or be subject to legal professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use, disclosure, reproduction or storage of it is unauthorised. If you have received this email in error, please advise the sender via return email and delete it from your system immediately. Victoria University does not warrant that this email is free from viruses or defects and accepts no liability for any damage caused by such viruses or defects. ==========www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au =========== =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: Re: Hall's Babbler Fowler's Gap From: "Chris Brandis" <cbrandis AT speedlink.com.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 19:39:54 +1100 Hi Peter They are at Mutawintji NP, about 50 km to the east, and we saw them where the road from White Cliffs meets the Silver City Hwy about 150 Km to the north. Cheers Chris. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Waanders"Subject: RE: Hall's Babbler Fowler's Gap From: "Tim Dolby" <Tim.Dolby AT vu.edu.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 17:09:40 +1100 Hi Peter, I'm not sure about Fowler's Gap Research Station, but they are found nearby at Mutawintji (Mootwingee) National Park, 130 km nth of Broken Hill. Restricted to the gorge systems of Mutawintji (such as Amphitheatre Gorge), they are also present within the restricted northern area of the park. They are also recorded recently around the township of Brewarrina, east of Mutawintji. Hall's Babbler are listed in the 'Birds of the Milparinka District and Cooper Creek Basin' (which is perhaps where you saw the reference to Fowler's Gap?) by E Wyndham, Emu 78 (4) 179 - 187. Really interested to hear if any other records turn up Peter. Cheers, Tim Dolby -----Original Message----- From: birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au on behalf of Peter Waanders Sent: Thu 11/5/2009 4:35 PM To: Birding Aus Subject: [Birding-Aus] Hall's Babbler Fowler's Gap Hi birders, I recently came across a mention of Hall's Babbler for the Fowlers Gap Research Station in far-western NSW (north of Broken Hill). Does anyone know if they're actually present at this location? Has anyone been there? cheers Peter ==========www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ========== This email, including any attachment, is intended solely for the use of the intended recipient. It is confidential and may contain personal information or be subject to legal professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use, disclosure, reproduction or storage of it is unauthorised. If you have received this email in error, please advise the sender via return email and delete it from your system immediately. Victoria University does not warrant that this email is free from viruses or defects and accepts no liability for any damage caused by such viruses or defects. ==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Re: Satin-Leaden Flycatchers again From: "Graham Turner" <origma AT ozemail.com.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 16:53:25 +1100 In my experience there are many calls in common but the Satin does an 'eee-cheuuu' call that the Leaden does not. (This call is similar to one that the white-naped Honeyeater does, if that's of help to anyone, though this honeyeater has a very large range of calls). Has anyone else found this? Cheers Graham Turner ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rod Gardner"Subject: Re: Re: Recording data From: "Ross Macfarlane" <rmacfarl AT alphalink.com.au> Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009 12:34:45 +1100 Mark, If you're using Excel and the steps you do to create a chart are always the same, you could try recording the steps as a macro. It's pretty tricky & advanced but if you are relatively computer literate it could be worth a try. Effectively what happens is you create the charts once while having the macro recording function switched on, and Excel records the steps. Save the macro (you can give it a name) and next time you just execute the macro and it runs all the sequential steps automatically on a new data set. Ross Macfarlane ----- Original Message ----- From:Subject: RE: Wildiaries versus Flickr From: Simon Mustoe <simonmustoe AT hotmail.com> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 23:33:53 +0000 Chris, Wildiaries does all this. It is not as refined as Flickr, yet, but we're working on refining the image management and location user interface at the moment. The benefit over Flickr is that the site is devoted to wildlife and conservation and that we are tailoring it to your needs. In response to your points: FLICKR In sets: you could, for example, have a set for "2009" and another for "Raptors" and another for "Central Australia". You can then put a single photo into multiple sets. WILDIARIES You can create photo galleries within photos galleries - http://wildiaries.com/users/75-Odonutter/gallery_types/custom/galleries/3/pictures. You can add images to galleries when you tag photos in a trip - note, the current image tagging functionality is being replaced with a much simpler Java-based image tagging tool next week some time, which will enable multiple species tagging. You can also individually tag and manage images later. FLICKR Using tags: further, you can add tags, or keywords to your photos. Obvious ones are the species name, but many of the "field guide" groups that exist go right up through genus, family, order, etc. Want to search for all your records for a given species? search for the tags. WILDIARIES It allows you to tag by species, gender, latitude / longitude, caption (tags can be added here, comma separated) are all added to images. Images are auto-tagged to trip and user. It automatically generates species pages in your diary (see mine here: http://wildiaries.com/users/75-Odonutter/gallery_types/species/galleries). Note, this is my page for all my overall Wildiaries sites - I am a member of multiple ones, so I have diaries for herps, birds, mammals, dragonflies and butterflies. This way, I can track everything at once. This is my birding diary: http://aussiebirding.wildiaries.com/users/75-Odonutter. I also have one for my world marine trips. I can create a Wildiaries site for any group of animals anywhere in the world...just ask! FLICKR Using groups: if several of you join a single group and submit all your records to the one group, you'll quickly get a big picture WILDIARIES It allows users to collaborate on trip reports. Multiple people can write the text and upload images for one trip. Here is an example that Chris Sanderson and I did: http://aussiebirding.wildiaries.com/trips/142. There is no limit. A tour group can, for example, create a trip and have clients generate the content. FLICKR Geographic location: this is the killer - you can browse maps of the world and drag your photos to the location you took them. You can also browse maps and say "show me all records for the map that's currently on my screen" WILDIARIES You type a lat and lon / browse Google Maps and then upload your photos to there. In due course, we'll read image meta data. This will let us take the lat and lon from your images directly (if you have a GPS-enabled camera). I agree, drag and drop is really good. We don't have this at the moment but it is on the 'to do' list. This is a very useful post for me though. It reflects some of the comments from others, so we have a list of items to work on. However, there are a heap of other things we can do as well (which Flickr can't / won't). Flickr, like a lot of large non-niche websites are not designed to do wildlife social networking. I go back to my original comment - the tools out there do some, but not all of the things, that wildlife enthusiasts want. ...Keep in touch. I am always interested in hearing more. Simon. Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 15:09:15 -0800 From: youcantryreachingme AT yahoo.com.au Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Twitter Problems To: simonmustoe AT hotmail.com CC: birding-aus AT vicnet.net.au For what it's worth, Twitter is planning to allow users to access all past messages (making it no longer ephemeral). In my opinion, social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook can be good for posting out announcements because people are using such sites as a "one stop shop" for getting updates from sources they value. RSS feeds are similar in the sense that if I run my own website with a "what's new" column and make the news feed available via RSS, then others could grab that feed, along with feeds of other items of interest. The difference here is that "my own website" should retain an archive of information long into the future (which is good) but setting up RSS feeds is that much more tedious for your audience (in comparison, say, to following someone on Twitter), which is bad. How's this for a suggestion? Use Flickr. Why? You might not even have a photo of your bird. Because with flickr you can organise your photos in many useful ways. (Instead of a photo, just use a dummy image - or take a camera with you and when you see a species, write it down, and the number sighted, and photograph the words - this is important, because the photo will give you a date and timestamp). * In sets: you could, for example, have a set for "2009" and another for "Raptors" and another for "Central Australia". You can then put a single photo into multiple sets. * Using tags: further, you can add tags, or keywords to your photos. Obvious ones are the species name, but many of the "field guide" groups that exist go right up through genus, family, order, etc. Want to search for all your records for a given species? search for the tags. * Using groups: if several of you join a single group and submit all your records to the one group, you'll quickly get a big picture * Geographic location: this is the killer - you can browse maps of the world and drag your photos to the location you took them. You can also browse maps and say "show me all records for the map that's currently on my screen" I track sightings records for Tasmanian tigers and have used Google Earth to do so. That's fine for presenting a bit of a tour, but in order to make the data really searchable you need to be able to come to each record by different means, not just location. For example, using tags, sets and the map you could answer the question "which species did I see with Birdwatch Group X in the Royal National Park in 2006?" (PS, of course, each photo - or sighting record - can have a title and description too). Chris. From: Simon MustoeSubject: Re: Twitter Problems From: Chris <youcantryreachingme AT yahoo.com.au> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 15:17:56 -0800 (PST) For a practical example of Flickr, here is a photo of Saiphos equalis - the three-toed skink - which I took in Peakhurst : http://www.flickr.com/photos/youcantryreachingme/3941612252/ At a glance you can see: * my photostream (all my photos in the order uploaded - like a news feed) * Australian Wildlife set * Lizards set * It's in the Oatley Park and Hurstville Bushland group * The tags: "three-toed skink", skink, lizard, saiphos and equalis * It was taken in Peakhurst Heights, Sydney, and you can click through to the map * Comments and description. If you click the map link you get further links to "see nearby photos and video" and "go to the map" which will show you all my items from that area. Chris. ________________________________ From: ChrisSubject: Re: Twitter Problems From: Chris <youcantryreachingme AT yahoo.com.au> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 15:09:15 -0800 (PST) For what it's worth, Twitter is planning to allow users to access all past messages (making it no longer ephemeral). In my opinion, social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook can be good for posting out announcements because people are using such sites as a "one stop shop" for getting updates from sources they value. RSS feeds are similar in the sense that if I run my own website with a "what's new" column and make the news feed available via RSS, then others could grab that feed, along with feeds of other items of interest. The difference here is that "my own website" should retain an archive of information long into the future (which is good) but setting up RSS feeds is that much more tedious for your audience (in comparison, say, to following someone on Twitter), which is bad. How's this for a suggestion? Use Flickr. Why? You might not even have a photo of your bird. Because with flickr you can organise your photos in many useful ways. (Instead of a photo, just use a dummy image - or take a camera with you and when you see a species, write it down, and the number sighted, and photograph the words - this is important, because the photo will give you a date and timestamp). * In sets: you could, for example, have a set for "2009" and another for "Raptors" and another for "Central Australia". You can then put a single photo into multiple sets. * Using tags: further, you can add tags, or keywords to your photos. Obvious ones are the species name, but many of the "field guide" groups that exist go right up through genus, family, order, etc. Want to search for all your records for a given species? search for the tags. * Using groups: if several of you join a single group and submit all your records to the one group, you'll quickly get a big picture * Geographic location: this is the killer - you can browse maps of the world and drag your photos to the location you took them. You can also browse maps and say "show me all records for the map that's currently on my screen" I track sightings records for Tasmanian tigers and have used Google Earth to do so. That's fine for presenting a bit of a tour, but in order to make the data really searchable you need to be able to come to each record by different means, not just location. For example, using tags, sets and the map you could answer the question "which species did I see with Birdwatch Group X in the Royal National Park in 2006?" (PS, of course, each photo - or sighting record - can have a title and description too). Chris. ________________________________ From: Simon MustoeSubject: Twitter Problems From: Simon Mustoe <simonmustoe AT hotmail.com> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 22:13:58 +0000 Hi, Understanding which social networking tools to use, is a big hurdle for most people. Let's take Twitter as an example. Rampant use of TwitterFeed is starting to dilute the value of what could be a very useful tool for birding. TwitterFeed takes the posts from a website and then automatically feeds them out via Twitter. Then just imagine, another person can take a feed this TwitterFeed and feed it out again, and so on. With respect to Russell (sorry Russell, I hope you don't mind this public opinion, but it's important), I noticed that this is how the birdline