That sounds very sensible. This is not an attempt to be rude towards Mike or anyone. However it also strikes me as amusing. Please take this message as being towards the amusing and not get hung up on arguing it. Sure, promoting tourism to Broome is great (I wish I could afford to go, just maybe one day I might but it would be to see the regular birds such as the massed wader migration). Then again for those who think a Lesser Black-backed Gull is such a wonderful bird (very exciting compared to other gulls), I wonder would it not be easier (possibly even cheaper?) and more likely by going to Europe. I have always thought I would rather see a Secretarybird on the plains of Africa, where it is supposed to be, than on the streets of Canberra.
More to the point, I just wonder how many readers of this line, if they told their husband, wife, son, daughter, whoever, that they are going to spend a huge amount to look for a Lesser Black-backed Gull at the Broome tip and shown a picture of this fabulous beast, would respond with a “no way, you must be loopy (or similar)”. And that is in the context that I’m 56 years old I have loved bird watching since I was a young child and find myself recently married to someone who has no idea and this week asked me if a penguin is a bird.
Philip
