Ah – a new measure – the milliWerribee! Werribee used to be just over 10,000 hectares so a milliWerribee would be 10 hectares I guess, but now chunks have been removed for the regional park and housing will be less – so it may not be a fixed area!
On 4 January 2013 10:35, Tony Keene
> Julian, I agree – it’s certainly different and at the same time the same. > The same hours spent scoping scrubby patches in all forms of weather (and > yes, you can get badly sunburnt in the UK in the summer. Sometimes.), the > same sorts of people from the lightest of robin-strokers through to the > most aspie of twitchers, the same highs and lows of new birds and dips. > Even if they are mostly small and brown… > Moving back to the UK, it’s both lovely to see old favourites like Common > Shelduck and Bohemian Waxwings and at the same time a little of an > anti-climax compared to the first few months in Australia where almost > everything was a tick. > The major difference is the number of people: RSPB Bowling Green Marsh > was heaving on 1st January with loads of people starting their year lists. > I must have passed upwards of a hundred birders on the way between the > river and the reserve and there was a constant turnover in the hide, all in > a site worth about 150 milliWerribees. > I suspect I shall rarely have the glorious solitude of an Australian > reserve, but at least I won’t be short of second opinions on ID in the > field… > Cheers, > > Tony > > > > On 03/01/2013 21:32, Julian B wrote: > >> Yes, Philip, the 16 500 [550 x 30] was an absurd exaggeration, as is the >> oft >> touted fallacy that there are few or no birds in Britain. I had a >> teaching >> colleague who, on returning from a year’s teacher exchange in London, >> bemoaned the lack of British birds: sparrows and starlings with a few >> feral >> pigeons to spare. Puzzled, I asked exactly where had she gone in search >> of >> birds and was flabbergasted to learn that apart from one trip to Stratford >> to see a Shakespearean drama she had never set foot beyond The Big Smoke. >> >> Nor was that the thrust of my point. Numbers are irrelevant in this >> debate. >> What does it matter whether Britain has 50 or 500 fewer species that >> Australia? Australia is 30-times the size of Britain and has habitat >> types >> [e.g. deserts, rainforests] not found in Britain. No one doubts that >> Australia has more bird species than a small European outpost and >> therefore >> all those defensive parries [e.g. lack of birders makes it difficult to >> discover the true Australian total; more than half of the British list (? >> Evidence based or another stab in the dark?) consists of rare vagrants] >> were >> unnecessary and rather missed my point by the proverbial country mile. >> >> I was simply trying to dispel the seemingly widely held antipodean view >> that >> there are only a handful of rather drab and lacklustre avian species in >> Britain. >> >> Given some of the responses [both in this public forum and emailed >> privately] it appears to me that a number of correspondents are in danger >> of >> comparing apples with oranges – equating Australian birdwatchers [birders] >> with British “twitchers”. >> >> Twitching is not unique to Britain and alien to Australia – and anyone who >> doubts that was obviously not present when the Blue Rock Thrush arrived at >> the “Devil’s Kitchen” on the Sunshine Coast. And I do seem to recall one >> rather well-known former Queensland politician/birder dropping everything >> to >> race off in pursuit of a reported Great Reed-Warbler at Port Macquarie. >> >> Nor. of course, are all British birders mad twitchers. Lee Evans does not >> hold sway over all! Penny gives a fine example of this. >> >> I would add my own contribution. Back in the early 1990s, having to >> return >> to Britain on family matters, I took the opportunity to chase down that >> elusive Puffin. On arriving at South Stack [Anglesey, North Wales] I was >> amazed to see the number of family groups enjoying a picnic while birding. >> I fell into conversation with one such family and moments later their >> 14-year old son [along with the nine-year old daughter] called me over to >> their telescope in which they had a Puffin! >> >> Fay and I hail from Staffordshire where our local patches included >> Blithfield Reservoir [for which read “dam”] and Cannock Chase [a “chase” >> is >> a large woodland area not owned by the Crown]. This was our >> bread-and-butter birding. >> >> Yes, we twitched on occasions. We were there for the White-winged Black >> Tern [a Staffordshire rarity]. We were among the crowd for the Salisbury >> White Stork as we were for the Red Phalarope BUT these were anomalies. >> Our >> birding consisted of regular counts at the Doxey Marshes, the Uttoxeter >> Quarry, at Belvide Reservoir, etc. >> >> It is surely an exercise in futility to maintain that it is better or >> worse >> birding in Australia than in Britain [or vice verse]. The birding is >> DIFFERENT. >> >> Here in Australia you can attend your local patch, any patch, and be >> largely >> confident of the birds you can record. Yes, there are always the >> exceptions: the Javan Pond Heron of Darwin; the Black-headed Gull at >> Broome >> Sewage Treatment Plant; the Franklin Gull of Salisbury Plains; etc. But >> they are random; there appears to be no rhyme or reason behind their >> sudden >> and unexpected arrival on these shores. You wouldn’t hold your breath >> awaiting the next one. >> >> In Brittan, on the other hand, especially at both the Spring and Autumn >> passage seasons, one can be reasonably confident that something strange, >> rare of unusual will appear somewhere, either from across the Atlantic or >> overland from the farthest reaches of Siberia. >> >> In part it is that expectation that fuels many twitchers or simply warms >> the >> cockles of the most humble patch birder. >> >> Other debateable points have been put forward in this thread but my final >> [public] word is simply an apology to Ed. I seem to have usurped your >> innocent parting quip to a fellow Pom and birder and turned it into a >> diarrheic comedy of mostly misused English grammar and lacklustre logic. >> I >> would make it up to you should you ever find yourself in my neck of the >> woods [the South Burnett, some 280km NW of Brisbane] with time to watch >> [or >> twitch] a few of my local birds. >> >> Julian >> >> ==============================**= >> >> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, >> send the message: >> unsubscribe >> (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) >> to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.**net.au
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