twitter sites are done...the problem is, that it doesn't actually work...I get the message 'too many tweets' and I can't access content. You can imagine that the ultimate benefit will be lost. The basic fact is that you can see this content just by visiting the Eremaea site, so why bother? Secondly, twitter is ephemeral. There will be no permanent record of the information gathered. If I recall, something like 2 months until messages drop off into the ether. Twitter is about immediate promotion to the world. It is not the right tool for automatically syndicating content and it is not the right tool if we have any interest in using posts to generate sightings information. For many of the social networking tools (Twitter, Facebook etc) there are too many negatives that, in my view, outweigh the benefits that would be needed for a sustainable system FOR CONSERVATION and BIRDING (let's face it, there is no point in doing this if this isn't the main objective). Here is a bit of information that may help people understand more about where to put their information. Note, all the tools for birding are there already. Use them wisely and draw on their strengths. A few rules of engagement: Your personal website is more important than any other. However, be realistic, your website will never reach its full potential unless you SHARE. Make sure you track your website using Google Analytics (easy to set up). Place all your information on your own website, (or the free one that best suits your needs), but promote yourself widely using the range of available networking tools (see below). Don't be shy...the true value of your content is when it is seen by lots of others, not just by you. Understand the strengths and purpose of the different networking tools (see below). ONLY use them for the purpose that they were designed.Do not be tempted to do too much. Sending every message to all the twitter feeds, every discussion forum etc will be a waste of your time and may annoy others. Post content that is relevant and interesting.Make sure you link to content that is 'rich'. There should ideally be some depth and supporting information to your content.For more information, see http://blog.wildiaries.com HOW THE DIFFERENT BIRDING SITES WORK --------------------------------------------------- BIRDLINE AUSTRALIA / EREMAEA (Web) - run by Richard and Margaret Alcorn. Use this to submit information about rarities. Access their pages here: http://www.eremaea.com/BirdlineRecentSightings.aspx?Birdline=6 FORUMS (DISCUSSION) - BirdingOz - Craig Miller's site, aimed at raising the profile of Australia's birding photographers. Very useful thread-based discussion forum, distinctly different from Birding-Aus. It caters for lots of select groups, wanting to discuss particular issues in small sub-forums. http://www.birdingoz.com.au/ FORUMS (LISTSERVER) - Birding-Aus - A one-stop-shop place for reaching the majority of mainstream birders in Australia, in one hit. Copy information of great relevance to the ENTIRE birding community here. Anything that you post to BirdingOz or Eremaea could end up here. Make use of links, so you can send people, if necessary, back to your rich content. TRIP REPORTS (BIRDING DIARY) - Wildiaries - Designed so you can keep a diary of your activities over time and provide rich content. Post your best images along with text from your trips. Because images and sightings are associated with locations, it provides a lasting record of birding activity and contributes to a growing database of information about Australian species. Links directly back to your own website. You can even embed your trips in your blog / website using iframe (like embedding a YouTube video). Regards, Simon. _________________________________________________________________ New Windows 7: Simplify what you do everyday. Find the right PC for you. http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/buy/==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Bowra Report (Short) From: "Steve" <smurray AT uqconnect.net> Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009 06:51:50 +1000 Hello all.. I've just returned from my third trip to Bowra Station in Western Queensland. I have now sampled Bowra in Autumn, Winter and Spring, so I guess Summer will be next! Each time I go there it is a different experience with different species being prominent. E.g., in May 2008 Budgerigars, Diamond Doves, Crimson Chats & Zebra Finches were all abundant.this time those species were scarce and I did not see one Budgie! The major difference this time was to experience Bowra after rain (3 days of heavy rain in fact). This made it very dodgy for two wheeled drive and we almost got bogged driving in (especially when we had to stop for a very silly cow!). Our movement around the station was severely curtailed but we still managed 82 species and had two full days of great birding. Two lifers for me were Black-eared Cuckoo and Little Woodswallow. A full species list and Photos have been uploaded to http://aussiebirding.wildiaries.com/ if anyone is interested. Cheers Steve Murray =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: Yellow-backed Lory - Not a new Australian Bird From: "Philip Veerman" <pveerman AT pcug.org.au> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 23:24:58 +1100 Tom. A few years ago I wrote to one of these calendar companies with some suggestions relating to several incorrect captions and their hideous grammar (things like Queens Birthday instead of Queen's Birthday - as though there are many queens, all with the same birthday - even though it is not her birthday). It is far from unusual to have errors in these things. I received an invitation to work on the next year's calendars, which I did (not just their bird ones but a couple others as well). My recollection is that my suggestions on identification, spelling and grammar and not least that they also had in their draft, one picture shown at 90 degrees wrong, were all incorporated into the next year's calendars, which was nice. It was a few hours work to do that and I think they sent me a sample pack of them for that year. The following year I wrote to them again offering to help and never got a reply. Then again you get these awful glossy calendars from America called "eagles" and all their pictures (all 12 of them) show the Bald Eagle, one and only one species, apparently in ignorance that there are lots of species of eagles. And the Bald Eagle isn't even a real eagle, it is just a sea-eagle! In answer to your question they probably do have a proof reading process but unless they ask someone sensible and independent it is probably pretty slack. If any tourist just goes by what shows in calendars or at least those not produced by reputable organisations, they would be poorly advised. Philip Veerman 24 Castley Circuit Kambah ACT 2902 02 - 62314041 -----Original Message----- From: birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au [mailto:birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of Tom and Mandy Wilson Sent: Friday, 6 November 2009 8:16 PM To: birding-aus Subject: [Birding-Aus] Re: Yellow Backed Lory - Not a new Australian Bird This one didn't seem to make it yesterday.... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom and Mandy Wilson"Subject: RE: Nepean Weir sightings From: "Paul Dodd" <paul AT angrybluecat.com> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 22:07:27 +1100 Hi Akos, I am not a Birdline moderator, but as a keen supporter of the Birdlines and also an interested party to the recent thread on a rare bird alert system I thought I'd offer my two bob's worth on this one. I don't suppose that anyone thought your sighting of a Superb Lyrebird was in any way "boring". I would not equate "not unusual or rare" with boring in any way. As a keen bird watcher, I take as much pleasure in seeing common birds, or indeed special birds like a lyrebird doing their thing as I do in seeing something rare. And being familiar with some of your photos, I'm sure that you feel the same way. However, the purpose of Birdline is "for the reporting of rare or unusual birds outside their normal range, unusually high or low numbers, early or late arrivals or departures for migrant species and interesting behaviour or unusual habitat usage" (quoting the website). So whilst your lyrebird may not have fallen into any of these categories, some of your other sightings may well have - I don't know about Nepean Weir, but if we were to have two Black Bitterns flying in formation in Melbourne, you can be damn sure *that* sighting would be reported to Birdline. On the other hand, birding-aus is the perfect forum for reporting or noting sightings, experiences and generally discussing birds, birding and all things related. Paul Dodd Docklands, Victoria -----Original Message----- From: birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au [mailto:birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of Ákos Lumnitzer Sent: Friday, 6 November 2009 6:43 PM To: Birding-Aus mailing list Subject: [Birding-Aus] Nepean Weir sightings Hi birders I was thinking of reporting this sighting to Birdline, but decided not to due to a recent experience when one of the moderators kindly dismissed my report of a wonderful male Superb Lyrebird. Though he (the Lyrebird, I think I better clarify that though nothing would surprise me) was feeding on worms and grubs and mimicking a dozen or so species yet in the moderator's words the observation was not unusual or rare. Perhaps not unusual as it is a common bird supposedly and what it was doing was normal and maybe someone of legend twitcher or birder status sees that on every outing (I'd LOVE to see THAT!), but arguably for 95% of the bird observing and appreciating folks out there, which does include a birding virgin in the presence of yours truly in the real bird world, it would be an incredible sighting and not something they would often witness so most certainly something more than worthy to share. By the way, I am still waiting for some definition from this person on what constitutes a rarity and what should/should not be reported. So, my common and boring, normal, everyday, mundane and not noteworthy bird sightings at my local haunt yesterday included two Black Bitterns flying about 15m above the river in formation, two Rainbow Bee-eaters (male presenting dragonflies to the lady twice) and a pair of Collared Sparrowhawks, which I think may well have a nest on an island in the middle of the river, nest TBC. I hope your days are filled with far more exciting sightings than those poor, sad birds. :) Oh, I also forgot to mention the boring little Musk Lorikeets and Little Lorikeets that have been keeping me company about 35 meters from my home for the past two weeks. Two species I have never seen in my western Sydney suburbs in the eight years since I lived there. Cheers -- Ákos Lumnitzer =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au =============================== No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.425 / Virus Database: 270.14.52/2483 - Release Date: 11/05/09 19:52:00 ==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Nepean Weir sightings From: Ákos Lumnitzer <akos AT amatteroflight.com> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 18:43:10 +1100 Hi birders I was thinking of reporting this sighting to Birdline, but decided not to due to a recent experience when one of the moderators kindly dismissed my report of a wonderful male Superb Lyrebird. Though he (the Lyrebird, I think I better clarify that though nothing would surprise me) was feeding on worms and grubs and mimicking a dozen or so species yet in the moderator's words the observation was not unusual or rare. Perhaps not unusual as it is a common bird supposedly and what it was doing was normal and maybe someone of legend twitcher or birder status sees that on every outing (I'd LOVE to see THAT!), but arguably for 95% of the bird observing and appreciating folks out there, which does include a birding virgin in the presence of yours truly in the real bird world, it would be an incredible sighting and not something they would often witness so most certainly something more than worthy to share. By the way, I am still waiting for some definition from this person on what constitutes a rarity and what should/should not be reported. So, my common and boring, normal, everyday, mundane and not noteworthy bird sightings at my local haunt yesterday included two Black Bitterns flying about 15m above the river in formation, two Rainbow Bee-eaters (male presenting dragonflies to the lady twice) and a pair of Collared Sparrowhawks, which I think may well have a nest on an island in the middle of the river, nest TBC. I hope your days are filled with far more exciting sightings than those poor, sad birds. :) Oh, I also forgot to mention the boring little Musk Lorikeets and Little Lorikeets that have been keeping me company about 35 meters from my home for the past two weeks. Two species I have never seen in my western Sydney suburbs in the eight years since I lived there. Cheers -- Ákos Lumnitzer =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: Rfi. Duraki From: John Hammond <johno77 AT y7mail.com> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 22:15:20 -0800 (PST) Hi all.. Thinking of heading out to duraki state forest on the weekend and was wondering if anyone can give me info on other places around the place to visit. I usualy just visit the waterhole off the highway but I have heard there are other good sites around duraki. Would be very interested to hear of any recent squatter pigeon, black chinned honeyeater or turquoise parrot sightings. Thanks very much in advance.. John Hammond __________________________________________________________________________________ Get more done like never before with Yahoo!7 Mail. Learn more: http://au.overview.mail.yahoo.com/ ==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: RE: Little Stint at Woorinen VIC 02 November 2009 From: Peter Ewin <sittella AT hotmail.com> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 20:55:26 +1100 After seeing this on Eremaea on Wednesday morning (though with no details on whether the bird was still present) I decided to detour my trip to Barham for work via Woorinen to see if I could pick this up. The assumption that the South Darinage Lake was what is called North Lake (of course) on Google I headed to Lake Road on the south side of the lake. Very few birds about with Masked Lapwing and Silver Gull definite and probably Red-capped Plover way off in the heat/salt haze. Maybe I had the wrong spot but it was worth the detour. McDonalds Swamp near Koondrook is full of water and has a ridiculous number of birds. Highlights included 1 Wood Sandpiper, 1 Glossy Ibis, 1 Spotted Crake, 1 Greenshank, Marsh Sandpipers (after no sightings in about 3 years I get them twice in a week) plus another squillion Native-hen (they really are everywhere this year). A scope probably could have yielded many more as many of the ducks are a long way off. Cheers, Peter > Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 17:54:41 -0800 > From: bluenuthatch AT yahoo.com.au > To: birding-aus AT vicnet.net.au > Subject: [Birding-Aus] Little Stint at Woorinen VIC 02 November 2009 > > Hi all, > at South Drainage Lake, Woorinen, Vic. (about 20 km northwest of Swan Hill) myself & Scott Baker found a full breeding plumage Little Stint and obtained a number of photographs of same. The bird was observed for over an hour (11:00 - 12:20) before disappearing. Other highlights in nw. Vic over the long weekend were: Pied Honeyeater (50 at Yarrara FFR including flock of 40 on the move over the canopy, mostly males), Crimson Chat (Murray Sunset NP & Goschen), Orange Chat (almost everywhere in chenopod shrublands), Pacific Golden Plover (1, South Drainage Lake), Glossy Ibises, Cockateils, Black Honeyeaters (Goschen), 4 spp. Woodswallow (all Aus. spp. except Dusky & Little), and Red-lored Whistler (Murray Sunset NP). > P.S. Lansley. > > > __________________________________________________________________________________ > Get more done like never before with Yahoo!7 Mail. > Learn more: http://au.overview.mail.yahoo.com/ > ==========www.birding-aus.org > birding-aus.blogspot.com > > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, > send the message: > unsubscribe > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) > to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au > ========== _________________________________________________________________ Looking to move this spring? With all the lastest places, searching has never been easier. Look now! http://clk.atdmt.com/NMN/go/157631292/direct/01/==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Re: Yellow Backed Lory - Not a new Australian Bird From: "Tom and Mandy Wilson" <tomandmandy AT aapt.net.au> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 20:15:58 +1100 This one didn't seem to make it yesterday.... