There appears to be a tradition both in Europe and USA of doing annual Northern Hemisphere bird counts in (the middle of) winter or as a christmas day count. And publishing these results. It perplexes me too as to why they do that then. Maybe because it is easier without all the (more difficult to identify) migrants such as the warblers, that would be present in their summer. Maybe they are interested in tracking the population changes of resident species. Philip —–Original Message—– From: Birding-Aus [mailto:birding-aus-bounces@birding-aus.org] On Behalf Of Laurie Knight Sent: Sunday, 16 February 2014 3:22 PM To: birding-aus@birding-aus.org Subject: [Birding-Aus] No submissions from Darwin,Broome or the bulk of the outback for the Great Backyard Bird Count So far about 31,000 checklists have been submitted today. (I put in two for my neighbourhood). If you look at the map (http://ebird.org/ebird/gbbc/livesubs?siteLanguage=en ), you can see the checklists being submitted in real time – obviously a lot coming in from the USA. There is fairly good coverage of NZ and southern India, but outback Aus observations are few and far between. The number of species reported is currently 2713, so they are a fair bit behind last year’s total of 4258 species. I suspect there are over 200 Australian species that could easily be added to the list by people who have been out this weekend (any pelagics?) The one question I have is why did the Audubon society choose February (the depths of winter in the northern hemisphere) for its annual birdcount? Perhaps they were hoping for strong participation rates from southern observers? Regards, Laurie. On 13/02/2014, at 6:19 PM, Laurie Knight wrote: > The Great Backyard Bird Count is Feb. 14-17. According to the > following article, birders in 100 countries will be participating … > http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/11/global-backyard-b > ird-count/5233847/ > > The deal is that participants do 15+ min bird list for a geographic > location and load their sightings on www.birdcount.org > > Regards, Laurie. _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Surely that acronym has to be pronounced “quack”. Roger. —–Original Message—– Sent: Monday, 17 February 2014 6:15 PM In South Africa we do the Coordinated Waterbird Counts (CWAC) twice a year to keep tabs on the numbers for each species for each reserve where the counts happen. These only count waterbirds though and take place in specific reserves. There are separate counts for bush birds as well… Regards, Gordon King Simply Birding http://www.simplybirding.com LBJ’s made simple; Sounds of the African Bush; Mammals made simple Simply Birding Southern African LBJ’s made simple Sounds of the African Bush Southern African Mammals made simple On 16/02/2014 13:21, Philip Veerman wrote: christmas they to Of the _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
There are so many hits for “side hunt” related to the history of the bird counts that it’s hard to find other references to them that explain exactly what they were. I found this one at: http://archive.org/stream/cu31924073178224/cu31924073178224_djvu.txt in a scanned copy of “”The American natural history; a foundation of useful knowledge of the higher animals of North America”, published 1904. “You may be sure that whenever you find one of these valuable birds at work, there is need for him. To-day, a great many persons know their value, and protect them. Occasionally, how- ever, men who are so thoughtless or so mean as to engage in the brutal pastime known as a “side hunt,” do lower themselves, and injure the land- owners about them, by killing every woodpecker that can be found, – for “points.” If all farm- ers only knew what a loss every “side hunt” means to them, such wicked pastimes would not be tolerated. ” If side hunt participants were happy to shoot woodpeckers to add to their score then I assume they were shooting everything in sight. Peter Shute _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Thanks Eric and Gary I’ve got quite a lot of this info for my PhD study of American birders, but had not heard of the “side hunt”. Regards Denise On 17/2/14 9:29 PM, “Eric Jeffrey” < ecj100@aol.com> wrote: _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Denise Simply google Christmas bird count the go to the National Audubon society history, which discusses how Frank Chapman led the use of the CBC as am alternative to the side hunt. Eric Jeffrey Falls Church VA USA Sent from my iPhone _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
In South Africa we do the Coordinated Waterbird Counts (CWAC) twice a year to keep tabs on the numbers for each species for each reserve where the counts happen. These only count waterbirds though and take place in specific reserves. There are separate counts for bush birds as well… Regards, Gordon King Simply Birding http://www.simplybirding.com LBJ’s made simple; Sounds of the African Bush; Mammals made simple Simply Birding Southern African LBJ’s made simple Sounds of the African Bush Southern African Mammals made simple On 16/02/2014 13:21, Philip Veerman wrote: _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Gary, do you have a reference for this information? I’d never heard of the “side hunt”. Regards Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow PO Box 71, Darwin River, NT 0841 043 8650 835 PhD candidate, SCU Vice-chair, Wildlife Tourism Australia On 17/2/14 7:05 AM, “Gary Davidson” < gsd37@yahoo.ca> wrote: _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Hi Philip, I don’t know for certain why the GBBC is done in late winter, (in North America), but I suspect that you’re right in saying it is an attempt to monitor resident birds exclusive of the neo-tropical migrants that arrive from Central and South America in April and May. The GBBC was conducted for several years in North America only, before it was expanded to include other parts of the world. I do know, however, the origin of the Christmas Bird Count (CBC). In the late 1800’s there was a tradition of the “side hunt” on Christmas Day. The idea was to go for a walk in the afternoon and shoot as many birds and small mammals as you could! The CBC was proposed as an alternative in New York in 1900. It has grown from that one group in New York over 100 years ago to the tradition it is today. 60 000+ people participated in 2013. In the breeding season the North American equivalent is the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) program. This is less publicised because it requires participants to be able to identify birds by song. So casual birders, cannot participate. Gary Davidson On Sunday, February 16, 2014 9:05:24 AM, Philip Veerman < pveerman@pcug.org.au> wrote: There appears to be a tradition both in Europe and USA of doing annual Northern Hemisphere bird counts in (the middle of) winter or as a christmas day count. And publishing these results. It perplexes me too as to why they do that then. Maybe because it is easier without all the (more difficult to identify) migrants such as the warblers, that would be present in their summer. Maybe they are interested in tracking the population changes of resident species. Philip —–Original Message—– Birding-Aus [mailto:birding-aus-bounces@birding-aus.org] On Behalf Of Laurie Knight Sent: Sunday, 16 February 2014 3:22 PM outback for the Great Backyard Bird Count So far about 31,000 checklists have been submitted today. (I put in two for my neighbourhood). If you look at the map (http://ebird.org/ebird/gbbc/livesubs?siteLanguage=en ), you can see the checklists being submitted in real time – obviously a lot coming in from the USA. There is fairly good coverage of NZ and southern India, but outback Aus observations are few and far between. The number of species reported is currently 2713, so they are a fair bit behind last year’s total of 4258 species. I suspect there are over 200 Australian species that could easily be added to the list by people who have been out this weekend (any pelagics?) The one question I have is why did the Audubon society choose February (the depths of winter in the northern hemisphere) for its annual birdcount? Perhaps they were hoping for strong participation rates from southern observers? Regards, Laurie. On 13/02/2014, at 6:19 PM, Laurie Knight wrote: location and load their sightings on http://www.birdcount.org _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org