That’s really good advice Chris. Thanks.
Someone else who contributed to this topic earlier in the week raised the point that there are a few egotistical academics on Birding-aus who feel as if they should promote their publications at every opportunity. I disagree with this point of view.
Birding-aus is a broad church – bird-watching novices, casual bird observers, keen bird-watchers, twitchers, professional bird researchers, just to name a few – as already pointed out by a number of Birding-aussers. Therefore, there are likely to be lots of threads on Birding-aus that are of interest to one or several sectors of the Birding-aus community, but not to others.
I am one of the Birding-aus subscribers who occasionally refers to some of my publications in a topic of discussion, just as I often refer to publications and specialist websites of others. Those of us who do this, do so to illustrate an ornithological point, or to give others who are interested in delving into the topic of discussion further a starting point upon which they can do this. It has nothing to do with academic ego, it is to do with scientific communication, which is an essential component of all forms of scientific research. There are so many scientific publications out there in the real world that it is difficult sometimes to find the ones you want, or even be aware their existence. So when there is an internet conversation underway where a scientist has some published knowledge of the topic, he or she will often say so and provide links to those publications or websites. Those links may only be of interest to one or two people on Birding-aus, but often we do not know who they are and so the information is sent to everyone on Birding-aus. The information is also archived on Birding-aus, so reference to particular publications may be accessed by others who, in the future, may find them useful.
Collectively, the Birding-aus community is a great source of information about birds and their habitats (and lots of other issues too!). I’m really amazed at some of the bird observations and sightings that Birding-aussers have reported over the years. Often these Birding-aus reports are the first public records of those observations. These reports come from all sectors of the Birding-aus community. I don’t think for one minute that any of these reports are ego-driven; they are provided because they are potentially of interest to some, many or all of the Birding-aus community. References to scientific publications or specialist websites should be viewed in the same way.
Stephen Ambrose Ryde NSW