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom and Mandy Wilson"Subject: Re: Rare Bird Alert Website From: "Wendy" <woobinda AT pipeline.com.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 14:01:04 +1000 That is perhaps a bit hazardous in current (and future months) climatic conditions. How about a drum/Tom Tom relay or (heralding) horns? wm ----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Shute"Subject: crakes From: "ninderry" <ninderry AT westnet.com.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 10:59:32 +1000 I had a nice time with crakes this morning at Cooroy Wetlands on the Sunshine Coast. A Baillon's Crake was flushed twice, showing well. Then a Spotless Crake offered good views. At least 10 Spotless Crakes were heard calling. Greg Roberts =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: RE: Pay for Rare Bird Alert...surely not? From: "Tony Russell" <pratincole AT esc.net.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 10:37:34 +1030 I wouldn't know how to SMS (?) someone even if I had a mobile phone. -----Original Message----- From: birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au [mailto:birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of David Stowe Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 9:59 AM To: Simon Mustoe Cc: birding-aus AT vicnet.net.au Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Pay for Rare Bird Alert...surely not? Apologies if this has been brought up before (I don't remember seeing it but there has been ALOT of information in this topic and my head is swimming!) - but what is wrong with a simple SMS system? Everyone pretty much has a mobile phone and you will get better coverage with a phone than having to be able to access internet etc. Wouldn't this be the same as a pager (or better)? I recently switched to Telstra so that i had reception in more areas - my upcoming trip to Round Hill being a big consideration being away from my family/young baby etc (yes i have a wonderdul wife!). Sorry again if this has been mentioned and found to be a stupid idea :) Cheers David Stowe On 05/11/2009, at 9:06 AM, Simon Mustoe wrote: Hi, Time for me to chip in five cents! I agree wholeheartedly with all the comments regarding social networking tools. Fantastic opportunities for birding. Let's not forget though, that long before Twitter and various websites existed, we all had mobile phones and in times past could even access the 'world network' using a comprehensive system of pay phones around the country. So why then, do we still pine for a Rare Bird Alert System? The reason is that it's not just about what tool you use but how you go about it. There is one important part of the equation that has not yet been discussed in this forum. I used to know Dick Filby who runs Rare Bird Alert in the UK. Several of my close friends operated the system. I was one of the FIRST birders in the UK to have one - Dick gave us stoodents a freebie, so we could run around shamelessly boasting about it ... as it went off with an audible alarm, it soon had birders interested. But its success had nothing to do with the fact it was a pager. Rare Bird Alert works because it is manned every day and in recent years, almost 24/7. It takes the hassle out of communication because a simple phone call to a recorded message bank and within minutes, your record is being received by the masses. The middle man does the networking, so you don't have to. You don't even have to think about logging on, it simply arrives on your phone wherever you happen to be, at any time. It's success is due to hard work and, most importantly, it is funded - so the system is quality controlled. This is really important. Yes, social networking tools are great but they don't satisfy this need now and they won't in the future either - well not until we have a Wide Area Network over the entire country (maybe satellite iPhones in future). No medium will actually do the job unless someone 'drives' the process. I or anyone else could easily use Twitter to communicate rare birds but I have to also feed my family, so I am not about to spend hours EVERY day managing and moderating the process. Maybe we leave it to the masses but as Chris Sanderson says, you then lose quality control. This was one of the most important considerations in UK Rare Bird Alert. I can't tell you how frustrated people got about cock ups. Quality is everything. Then, there is no guarantee people would even receive the news. IPhone or not, you don't log on all day every day and you certainly don't can't use an iPhone in much of the outback - though you can get mobile reception, though GPRS is going to be costing you the equivalent of satellite bandwidth (~$10 / MB). So the way I see it, if Australians want Rare Bird Alert, then there is really no alternative to a subscription system with some form of 'alert'. Now that doesn't preclude the use of social-networking or the web. In fact, it may be very complimentary. Chris and I have begun a process to look into this. If anyone who has not already responded, would like to provide their thoughts then drop me a line and I will send you a questionnaire. Regards, Simon Mustoe. _________________________________________________________________ Download Messenger onto your mobile for free http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/174426567/direct/01/www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au =============================== =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: Re: Rare Bird Alert Website From: Peter Shute <pshute AT nuw.org.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 03:03:26 +1100 Luke, when you say "I see our birding websites, including this one, as more than just a place to post and discuss rare bird sightings", which website are you referring to? Peter Shute -------------------------- Sent using BlackBerry ----- Original Message ----- From: birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.auSubject: RE: Pay for Rare Bird Alert...surely not? From: "Tony Russell" <pratincole AT esc.net.au> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 17:36:11 +1030 They were probably out of season, they usually fruit in December /January. -----Original Message----- From: birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au [mailto:birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of Alistair McKeough Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 4:18 PM To: Simon Mustoe Cc: birding-aus AT vicnet.net.au Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Pay for Rare Bird Alert...surely not? One of the principle advantages of my recent trip to western NSW was that I had no Blackberry reception. Bliss. 2009/11/6 Simon MustoeSubject: RE: One birder tackles the technology- TwitchathononTwitter From: "Paul Dodd" <paul AT angrybluecat.com> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 18:09:13 +1100 In the spirit of making this the first ever "Twitter-enabled" Twitchaton, Ruth and I will also "tweet" from time to time. I cannot claim that our tweets will be anywhere near as humorous (or probably as frequent) as Dools' but we'll do our best! Paul: www.twitter.com/paulgdodd Ruth: www.twitter.com/falconet69 We are competing as the "Gang-gang Gang" with Russell Woodford, Karen Pearson and Peter Shute - I am not sure that they will be tweeting, but Peter may be updating birding-aus on our exploits from his Blackberry. Good luck to all teams competing this weekend! Paul Dodd Docklands, Victoria -----Original Message----- From: birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au [mailto:birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of michael norris Sent: Friday, 6 November 2009 4:53 PM To: birding-aus AT vicnet.net.au Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] One birder tackles the technology- TwitchathononTwitter Yup - you can see (and reply to) the tweets on the web. And sponsor the Bush Turkeys that way. Michael Norris (aka AT Hydromys) > -----Original Message----- > > Inspired by the discussion on how technology can be used by birders, I > have decided to attempt to put the attempt of our twitchathon team (The > Bush Turkeys) to win this year's Victorian race on Twitter. > > But if anyone wants to follow us, check out > http://twitter.com/Twitchathon for hopefully live updates on how we are > going. > If anyone would like to sponsor the Bush Turkeys contact me on > this > email address or on Twitter where apparently you put AT Twitchathon before > your message. All funds raised this year go to BA VicGroups bird study > grants, providing vital funds for research into our local birds. > > Sean (Captain Turk) Dooley =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au =============================== No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.425 / Virus Database: 270.14.51/2482 - Release Date: 11/05/09 19:52:00 =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: RE: Re: Hall's Babbler Fowler's Gap From: Peter Ewin <sittella AT hotmail.com> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 17:50:42 +1100 Hi Tim - I am interested in your comment about Babbler's being found around Brewarrina. If it is the town then it is long way east of Mutawintji (Bre is on the Darling River upstream of Bourke). Maybe there is a property near Mutawintji with the same name? The person to contact re Hall's Babblers is Dean Portelli who's e-mail address should be available in the archives. Cheers, Peter > Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 22:26:57 +1100 > From: Tim.Dolby AT vu.edu.au > To: birding-aus AT vicnet.net.au > Subject: [Birding-Aus] Re: Hall's Babbler Fowler's Gap > > Hi Peter, > > I'm not sure about Fowler's Gap Research Station, but they are found nearby at Mutawintji (Mootwingee) National Park, 130 km nth of Broken Hill. Restricted to the gorge systems of Mutawintji (such as Amphitheatre Gorge), they are also present within the restricted northern area of the park. They are also recorded recently around the township of Brewarrina, east of Mutawintji. > > Hall's Babbler is listed in the 'Birds of the Milparinka District and Cooper Creek Basin' (which incorporates Fowler's Gap) by E Wyndham, Emu 78 (4) 179 - 187. Perhaps this is where you saw your reference to Fowler's Gap? > > Really interested to hear if any other records turn up in the area Peter. > > Cheers, > > Tim Dolby > > _______________________________ > > Hi birders, > > I recently came across a mention of Hall's Babbler for the Fowlers Gap > Research Station in far-western NSW (north of Broken Hill). Does > anyone know if they're actually present at this location? Has anyone > been there? > > cheers > > Peter > > > > > This email, including any attachment, is intended solely for the use of the intended recipient. It is confidential and may contain personal information or be subject to legal professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use, disclosure, reproduction or storage of it is unauthorised. If you have received this email in error, please advise the sender via return email and delete it from your system immediately. Victoria University does not warrant that this email is free from viruses or defects and accepts no liability for any damage caused by such viruses or defects. > ==========www.birding-aus.org > birding-aus.blogspot.com > > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, > send the message: > unsubscribe > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) > to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au > ========== _________________________________________________________________ Looking to move this spring? With all the lastest places, searching has never been easier. Look now! http://clk.atdmt.com/NMN/go/157631292/direct/01/==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Re: Night photography From: Chris Charles <licole AT ozemail.com.au> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 17:29:12 +1100 Akos, Archive item http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/birding-aus/1997-04/ msg00006.html should tell you what you need to know. Chris Chris Charles 0412 911 184 licole AT ozemail.com.au 33deg 47'30"S 151deg10'09"E On 06/11/2009, at 2:52 PM, Ákos Lumnitzer wrote: > Hi birders > > Firstly, apologies if this is a subject that had been discussed > before. > > Can anyone shed light on photographing nocturnal birds, or to be more > specific, the impact of shining a torch on them and taking a photo > using > flash? Is there any scientific research that had been done to support > people claiming that it is bad practice? Any papers (or pointing me to > specific ones) dealing with this subject would be most appreciated, > or at > least some authors and their relevant scientific research articles. I > should still be able to log into my uni online database to retrieve > articles despite just having graduated six weeks ago. > > Would a flash (camera flash) be like a lighting strike nearby? > Would it > really be THAT harmful to the nocturnal birds’ night vision? > > Thanks and regards > > Akos > > > > > > -- > Ákos Lumnitzer > http://www.amatteroflight.com > > =============================== > www.birding-aus.org > birding-aus.blogspot.com > > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, > send the message: > unsubscribe > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) > to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au > =============================== ==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Re: One birder tackles the technology- TwitchathononTwitter From: "michael norris" <menorris AT ozemail.com.au> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 16:53:27 +1100 Yup - you can see (and reply to) the tweets on the web. And sponsor the Bush Turkeys that way. Michael Norris (aka AT Hydromys) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tony Russell"Subject: Re: Pay for Rare Bird Alert...surely not? From: Alistair McKeough <alistair.mckeough AT gmail.com> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 16:48:09 +1100 One of the principle advantages of my recent trip to western NSW was that I had no Blackberry reception. Bliss. 2009/11/6 Simon MustoeSubject: RE: Pay for Rare Bird Alert...surely not? From: Simon Mustoe <simonmustoe AT hotmail.com> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 05:42:33 +0000 It's funny isn't it...it's more of a peace of mind thing I suppose. The more technology allows us to stay connected whilst allowing us the freedom to roam into the wilderness, the more paranoid we become about disconnecting ourselves from our everyday lives. Regards, Simon. > From: pshute AT nuw.org.au > To: simonmustoe AT hotmail.com; birding-aus AT vicnet.net.au > Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 14:14:32 +1100 > Subject: RE: [Birding-Aus] Pay for Rare Bird Alert...surely not? > > Several people have mentioned the problem of receiving email in remote areas, e.g. via an iPhone, etc. I'm wondering how important this is to most people. If you're in a remote area, are you going to be willing to drop everything and go somewhere to see a bird somewhere else? > > I would have thought you'd only be interested if the alert was for something close by (in which case you'd be very annoyed to have been so close but to have missed it). But what are the chances of that? I'm guessing that usually it would be ok to wait until you can get email again. > > I'm just guessing about this, I'm rarely out of range for long myself, unfortunately. > > Peter Shute > > Simon Mustoe wrote on Thursday, 5 November 2009 9:06 AM: > > > Then, there is no guarantee people would even receive the news. > > IPhone or not, you don't log on all day every day and you certainly > > don't can't use an iPhone in much of the outback - though you can get > > mobile reception, though GPRS is going to be costing you the > > equivalent of satellite bandwidth (~$10 / MB). _________________________________________________________________ New Windows 7: Simplify what you do everyday. Find the right PC for you. http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/buy/==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Night photography From: Ákos Lumnitzer <akos AT amatteroflight.com> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 14:52:01 +1100 Hi birders Firstly, apologies if this is a subject that had been discussed before. Can anyone shed light on photographing nocturnal birds, or to be more specific, the impact of shining a torch on them and taking a photo using flash? Is there any scientific research that had been done to support people claiming that it is bad practice? Any papers (or pointing me to specific ones) dealing with this subject would be most appreciated, or at least some authors and their relevant scientific research articles. I should still be able to log into my uni online database to retrieve articles despite just having graduated six weeks ago. Would a flash (camera flash) be like a lighting strike nearby? Would it really be THAT harmful to the nocturnal birds’ night vision? Thanks and regards Akos -- Ákos Lumnitzer http://www.amatteroflight.com =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: Re: Pay for Rare Bird Alert...surely not? From: David Stowe <davidstowe AT optusnet.com.au> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 14:42:47 +1100 What if the rarity is also in a remote place just down the road from where you are????? Plenty of good birding spots that are in remote locations that are relatively well travelled by birders. I'd be even more annoyed if i had made a trip all the way to the Kimberley or Cape etc only to find that i had missed something while i was there. Dave On 06/11/2009, at 2:14 PM, Peter Shute wrote: Several people have mentioned the problem of receiving email in remote areas, e.g. via an iPhone, etc. I'm wondering how important this is to most people. If you're in a remote area, are you going to be willing to drop everything and go somewhere to see a bird somewhere else? I would have thought you'd only be interested if the alert was for something close by (in which case you'd be very annoyed to have been so close but to have missed it). But what are the chances of that? I'm guessing that usually it would be ok to wait until you can get email again. I'm just guessing about this, I'm rarely out of range for long myself, unfortunately. Peter Shute Simon Mustoe wrote on Thursday, 5 November 2009 9:06 AM: > Then, there is no guarantee people would even receive the news. > IPhone or not, you don't log on all day every day and you certainly > don't can't use an iPhone in much of the outback - though you can get > mobile reception, though GPRS is going to be costing you the > equivalent of satellite bandwidth (~$10 / MB). www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: RE: Pay for Rare Bird Alert...surely not? From: Peter Shute <pshute AT nuw.org.au> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 14:14:32 +1100 Several people have mentioned the problem of receiving email in remote areas, e.g. via an iPhone, etc. I'm wondering how important this is to most people. If you're in a remote area, are you going to be willing to drop everything and go somewhere to see a bird somewhere else? I would have thought you'd only be interested if the alert was for something close by (in which case you'd be very annoyed to have been so close but to have missed it). But what are the chances of that? I'm guessing that usually it would be ok to wait until you can get email again. I'm just guessing about this, I'm rarely out of range for long myself, unfortunately. Peter Shute Simon Mustoe wrote on Thursday, 5 November 2009 9:06 AM: > Then, there is no guarantee people would even receive the news. > IPhone or not, you don't log on all day every day and you certainly > don't can't use an iPhone in much of the outback - though you can get > mobile reception, though GPRS is going to be costing you the > equivalent of satellite bandwidth (~$10 / MB). ==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: RE: Re: Recording data From: Peter Shute <pshute AT nuw.org.au> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 13:54:40 +1100 Eremaea, and presumably others, will do the the stats you mention, but you'd better have a look to make sure it's just how you want it, if you don't mind storing data online for others to see. Access can do exactly the same graphs that Excel can do, if that's going to solve the problem, I think it's actually the same software shared by both programs. Might be worth Googling for how to get started with it. Peter Shute mandmyoung AT optusnet.com.au wrote on Friday, 6 November 2009 1:44 PM: > Hi Everyone. > > I'm just wondering if there is any specific software, or web > application that is available for recording trips, life lists, year > lists etc? > At the moment I use an MS Spreadsheet based on Christidis and Boles > 2008 for my life list, year list, trips etc, but I find that it just > doesn't have the flexibility that I want from it. > > I'm looking for an application that will allow me to input data taken > over a period of time, then to produce different graph reports. I > want to have different reports that will allow me to show how many > species visit a certain location over the period of a year, or how > many of a particular species was seen at a location over the period > of a year, and other similar type of reports. > > I can create reports within MS Access that will do the reporting the > way that I want it to, but I can't get it to print it out as a graph. > And I can create reports within MS Excel that will print out the > report in a graph, but the data entry is tedious and time consuming, > because I can't work out how to create a data entry template that > captures the data for the report. I have to input the data manually > each time. > > I have been toying with the idea of creating a web-based application > that will allow me enter in data from trips (Species, age, sex, etc > etc), then prints out a report by location, species, age, sex etc, so > that I can see species specifics for a location over a given period. > However, the learning curve for that is more than my basic HTML > editing skills can handle. > > Any help is much appreciated. > > Regards, > Mark > =============================== > www.birding-aus.org > birding-aus.blogspot.com > > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, > send the message: > unsubscribe > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) > to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au > =============================================================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Re: Recording data From: mandmyoung AT optusnet.com.au Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:43:49 +1100 Hi Everyone. I'm just wondering if there is any specific software, or web application that is available for recording trips, life lists, year lists etc? At the moment I use an MS Spreadsheet based on Christidis and Boles 2008 for my life list, year list, trips etc, but I find that it just doesn't have the flexibility that I want from it. I'm looking for an application that will allow me to input data taken over a period of time, then to produce different graph reports. I want to have different reports that will allow me to show how many species visit a certain location over the period of a year, or how many of a particular species was seen at a location over the period of a year, and other similar type of reports. I can create reports within MS Access that will do the reporting the way that I want it to, but I can't get it to print it out as a graph. And I can create reports within MS Excel that will print out the report in a graph, but the data entry is tedious and time consuming, because I can't work out how to create a data entry template that captures the data for the report. I have to input the data manually each time. I have been toying with the idea of creating a web-based application that will allow me enter in data from trips (Species, age, sex, etc etc), then prints out a report by location, species, age, sex etc, so that I can see species specifics for a location over a given period. However, the learning curve for that is more than my basic HTML editing skills can handle. Any help is much appreciated. Regards, Mark =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: Re: Common-Uncommon-Rare From: Dave Torr <davidtorr AT gmail.com> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 13:12:59 +1100 I have seen some in the US that use the latter system - maybe with a range of %ages as well, The trouble with absolute numbers is that they depend on how many times the place has been visited! Many of course are seasonal as well..... 2009/11/6 Tim DolbySubject: RE: Common-Uncommon-Rare From: "Tim Dolby" <Tim.Dolby AT vu.edu.au> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 12:54:31 +1100 Just off the top of my head, one way of doing this is by the number of recorded sightings i.e. vagrant equals <10, rare <100, uncommon <1000, common >1000+, or something like that, depending on your context, place, birds etc. Another way is to link it to the particular habitat type, such 'vagrant: few records in appropriate habitat', 'rare: rarely seen in appropriate habitat', 'uncommon: occasionally seen in the appropriate habitat', 'common: expect to see in appropriate habitat', and 'very common: you'll be kicking them out of your way!' Hope this helps. Tim -----Original Message----- From: birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au [mailto:birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of Pine Creek Pictures Sent: Friday, 6 November 2009 11:54 AM To: birding-aus AT vicnet.net.au Subject: [Birding-Aus] Common-Uncommon-Rare Does anyone know if there is a standard definition of the terms Common, Uncommon, Rare. We are in the process of trying to update some brochures and attempting to assign a frequency of occurrence to the bird species. This is traditionally done with the the notations C=Common, U=Uncomon, R=Rare, V=vagrant etc. Here I have at least 8 various publications and checklists, all of which give a different definition to these terms. Thanks Dominic Chaplin Cairns, QLD ==========www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ========== This email, including any attachment, is intended solely for the use of the intended recipient. It is confidential and may contain personal information or be subject to legal professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use, disclosure, reproduction or storage of it is unauthorised. If you have received this email in error, please advise the sender via return email and delete it from your system immediately. Victoria University does not warrant that this email is free from viruses or defects and accepts no liability for any damage caused by such viruses or defects. ==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Doth Feathers Maketh the Bird, or the Dinosaur? From: Carl Clifford <carlsclifford AT gmail.com> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 12:29:36 +1100 Dear All, New research has come up with some interesting findings on the Archeopteryx. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVNXXLLUYFM Cheers, Carl Clifford =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: Common-Uncommon-Rare From: "Pine Creek Pictures" <dominic AT pinecreekpictures.com.au> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 10:53:35 +1000 Does anyone know if there is a standard definition of the terms Common, Uncommon, Rare. We are in the process of trying to update some brochures and attempting to assign a frequency of occurrence to the bird species. This is traditionally done with the the notations C=Common, U=Uncomon, R=Rare, V=vagrant etc. Here I have at least 8 various publications and checklists, all of which give a different definition to these terms. Thanks Dominic Chaplin Cairns, QLD ==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Papua New Guinea visit Report No. 3 From: "Pine Creek Pictures" <dominic AT pinecreekpictures.com.au> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 09:33:01 +1000 Words apear to have all run together as viewed so I'll try again. Dominic.Report text only http://www.surfbirds.com/trip_report.php?id=1712Report with images http://www.pinecreekpictures.com.au/png5.html ==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Re: One birder tackles the technology- Twitchathon onTwitter From: Alistair McKeough <alistair.mckeough AT gmail.com> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 09:35:47 +1100 http://lmgtfy.com/?q=twitter 2009/11/6 Tony RussellSubject: RE: One birder tackles the technology- Twitchathon onTwitter From: "Tony Russell" <pratincole AT esc.net.au> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 09:03:19 +1030 Aha ! So that's the twitter website. I wondered how to access it. Thanks Dools. T. -----Original Message----- From: birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au [mailto:birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of Sean Dooley Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 7:24 AM To: birding-aus AT vicnet.net.au Subject: [Birding-Aus] One birder tackles the technology- Twitchathon onTwitter Inspired by the discussion on how technology can be used by birders, I have decided to attempt to put the attempt of our twitchathon team (The Bush Turkeys) to win this year's Victorian race on Twitter. Being a rather late adapter of new technology (I still don't trust them fancy, new fangled smoke signals!) this could be a bit of a disaster, particularly as for much of the race I thin kwe will be out of range for me to send any tweets. But if anyone wants to follow us, check out http://twitter.com/Twitchathon for hopefully live updates on how we are going. Members of the Bush Turkeys have been involved in the Thon from the very first Twitchathon and the team has existed since 1989 and have competed as a team ten times previously managing to win four times. We haven't raced since 2006 and as none of us have had a chance to suss out what we used to think was our unbeatable route, we will have a tough job trying to beat the young guns (well maybe not so young) who have won the last two events. But it is a fantastic spring for birds in Victoria this year with masses of birds moving in such as Crimson Chats, Budgies, trillers, Balck Honeyeaters etc, so this could be one where the Vic record could fall. (224 species) If anyone would like to sponsor the Bush Turkeys contact me on this email address or on Twitter where apparently you put AT Twitchathon before your message. All funds raised this year go to BA VicGroups bird study grants, providing vital funds for research into our local birds. Good luck to the other teams, I hope you have a safe and bird-filled race. Sean (Captain Turk) Dooley =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au =============================== =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: Papua New Guinea Visit Report No. 3 From: "Lisa & Dominic" <lisa01 AT activ8.net.au> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 07:48:00 +1000 Papua New Guinea - 3 Short Trips In June, August and in October I was involved in 3 independant birding trips to Papua New Guinea from Cairns Trip 1 June, 2009 Varirata/Kiunga/Kama/Kumul Lodge/Brown River/PAU/RabaulTrip 2 August, 2009 Madang/Keki LodgeTrip 3 October, 2009 PAU/Varirata/Brown River/TariStarting backwards, this is the report of the third trip. If anyone is interested please click below.It is moderately long, but may have interesting moments, in particular some observations of changesat the once classic world birding destination, Tari, in the Southern Highlands.For report text onlyhttp://www.surfbirds.com/trip_report.php?id=1712For report with imageshttp://www.pinecreekpictures.com.au/png5Dominic Chaplin,Cairns, QLD ==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Rare Bird Alert Website From: Luke Shelley <ldshelle AT gmail.com> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 08:19:34 +1100 Hear, hear Simon! Precisely the point I was trying to make in my first post on the topic (although I do apologise for the long winded email, and therefore understand if my message was lost!). What a wonderful conversation this is turning out to be! It is fantastic to see that so many people have thoughts on this, and am really pleased with what people are putting forward. Yes, thus far the focus has been on Rare Bird Alerts, but I think there is far more to it than that. I think there is a real opportunity here to put something together that serves more than just a real-time alert system. A central website that provides information on how to get into birding, advice on binoculars, where you can find birds, maps, lists, the ability to join discussion groups, share your lists, announce upcoming events, upload surveys etc etc. I can understand that many people are going to respond by saying that we don't need it - and perhaps those people don't. But consider this: Bird research and conservation relies very heavily on the commitment of volunteer birders. Organisations such as BOCA and BA also rely on annual financial membership from the same people. To date, the means we have to communicate have been sufficient to gather the information required on birding. However, the next generation of birders are currently growing up with mobile phones, laptop computers, the internet, Twitter, Facebook, Playstations, X-Box etc etc. How is birding going to compete against all of that? These users will come to expect a certain standard of how the information is presented to them, which means that we need to create something that meets those expectations, yet still retains all of the features and content we currently have. I am not advocating that we redesign everything just for the sake of future generations. I am taking on board everyone's comments, especially those who are saying that we don't need such a system. To me, this just highlights the fact that we need to use the new technology (the internet) in such a way as to cater for the current users, and for future generations. I think there are enough people interested in this to perhaps think about taking this 'offline' (that is, take the discussion out of this forum). Would anyone be interested in forming a group to discuss some ideas? Perhaps we could put something together as a group, and then report back to the Birding-Aus website for comment? I would really like to get the administrators/moderators of the current suite of websites involved as well. -- Luke =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: Birds Australia Rarities Committee website From: Birds Australia Southern Queensland <basq AT birdsaustralia.com.au> Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:18:23 +1000 http://www.tonypalliser.com/barc/barc-home.html -- Regards Grahame Rogers Secretary, Birds Australia Southern Queensland PO Box 224, Crows Nest, Qld, 4355 www.basq.org.au =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: One birder tackles the technology- Twitchathon on Twitter From: "Sean Dooley" <sdooley AT bigpond.net.au> Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 07:54:23 +1100 Inspired by the discussion on how technology can be used by birders, I have decided to attempt to put the attempt of our twitchathon team (The Bush Turkeys) to win this year's Victorian race on Twitter. Being a rather late adapter of new technology (I still don't trust them fancy, new fangled smoke signals!) this could be a bit of a disaster, particularly as for much of the race I thin kwe will be out of range for me to send any tweets. But if anyone wants to follow us, check out http://twitter.com/Twitchathon for hopefully live updates on how we are going. Members of the Bush Turkeys have been involved in the Thon from the very first Twitchathon and the team has existed since 1989 and have competed as a team ten times previously managing to win four times. We haven't raced since 2006 and as none of us have had a chance to suss out what we used to think was our unbeatable route, we will have a tough job trying to beat the young guns (well maybe not so young) who have won the last two events. But it is a fantastic spring for birds in Victoria this year with masses of birds moving in such as Crimson Chats, Budgies, trillers, Balck Honeyeaters etc, so this could be one where the Vic record could fall. (224 species) If anyone would like to sponsor the Bush Turkeys contact me on this email address or on Twitter where apparently you put AT Twitchathon before your message. All funds raised this year go to BA VicGroups bird study grants, providing vital funds for research into our local birds. Good luck to the other teams, I hope you have a safe and bird-filled race. Sean (Captain Turk) Dooley =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: Re: Rare Bird Alert Website From: Gary Wright <gary.wright.email AT gmail.com> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 20:46:00 +1030 I'm with Tony, use Birding-aus and dodge the mobile phone and keep your brain intact without the electromagnetic radiation and save a lot of money. Gary 2009/11/5 Tony RussellSubject: Re: Hall's Babbler Fowler's Gap From: "Tim Dolby" <Tim.Dolby AT vu.edu.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 22:26:57 +1100 Hi Peter, I'm not sure about Fowler's Gap Research Station, but they are found nearby at Mutawintji (Mootwingee) National Park, 130 km nth of Broken Hill. Restricted to the gorge systems of Mutawintji (such as Amphitheatre Gorge), they are also present within the restricted northern area of the park. They are also recorded recently around the township of Brewarrina, east of Mutawintji. Hall's Babbler is listed in the 'Birds of the Milparinka District and Cooper Creek Basin' (which incorporates Fowler's Gap) by E Wyndham, Emu 78 (4) 179 - 187. Perhaps this is where you saw your reference to Fowler's Gap? Really interested to hear if any other records turn up in the area Peter. Cheers, Tim Dolby _______________________________ Hi birders, I recently came across a mention of Hall's Babbler for the Fowlers Gap Research Station in far-western NSW (north of Broken Hill). Does anyone know if they're actually present at this location? Has anyone been there? cheers Peter This email, including any attachment, is intended solely for the use of the intended recipient. It is confidential and may contain personal information or be subject to legal professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use, disclosure, reproduction or storage of it is unauthorised. If you have received this email in error, please advise the sender via return email and delete it from your system immediately. Victoria University does not warrant that this email is free from viruses or defects and accepts no liability for any damage caused by such viruses or defects. ==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: rare bird alerts From: "Pat OMalley" <P.Omalley AT usyd.edu.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 22:33:15 +1100 One way of facilitating rare bird alerts would be to get the publishers of field guides to put a little section up front mentioning sites like B-Aus as outlets for alerts. But the problem immediately becomes apparent - very likely many false alarms from inexperienced birders. Then the accurate reports get lost in the crowd and only a few sources would be trusted. So we'd be pretty much back where we are now, but with a lot of extra noise. Cheers Pat ==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Tahiti Petrel and Black-bellied Stormie Photos From: Simon Mustoe <simonmustoe AT hotmail.com> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 11:28:25 +0000 Some great images by Chris Sanderson http://aussiebirding.wildiaries.com/trips/188 I haven't seen Tahiti Petrel shots this good before. Maybe I should get up and spend some time on the Southport Pelagics. Would be good to get away from this cold Melbourne weather...5 degrees forecast tonight!! Simon. _________________________________________________________________ Chat to your friends for free on selected mobiles http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/174426567/direct/01/==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: RE: Rare Bird Alerts Data Capture From: "Tony Russell" <pratincole AT esc.net.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 21:38:12 +1030 Hi Rosemary, Eek !! , 40 miles is only 66.7 km. I go further than that for my shopping each week. Just kidding, I go about 3km. We also have mobile coverage problems too in some of the remote areas - that's if there's any credit left on the SIMCARD. Tony. -----Original Message----- From: birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au [mailto:birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of Rosemary Royle Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 8:51 PM To: birding-aus Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Rare Bird Alerts Data Capture Another two-penneth from the UK. One small point which is worth thinking about - the types of rarities in the UK differ somewhat from those in Australia. Many rarities in the UK only hang around for very short periods - basically they are lost and are trying to be somewhere else. After a feed and a rest they are off again. Or in many cases they probably just die. They are also often in difficult-to-access places such as northern Scottish islands. So speed and immediacy are of the essence. As far as I can tell most rarities in Australia hang around for a while (though not quite long enough - we looked for the Burren Junction Lapwing about 3 days after it was last seen!) so a web based or email system is potentially all that is needed. And also the core group of Twitchers is much smaller so they can still use the good old telephone should a mega-important thing turn up. I also think a completely unmoderated system such as Twitter could be useful - the group concerned is quite small and potentially would know each other so it would be up to each user to decide whether they can rely on the information being supplied. But the mobile phone coverage issue can't be ignored. PS We only twitch things in Pembrokeshire (max 40 miles Tony) and only then reluctantly, and they have usually gone by the time we get there! And we can't use mobile phones either as we have no coverage where we live! Rosemary Royle Wales, UK ----- Original Message ----- From: Richard Baxter To: birding-aus Cc: Richard BAXTER Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 1:19 AM Subject: [Birding-Aus] Rare Bird Alerts Data Capture Hello Birders, Personally I don't have a great problem with the current methods of disseminating data in relation to rarity sightings. In most cases, the information gets through relatively quickly, whether its phone call, text, birding-aus or eremaea etc. I admit receiving sighting details in real-time would be great but my biggest issue is not the receiving of information but the CAPTURE of information. We have to have the sighting information before we can send it out to the masses. The single most frustrating element of twitching is obviously dipping and I've lost count of the number of rarities that have been reported, days and often over a week after they were first seen. The question is: How do we make it easy for people to report their sightings? The reality is that only a very small percentage of people birding in Australia are on Birding-Aus and even fewer have ever heard of Eremaea. Most don't know who or what to ring and therefore many sightings go unreported. There are many examples. 1. Grey-headed Lapwing. Not reported on B-Aus until days after the initial sighting, Why? 2. Last year I dropped into a remote property near Broome and was talking to the owner, an old bloke, who had built a rain forest in his backyard. He told me he had seen Blue and White Flycatcher and Red-legged Crake in recent years at the pond near his back door! I said," Did you let anyone know, they're pretty interesting birds to see?" He said," I wouldn't know who to tell, mate." 3. A couple of years ago I twitched a bird that had been reported on B-Aus and dipped. Whilst at the location I ran into the bloke that found the bird and ascertained it had arrived 10 days ago and hadn't been seen for the last two days. I asked him why he didn't tell someone sooner and he said," I didn't know who to tell, I've only ever met one serious birdwatcher and that was some bloke from Melbourne, 20yrs ago." There are thousands of people out there birding everyday, the same thousands that are buying the thousands of field guides each year from bookshops. Q. A grey nomad sitting in front of his caravan looking over the lake in Kununurra sees a Grey Heron land on the bank 30m away. He checks his field guide and reads that Grey Heron is very rare in Australia. He's not an avid birder, hasn't got the internet in his van and knows no keen birders to ring. How does he tell anyone about the sighting?? How do we capture these sightings to put on rare bird alerts? Cheers Richard Baxter ________________________________________________________________________ __________ Win 1 of 4 Sony home entertainment packs thanks to Yahoo!7. Enter now: http://au.docs.yahoo.com/homepageset/ ==========www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au =========== ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.424 / Virus Database: 270.14.50/2481 - Release Date: 11/04/09 19:51:00 ==========www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au =========== =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: RE: Rare Bird Alerts Data Capture From: Simon Mustoe <simonmustoe AT hotmail.com> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 10:55:07 +0000 Interesting points Rosemary. I'd be keen to hear the views of birding-aussies on the growth of birding in Australia over the last few years. Rosemary, you may have a view on the similar growth in birding in the UK during the 1990s. I started twitching the UK in about 1993. At that time, Birdline was still the main news line and was a premium rate 50p/min phone number with recorded messages. Pagers only came in a year or two later and although I attended some massive twitches, in those days the numbers weren't that great. As far as I can recall, birding became 'mainstream' in the UK only during the 1990s and the growth was astounding. Was this anything to do with Birdline and pagers? This brings me to my point. In Australia, the distances are indeed huge and in fact many of the 'rarities' are actually resident birds. One of the problems is trying to get up to date information or even finding out exactly where to see things. I wonder whether there are far more 'potential' birders out there than we realise. It's a great hobby but I think I would have really struggled to get into it, if I had had to learn birding from scratch when arriving in Australia in 2001. A lot of what we take for granted is not necessarily apparent to the wider population of Australia. I wonder whether, an effort to make birds more accessible, would see a much greater number of people taking up birding. There are various ways to do this but at the heart of these discussions, is the desire to have a more comprehensive environment for reporting "rarities". If the birding community can get the formula right, perhaps there is scope for a far greater commitment to birding and bird conservation in Australia. Regards, Simon. > From: rosemaryroyle AT tiscali.co.uk > To: birding-aus AT vicnet.net.au > Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Rare Bird Alerts Data Capture > Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 10:20:34 +0000 > > Another two-penneth from the UK. > > One small point which is worth thinking about - the types of rarities in the UK differ somewhat from those in Australia. Many rarities in the UK only hang around for very short periods - basically they are lost and are trying to be somewhere else. After a feed and a rest they are off again. Or in many cases they probably just die. They are also often in difficult-to-access places such as northern Scottish islands. So speed and immediacy are of the essence. > > As far as I can tell most rarities in Australia hang around for a while (though not quite long enough - we looked for the Burren Junction Lapwing about 3 days after it was last seen!) so a web based or email system is potentially all that is needed. And also the core group of Twitchers is much smaller so they can still use the good old telephone should a mega-important thing turn up. I also think a completely unmoderated system such as Twitter could be useful - the group concerned is quite small and potentially would know each other so it would be up to each user to decide whether they can rely on the information being supplied. But the mobile phone coverage issue can't be ignored. > > PS We only twitch things in Pembrokeshire (max 40 miles Tony) and only then reluctantly, and they have usually gone by the time we get there! And we can't use mobile phones either as we have no coverage where we live! > > Rosemary Royle > Wales, UK > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Richard Baxter > To: birding-aus > Cc: Richard BAXTER > Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 1:19 AM > Subject: [Birding-Aus] Rare Bird Alerts Data Capture > > > > > Hello Birders, > Personally I don't have a great problem with the current methods of disseminating data in relation to rarity sightings. In most cases, the information gets through relatively quickly, whether its phone call, text, birding-aus or eremaea etc. > > I admit receiving sighting details in real-time would be great but my biggest issue is not the receiving of information but the CAPTURE of information. > > We have to have the sighting information before we can send it out to the masses. The single most frustrating element of twitching is obviously dipping and I've lost count of the number of rarities that have been reported, days and often over a week after they were first seen. > > The question is: How do we make it easy for people to report their sightings? > > The reality is that only a very small percentage of people birding in Australia are on Birding-Aus and even fewer have ever heard of Eremaea. Most don't know who or what to ring and therefore many sightings go unreported. > > There are many examples. > > 1. Grey-headed Lapwing. Not reported on B-Aus until days after the initial sighting, Why? > > 2. Last year I dropped into a remote property near Broome and was talking to the owner, an old bloke, who had built a rain forest in his backyard. He told me he had seen Blue and White Flycatcher and Red-legged Crake in recent years at the pond near his back door! > I said," Did you let anyone know, they're pretty interesting birds to see?" He said," I wouldn't know who to tell, mate." > > 3. A couple of years ago I twitched a bird that had been reported on B-Aus and dipped. Whilst at the location I ran into the bloke that found the bird and ascertained it had arrived 10 days ago and hadn't been seen for the last two days. I asked him why he didn't tell someone sooner and he said," I didn't know who to tell, I've only ever met one serious birdwatcher and that was some bloke from Melbourne, 20yrs ago." > > There are thousands of people out there birding everyday, the same thousands that are buying the thousands of field guides each year from bookshops. > > Q. A grey nomad sitting in front of his caravan looking over the lake in Kununurra sees a Grey Heron land on the bank 30m away. He checks his field guide and reads that Grey Heron is very rare in Australia. He's not an avid birder, hasn't got the internet in his van and knows no keen birders to ring. How does he tell anyone about the sighting?? > > How do we capture these sightings to put on rare bird alerts? > > > Cheers > Richard Baxter > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > __________________________________________________________________________________ > Win 1 of 4 Sony home entertainment packs thanks to Yahoo!7. > Enter now: http://au.docs.yahoo.com/homepageset/ > ==========www.birding-aus.org > birding-aus.blogspot.com > > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, > send the message: > unsubscribe > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) > to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au > =========== > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 8.5.424 / Virus Database: 270.14.50/2481 - Release Date: 11/04/09 19:51:00 > ==========www.birding-aus.org > birding-aus.blogspot.com > > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, > send the message: > unsubscribe > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) > to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au > ========== _________________________________________________________________ Download Messenger onto your mobile for free http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/174426567/direct/01/==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Re: Rare Bird Alerts Data Capture From: "Rosemary Royle" <rosemaryroyle AT tiscali.co.uk> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 10:20:34 -0000 Another two-penneth from the UK. One small point which is worth thinking about - the types of rarities in the UK differ somewhat from those in Australia. Many rarities in the UK only hang around for very short periods - basically they are lost and are trying to be somewhere else. After a feed and a rest they are off again. Or in many cases they probably just die. They are also often in difficult-to-access places such as northern Scottish islands. So speed and immediacy are of the essence. As far as I can tell most rarities in Australia hang around for a while (though not quite long enough - we looked for the Burren Junction Lapwing about 3 days after it was last seen!) so a web based or email system is potentially all that is needed. And also the core group of Twitchers is much smaller so they can still use the good old telephone should a mega-important thing turn up. I also think a completely unmoderated system such as Twitter could be useful - the group concerned is quite small and potentially would know each other so it would be up to each user to decide whether they can rely on the information being supplied. But the mobile phone coverage issue can't be ignored. PS We only twitch things in Pembrokeshire (max 40 miles Tony) and only then reluctantly, and they have usually gone by the time we get there! And we can't use mobile phones either as we have no coverage where we live! Rosemary Royle Wales, UK ----- Original Message ----- From: Richard Baxter To: birding-aus Cc: Richard BAXTER Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 1:19 AM Subject: [Birding-Aus] Rare Bird Alerts Data Capture Hello Birders, Personally I don't have a great problem with the current methods of disseminating data in relation to rarity sightings. In most cases, the information gets through relatively quickly, whether its phone call, text, birding-aus or eremaea etc. I admit receiving sighting details in real-time would be great but my biggest issue is not the receiving of information but the CAPTURE of information. We have to have the sighting information before we can send it out to the masses. The single most frustrating element of twitching is obviously dipping and I've lost count of the number of rarities that have been reported, days and often over a week after they were first seen. The question is: How do we make it easy for people to report their sightings? The reality is that only a very small percentage of people birding in Australia are on Birding-Aus and even fewer have ever heard of Eremaea. Most don't know who or what to ring and therefore many sightings go unreported. There are many examples. 1. Grey-headed Lapwing. Not reported on B-Aus until days after the initial sighting, Why? 2. Last year I dropped into a remote property near Broome and was talking to the owner, an old bloke, who had built a rain forest in his backyard. He told me he had seen Blue and White Flycatcher and Red-legged Crake in recent years at the pond near his back door! I said," Did you let anyone know, they're pretty interesting birds to see?" He said," I wouldn't know who to tell, mate." 3. A couple of years ago I twitched a bird that had been reported on B-Aus and dipped. Whilst at the location I ran into the bloke that found the bird and ascertained it had arrived 10 days ago and hadn't been seen for the last two days. I asked him why he didn't tell someone sooner and he said," I didn't know who to tell, I've only ever met one serious birdwatcher and that was some bloke from Melbourne, 20yrs ago." There are thousands of people out there birding everyday, the same thousands that are buying the thousands of field guides each year from bookshops. Q. A grey nomad sitting in front of his caravan looking over the lake in Kununurra sees a Grey Heron land on the bank 30m away. He checks his field guide and reads that Grey Heron is very rare in Australia. He's not an avid birder, hasn't got the internet in his van and knows no keen birders to ring. How does he tell anyone about the sighting?? How do we capture these sightings to put on rare bird alerts? Cheers Richard Baxter __________________________________________________________________________________ Win 1 of 4 Sony home entertainment packs thanks to Yahoo!7. Enter now: http://au.docs.yahoo.com/homepageset/ ==========www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au =========== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.424 / Virus Database: 270.14.50/2481 - Release Date: 11/04/09 19:51:00 ==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Re: Rare Bird Alert Website From: Ian May <birding AT ozemail.com.au> Date: Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:49:06 +1100 If we pay a bit more can we get rarer birds reported sooner? John Leonard wrote: >I think keep it simple, remember that a lot of old fogeys like myself >haven't caught up with Web 2.0 apps like Twitter and Facebook. > >A susbscription web-page with a feed. New reports are posted at the >top with all the details and contacts. > >What could be simpler? > >John Leonard > >2009/11/4 Rosemary RoyleSubject: Hall's Babbler Fowler's Gap From: Peter Waanders <waanders.peter AT gmail.com> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 16:05:04 +1030 Hi birders, I recently came across a mention of Hall's Babbler for the Fowlers Gap Research Station in far-western NSW (north of Broken Hill). Does anyone know if they're actually present at this location? Has anyone been there? cheers Peter ==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Black-bellied Storm Petrels off Sydney. From: "Paul Walbridge" <Paul_Walbridge AT health.qld.gov.au> Date: Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:13:29 +1000 Hi All, I've never been quite able to work out how Black-bellied Storm Petrels are so rarely seen off Wollongong/Sydney when just a few hundred kilometres to the north in SEQ waters one is virtually guaranteed to see them anytime June - November. I'm not talking in ones or twos either, up to 33 in a day. Just to the south of Wollongong off of Ulladulla (admittedly in very deep water) on two October trips in a row we encountered quite large numbers of the species. Cheers - Paul W. ==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: RE: BARC website From: "Billinghurst, David (RTATECH)" <David.Billinghurst AT riotinto.com> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 14:58:53 +1100 > From: Alistair McKeough > > Could somebody point me in the direction of BARC's website. I > think it used to be kindly hosted by Tony Palliser on his > bigpond, but the link I have seems to be dead. http://www.tonypalliser.com/barc/barc-home.html This email is confidential and may also be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify us immediately and delete this message from your system without first printing or copying it. Any personal data in this email (including any attachments) must be handled in accordance with the Rio Tinto Group Data Protection Policy and all applicable data protection laws. ==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Re: Satin-Leaden Flycatchers again From: Rod Gardner <r.gardner AT griffith.edu.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 13:53:36 +1000 Hi Allan, Thanks, Allan. It's good to hear from someone who has been trying to work out if you can split these two on calls. Your answer is pretty much what I suspected - that it's extremely difficult because of the variation in the calls of LF (I wouldn't know about SF). One question this raises, though, is whether the BOCA calls are reliable. As I said in my original posting, the call I heard at Anstead was almost identical to the first call for SF on the BOCA recordings. I don't doubt that that recording is of a SF, but does anyone know if LF might produce the same call? Rod From: "Allan Richardson"Subject: RE: Rare Bird Alerts Data Capture From: Simon Mustoe <simonmustoe AT hotmail.com> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 04:42:43 +0000 David, We're working on it. Wildiaries has been built with exactly that in mind. The coding behind it offers the chance to integrate all these facilities, whilst retaining the existing sites, empowering the existing administrators and improving the reach of each birding network. It takes time and money though... Regards, Simon. > From: davidstowe AT optusnet.com.au > To: cookilaria AT yahoo.com > Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Rare Bird Alerts Data Capture > Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 12:47:03 +1100 > CC: richard AT birdingtours.com.au; birding-aus AT vicnet.net.au > > Fantastic points raised here Richard and I'm not sure what we do about > it. > As an avid birder/low level twitcher I actually find it confusing with > the number of different outlets - ie do i post to Birding-Aus, eremea, > Birds Australia Atlas, Birdpedia ...etc ..or do i too just put it in > the too hard basket and just call a couple of mates?! So bringing > those perspectives together with one united system would be great - > easier to publicise to the masses and less confusing for the others? > > Cheers > Dave > > On 05/11/2009, at 12:19 PM, Richard Baxter wrote: > > > > Hello Birders, > Personally I don't have a great problem with the > current methods of disseminating data in relation to rarity > sightings. In most cases, the information gets through relatively > quickly, whether its phone call, text, birding-aus or eremaea etc. > > I admit receiving sighting details in real-time would be great but my > biggest issue is not the receiving of information but the CAPTURE of > information. > > We have to have the sighting information before we can send it out to > the masses. The single most frustrating element of twitching is > obviously dipping and I've lost count of the number of rarities that > have been reported, days and often over a week after they were first > seen. > > The question is: How do we make it easy for people to report their > sightings? > > The reality is that only a very small percentage of people birding in > Australia are on Birding-Aus and even fewer have ever heard of > Eremaea. Most don't know who or what to ring and therefore many > sightings go unreported. > > There are many examples. > > 1. Grey-headed Lapwing. Not reported on B-Aus until days after the > initial sighting, Why? > > 2. Last year I dropped into a remote property near Broome and was > talking to the owner, an old bloke, who had built a rain forest in his > backyard. He told me he had seen Blue and White Flycatcher and Red- > legged Crake in recent years at the pond near his back door! > I said," Did you let anyone know, they're pretty interesting birds to > see?" He said," I wouldn't know who to tell, mate." > > 3. A couple of years ago I twitched a bird that had been reported on B- > Aus and dipped. Whilst at the location I ran into the bloke that > found the bird and ascertained it had arrived 10 days ago and hadn't > been seen for the last two days. I asked him why he didn't tell > someone sooner and he said," I didn't know who to tell, I've only ever > met one serious birdwatcher and that was some bloke from Melbourne, > 20yrs ago." > > There are thousands of people out there birding everyday, the same > thousands that are buying the thousands of field guides each year from > bookshops. > > Q. A grey nomad sitting in front of his caravan looking over the lake > in Kununurra sees a Grey Heron land on the bank 30m away. He checks > his field guide and reads that Grey Heron is very rare in Australia. > He's not an avid birder, hasn't got the internet in his van and knows > no keen birders to ring. How does he tell anyone about the sighting?? > > How do we capture these sightings to put on rare bird alerts? > > > Cheers > Richard Baxter > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > __________________________________________________________________________________ > Win 1 of 4 Sony home entertainment packs thanks to Yahoo!7. > Enter now: http://au.docs.yahoo.com/homepageset/ > www.birding-aus.org > birding-aus.blogspot.com > > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, > send the message: > unsubscribe > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) > to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au > > > =============================== > www.birding-aus.org > birding-aus.blogspot.com > > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, > send the message: > unsubscribe > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) > to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au > =============================== _________________________________________________________________ New Windows 7: Simplify what you do everyday. Find the right PC for you. http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/buy/==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Re: BARC website From: Alistair McKeough <alistair.mckeough AT gmail.com> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 15:22:22 +1100 Thank you everyone for your responses. It appear that my link was correct and that Telstra was just having a wobbly when I was trying to look yesterday, so the site was down. Alistair 2009/11/4 Alistair McKeoughSubject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Australian Painted Snipe in Dubbo From: "Colin R" <jangles AT fastmail.fm> Date: Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:12:19 +1000 Hi all Just like to make an observation relating to accessing private property - in my experience this is a real issue in Australia. Owners seem to have some sort of possession fixation relating to their vast, mostly uninhabitated land! In the UK and Ireland there is a much more flexible, friendly attitude towards birders and others, such as walkers, accessing property. In most cases so long as gates are left as found - usually closed - and stock left unmolested, there is no major drama. Please do not equate my comments to some one walking through MY front yard - its not the same, sorry, can't accept that argument. The fact that some people do access property for the purposes of shooting illegally - that I can accept - but its usually fairly obvious you're not carrying a rifle, isn't it? Anyway - must away - thanks for your time! Cheers Colin Chris's observations regarding the deaths of rare vagrants may, repeat may, have some truth - however, in general birders are not seen as such a threat as they often appear here and yes, I too have heard of the issues on the Scilly Isles, but we are talking extremes here, not the norm. On Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:56 +0930, "Denise Goodfellow"Subject: BARC website From: Alistair McKeough <alistair.mckeough AT gmail.com> Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 13:52:33 +1100 Could somebody point me in the direction of BARC's website. I think it used to be kindly hosted by Tony Palliser on his bigpond, but the link I have seems to be dead. Has it moved? Alistair =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: Re: Red-necked Crake etc. From: "Alan Gillanders" <alan AT alanswildlifetours.com.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 12:11:45 +1000 G'day All, I concur about the Black-faced Monarchs. We had an early wave here on the Southern Tablelands and then nothing. Now a few. One calling in the yard as I type. Had Superb Fruit-doves on an egg but something got the egg without damaging the nest. A Victoria's Riflebird has built its snake-skin lined nest above the walkway to the Curtain Fig. You'll have to see the bird to find the nest. Regards, Alan Gillanders Alan's Wildlife Tours 2 Mather Road Yungaburra 4884 www.alanswildlifetours.com.au Phone 07 4095 3784 Int. + 61 7 4095 3784 Mobile 0408 953 786 Alan's blog http://alanswildlife.blogspot.com/ =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: Re: Rare Bird Alert Website From: David Richardson <albatrossvaldez AT gmail.com> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 13:15:33 +1100 That wasnt you sending one up recently from the pond,was it Peter? On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 11:28 AM, Peter ShuteSubject: Re: Rare Bird Alerts Data Capture From: David Stowe <davidstowe AT optusnet.com.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 12:47:03 +1100 Fantastic points raised here Richard and I'm not sure what we do about
it.
As an avid birder/low level twitcher I actually find it confusing with
the number of different outlets - ie do i post to Birding-Aus, eremea,
Birds Australia Atlas, Birdpedia ...etc ..or do i too just put it in
the too hard basket and just call a couple of mates?! So bringing
those perspectives together with one united system would be great -
easier to publicise to the masses and less confusing for the others?
Cheers
Dave
On 05/11/2009, at 12:19 PM, Richard Baxter wrote:
Hello Birders,
Personally I don't have a great problem with the
current methods of disseminating data in relation to rarity
sightings. In most cases, the information gets through relatively
quickly, whether its phone call, text, birding-aus or eremaea etc.
I admit receiving sighting details in real-time would be great but my
biggest issue is not the receiving of information but the CAPTURE of
information.
We have to have the sighting information before we can send it out to
the masses. The single most frustrating element of twitching is
obviously dipping and I've lost count of the number of rarities that
have been reported, days and often over a week after they were first
seen.
The question is: How do we make it easy for people to report their
sightings?
The reality is that only a very small percentage of people birding in
Australia are on Birding-Aus and even fewer have ever heard of
Eremaea. Most don't know who or what to ring and therefore many
sightings go unreported.
There are many examples.
1. Grey-headed Lapwing. Not reported on B-Aus until days after the
initial sighting, Why?
2. Last year I dropped into a remote property near Broome and was
talking to the owner, an old bloke, who had built a rain forest in his
backyard. He told me he had seen Blue and White Flycatcher and Red-
legged Crake in recent years at the pond near his back door!
I said," Did you let anyone know, they're pretty interesting birds to
see?" He said," I wouldn't know who to tell, mate."
3. A couple of years ago I twitched a bird that had been reported on B-
Aus and dipped. Whilst at the location I ran into the bloke that
found the bird and ascertained it had arrived 10 days ago and hadn't
been seen for the last two days. I asked him why he didn't tell
someone sooner and he said," I didn't know who to tell, I've only ever
met one serious birdwatcher and that was some bloke from Melbourne,
20yrs ago."
There are thousands of people out there birding everyday, the same
thousands that are buying the thousands of field guides each year from
bookshops.
Q. A grey nomad sitting in front of his caravan looking over the lake
in Kununurra sees a Grey Heron land on the bank 30m away. He checks
his field guide and reads that Grey Heron is very rare in Australia.
He's not an avid birder, hasn't got the internet in his van and knows
no keen birders to ring. How does he tell anyone about the sighting??
How do we capture these sightings to put on rare bird alerts?
Cheers
Richard Baxter
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Subject: Rare Bird Alerts Data CaptureFrom: Richard Baxter <cookilaria AT yahoo.com> Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 17:19:51 -0800 (PST) Hello Birders, Personally I don't have a great problem with the current methods of disseminating data in relation to rarity sightings. In most cases, the information gets through relatively quickly, whether its phone call, text, birding-aus or eremaea etc. I admit receiving sighting details in real-time would be great but my biggest issue is not the receiving of information but the CAPTURE of information. We have to have the sighting information before we can send it out to the masses. The single most frustrating element of twitching is obviously dipping and I've lost count of the number of rarities that have been reported, days and often over a week after they were first seen. The question is: How do we make it easy for people to report their sightings? The reality is that only a very small percentage of people birding in Australia are on Birding-Aus and even fewer have ever heard of Eremaea. Most don't know who or what to ring and therefore many sightings go unreported. There are many examples. 1. Grey-headed Lapwing. Not reported on B-Aus until days after the initial sighting, Why? 2. Last year I dropped into a remote property near Broome and was talking to the owner, an old bloke, who had built a rain forest in his backyard. He told me he had seen Blue and White Flycatcher and Red-legged Crake in recent years at the pond near his back door! I said," Did you let anyone know, they're pretty interesting birds to see?" He said," I wouldn't know who to tell, mate." 3. A couple of years ago I twitched a bird that had been reported on B-Aus and dipped. Whilst at the location I ran into the bloke that found the bird and ascertained it had arrived 10 days ago and hadn't been seen for the last two days. I asked him why he didn't tell someone sooner and he said," I didn't know who to tell, I've only ever met one serious birdwatcher and that was some bloke from Melbourne, 20yrs ago." There are thousands of people out there birding everyday, the same thousands that are buying the thousands of field guides each year from bookshops. Q. A grey nomad sitting in front of his caravan looking over the lake in Kununurra sees a Grey Heron land on the bank 30m away. He checks his field guide and reads that Grey Heron is very rare in Australia. He's not an avid birder, hasn't got the internet in his van and knows no keen birders to ring. How does he tell anyone about the sighting?? How do we capture these sightings to put on rare bird alerts? Cheers Richard Baxter __________________________________________________________________________________ Win 1 of 4 Sony home entertainment packs thanks to Yahoo!7. Enter now: http://au.docs.yahoo.com/homepageset/ ==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: RE: Rare Bird Alert Website From: Peter Shute <pshute AT nuw.org.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 11:28:07 +1100 I hadn't thought of that. There may be others like Tony who will require a smoke signal option. Peter Shute Tony Russell wrote on Thursday, 5 November 2009 11:04 AM: > What's Twitter and Facebook and Web 2.0 apps ?? I still don't use a > mobile phone - too much to have to carry around (and expensive? ). > Just watch birding-aus for all the info required. ==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: RE: Rare Bird Alert Operator From: "Tony Russell" <pratincole AT esc.net.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 10:35:30 +1030 Nah ! Just watch b-a. T. -----Original Message----- From: birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au [mailto:birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of Carl Clifford Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 9:57 AM To: Birding-Aus Aus Subject: [Birding-Aus] Rare Bird Alert Operator There seem to be quite a few out there who are in favour of a rare bird alert system. Unfortunately no one has put up their hand to operate the system. I presume that the organisation and operation is to be left up to the marvellous multi-skilled they. Cheers, Carl Clifford =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au =============================== =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: RE: Rare Bird Alert Website From: "Tony Russell" <pratincole AT esc.net.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 10:34:20 +1030 What's Twitter and Facebook and Web 2.0 apps ?? I still don't use a mobile phone - too much to have to carry around (and expensive? ). Just watch birding-aus for all the info required. Tony. . -----Original Message----- From: birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au [mailto:birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of John Leonard Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 8:47 AM To: Birding-aus Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Rare Bird Alert Website I think keep it simple, remember that a lot of old fogeys like myself haven't caught up with Web 2.0 apps like Twitter and Facebook. A susbscription web-page with a feed. New reports are posted at the top with all the details and contacts. What could be simpler? John Leonard 2009/11/4 Rosemary RoyleSubject: RE: [Birding-Aus] Australian Painted Snipe in Dubbo From: "Tony Russell" <pratincole AT esc.net.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 10:28:56 +1030 Hi all, I found Mike's note interesting , particularly in para 2 in which he talks of UK twitchers travelling 200 miles for a bird. 200 Miles !! Well well, it's a bit different here in Oz where we frequently travel many thousands of km for a tick. I hate to think how often I've done Adelaide to Perth, Darwin, Cairns, Werribee, Cape York, The Kimberleys, Christmas Is, Ashmore Reef, Norfolk and Lord Howe, Tasmania, trips into the outback, etc etc in search of a single bird ( and usually getting it) and thinking little of it - except when I've dipped out like we did last weekend chasing the Southern Fulmar at Portland, pest of a thing !! Tony. -----Original Message----- From: birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au [mailto:birding-aus-bounces AT vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of Mike Collard Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 5:09 AM To: birding aus Subject: Re: [SPAM] [Birding-Aus] Australian Painted Snipe in Dubbo Hi all, As a lurker from the UK ( although I have birded in Australia and enjoyed wonderful help from this email group ) I thought I should add some thoughts about twitching in the UK. 1) There are some who will go long distances and spend money to get a new UK bird; recent example was a Sandhill Crane on Orkney; not that easy to get to; damage to the environment is the fuel used to get folks there; it added some revenue to the island though! 2) There are many who will go 200 miles for a good bird; invariably collections are organised if it fits in with either the reserve the bird was found in or who found it; eg. the local non-birding vicar found a White-crowned Sparrow so an amazing £5k was collected; his church was blessed with some new glass including an image of the said Sparrow. 3) Twitching does not really cause a problem; I am sure many of the rares that are twitched never get to their destination anyway; now and again there is some trespass and sometimes the bird gets too much attention but that is about it in the UK; honest! The Isles of Scilly has done ok because of birders over the years; boatman make substantial money on ferrying birders around the small islands to catch up with rares. Lots of hotels and pubs are full of birders at certain times; again revenue generation. The serious and continuing danger to all our birds ( including common species ) are eggers, developers, shooters of game birds and duck, crooked and poor environmental consultants, insipid Councils and Governments over the years who let people with clout rule and sadly a number of landowners. The lack of insects in the countryside is frightening; go for a drive years ago and your car lights would get covered in insects, but not any more. Best/ Mike Collard ----- Original Message ----- From: "Penny Brockman"Subject: Darwin, Little Grebe still present... From: "Peter Kyne" <Peter.Kyne AT cdu.edu.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 09:08:28 +0930 Hi Birding Aussers, Thought I'd send an update from Darwin. The Little Grebe is still at Leanyer Sewage Ponds (we saw it again this morning), being faithful to the same pond. In other Darwin news: While there has been up to 4 Little Ringed Plovers seen at Leanyer since late August, we couldn't locate any this morning. Which doesn't mean they aren't there. They are easily overlooked. We saw 1 on Tuesday. Eastern Yellow Wagtails have generally been scarce at Leanyer (only a handful of reported sightings). There have been good numbers at Knuckey's Lagoons (Fiddlers Lane) though. Micha and I counted 15 there last weekend. 6 Australian Pratincoles remain at that site. Barn Swallows have been scarce. We have seen a single bird at Leanyer with Tree Martins on two consecutive days, but we have not seen one since October 12. The Botanic Gardens Rufous Owls are being very co-operative in the rainforest section of the gardens, now often perched side by side. Chestnut Rail is being seen consistently on the boat ramp side of Buffalo Creek (even in the carpark!). White-browed Crake is fairly easy to find at Fogg Dam. That location is always a joy to visit. Oriental Plovers are still making their regular mid morning visits to Nightcliff Rocks. 12 were seen yesterday. Little Curlews are around. Leanyer, the Fogg Dam area and Knuckey's Lagoon (Snipe Swamp) are all good locations. There has only been one report of a Snipe (presumed Swinhoe's) this season, and that was from McMinn's Lagoon. We await the arrival of the Oriental Pratincoles and hopefully some nice vagrants. There has been some mention on Birding Aus of access to Leanyer. While Power and Water are not giving out any more keys at the moment, current permit holders are still able to access the ponds. We are happy to take any birders. Cheers, Pete Kyne and Micha Jackson, Darwin, NT ==============================www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ==============================Subject: Re: Pay for Rare Bird Alert...surely not? From: David Stowe <davidstowe AT optusnet.com.au> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 10:28:47 +1100 Apologies if this has been brought up before (I don't remember seeing it but there has been ALOT of information in this topic and my head is swimming!) - but what is wrong with a simple SMS system? Everyone pretty much has a mobile phone and you will get better coverage with a phone than having to be able to access internet etc. Wouldn't this be the same as a pager (or better)? I recently switched to Telstra so that i had reception in more areas - my upcoming trip to Round Hill being a big consideration being away from my family/young baby etc (yes i have a wonderdul wife!). Sorry again if this has been mentioned and found to be a stupid idea :) Cheers David Stowe On 05/11/2009, at 9:06 AM, Simon Mustoe wrote: Hi, Time for me to chip in five cents! I agree wholeheartedly with all the comments regarding social networking tools. Fantastic opportunities for birding. Let's not forget though, that long before Twitter and various websites existed, we all had mobile phones and in times past could even access the 'world network' using a comprehensive system of pay phones around the country. So why then, do we still pine for a Rare Bird Alert System? The reason is that it's not just about what tool you use but how you go about it. There is one important part of the equation that has not yet been discussed in this forum. I used to know Dick Filby who runs Rare Bird Alert in the UK. Several of my close friends operated the system. I was one of the FIRST birders in the UK to have one - Dick gave us stoodents a freebie, so we could run around shamelessly boasting about it ... as it went off with an audible alarm, it soon had birders interested. But its success had nothing to do with the fact it was a pager. Rare Bird Alert works because it is manned every day and in recent years, almost 24/7. It takes the hassle out of communication because a simple phone call to a recorded message bank and within minutes, your record is being received by the masses. The middle man does the networking, so you don't have to. You don't even have to think about logging on, it simply arrives on your phone wherever you happen to be, at any time. It's success is due to hard work and, most importantly, it is funded - so the system is quality controlled. This is really important. Yes, social networking tools are great but they don't satisfy this need now and they won't in the future either - well not until we have a Wide Area Network over the entire country (maybe satellite iPhones in future). No medium will actually do the job unless someone 'drives' the process. I or anyone else could easily use Twitter to communicate rare birds but I have to also feed my family, so I am not about to spend hours EVERY day managing and moderating the process. Maybe we leave it to the masses but as Chris Sanderson says, you then lose quality control. This was one of the most important considerations in UK Rare Bird Alert. I can't tell you how frustrated people got about cock ups. Quality is everything. Then, there is no guarantee people would even receive the news. IPhone or not, you don't log on all day every day and you certainly don't can't use an iPhone in much of the outback - though you can get mobile reception, though GPRS is going to be costing you the equivalent of satellite bandwidth (~$10 / MB). So the way I see it, if Australians want Rare Bird Alert, then there is really no alternative to a subscription system with some form of 'alert'. Now that doesn't preclude the use of social-networking or the web. In fact, it may be very complimentary. Chris and I have begun a process to look into this. If anyone who has not already responded, would like to provide their thoughts then drop me a line and I will send you a questionnaire. Regards, Simon Mustoe. _________________________________________________________________ Download Messenger onto your mobile for free http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/174426567/direct/01/www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au ===============================Subject: Rare Bird Alert Operator From: Carl Clifford <carlsclifford AT gmail.com> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 10:27:15 +1100 There seem to be quite a few out there who are in favour of a rare bird alert system. Unfortunately no one has put up their hand to operate the system. I presume that the organisation and operation is to be left up to the marvellous multi-skilled they. Cheers, Carl Clifford =============================== www.birding-aus.org birding-aus.blogspot.com To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request AT vicnet.net.au =============================== |