In general the state birdlines (Eremaea runs them for all states – there is also one called Birdpedia in SA) are used for local (not just Melb) sightings and BirdingAus is more of a discussion group (usually related to birds!) and for national rarities. The lines do get blurred and always worth looking at both. It is unfortunate but inevitable I guess – and we also have I think birdo now as yet another place to look. Would be nice to have sites for reporting sightings and a discussion group that did not include sightings in my view, but I can’t see that happening at any time in the foreseeable future – we just have to live with multiple sites – which is better than no sites at all! I think sometimes the people who run these sites pick up on interesting stuff in the other forum and re-post it, but you can’t rely on that!
On 15 January 2011 12:38, Alastair Smith
> David, > I wonder whether this is true for non-Melbourne birders and does this mean > that us interstate birding-aus ‘traditionalists’ need to visit two > websites. I see that my email has been duplicated (and corrected where > necessary) on Eremaea. > > I think this topic may have been discussed previously on birding-aus so I > don’t want to rehash, but are you saying that eremaea is the primary site > for Melbourne/Vic birding as the discussion forum canberrabirds is for us > in the ACT? Certainly I was not aware of this and I restricted my research > to birding-aus before coming to WTP. > > Whatsmore, on finding the bird we were advised by Melbourne birders, we > met and conversed with, to post the finding to birding-aus. No mention was > made of eremaea. > > Regards > > Alastair > > On 15/01/11 10:24 AM, “Dave Torr”
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Comments
8 responses to “was (no subject) now eremaea v birding-aus”
Thanks to all who commented. As a long time birding-aus subscriber you have comprehensively answered my question. It is perhaps because in Canberra we have the ‘canberrabirds’ discussion forum (archives at http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/canberrabirds) that attempts to the fills both niches that I never saw the need to look further than birding-aus for interstate information. Indeed in many cases I thought that info posted to birding-aus was reposted on the local birdline. I will read the birdline summaries more carefully each week. Regards Alastair
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The Birdlines and birding-aus all serve different purposes. The Birdlines are “…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 site)
Birding-aus is a discussion forum – in other words, a mechanism by which any topic, but hopefully Australian birds and birding related, can be discussed, with the discussion available to be participated in by everyone.
The Birdlines cover Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, North Queensland, Central and Southern Queensland, the Northern Territory, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. There is, in addition, a national Birdline covering rarities of national significance. A number of people, myself included, have attempted to have truly national Birdline coverage in the past, with the inclusion of South Australia, Western Australia and ACT. Personally, I believe that this would be highly beneficial. The Birdlines are designed to be a one-stop shop to see the rare and unusual sightings both in one’s own state, and also in the other states and nationally.
In its simplest form, a Birdline is simply a website with a chronological list of rare and unusual sightings – including the location of the sighting, the species seen, some detail of the sighting, and the observers. The sightings are moderated, although current practice is to allow “possible” sightings to be published early, to give potential observers as much of a heads-up as possible.
To my mind, this means that the Birdlines are similar to Birds WA sightings page. Birdpedia is slightly different, but basically offers the same sort of information for South Australia. I believe that Canberra also has a web site for sightings.
Birdlines are available as “feeds” for inclusion in websites. I believe that both bird-o and BOCA make use of these feeds. I have also turned these feeds into Twitter streams – in that way it is possible to be informed of the sighting the moment it is published on Birdline.
I am also responsible for posting the weekly summary Birdlines to birding-aus. I don’t believe that the Birdlines and birding-aus are mutually exclusive – and there is no reason why sightings should also not be be posted to birding-aus. I note that there are many subscribers to birding-aus that make use of these weekly Birdline postings. In fact, in around October of last year there was a technical glitch that prevented the posting for one week, and numerous people complained! I also note that Tim Dolby (one of the Victorian Birdline moderators) has the habit of reading birding-aus and posting Birdlines from sightings that are only recorded on birding-aus.
One of the real benefits of the Birdlines is that all sightings are recorded in one logical, consistent and structured location. This makes searching for them so much easier. It is also much easier to look for sightings in one’s own state and neighbourhood very simply. This is a technique Ruth and I made extensive use of last year when doing our VicTwitch.
Birding-aus is a phenomenal resource for Australian birders, but as an email discussion forum and not a database, I think it is a long bow to draw to suggest it is the most suitable repository for bird sightings. For rarities, to my mind the national repository should be the Birdlines. For a national database of bird observations, Birds Australia’s Birdata (the online atlas) is probably the resource, however I prefer to use the Eremaea sightings database (this is NOT the Birdline repository).
Paul Dodd Docklands, Victoria
I think you will see more “minor rarities” with the Birdlines but “mega” ones with BirdingAus.
Sites such as http://www.boca.org.au/come-birding/birdline-feeds use the RSS feeds from the various sites to get an up to date view of what is being posted. (It already has your email on it!)
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Don’t the Birdlines all get emailed to birding-aus anyway? Admittedly, only once a week. Perhaps they could be daily.
Did someone once work out a way to get them emailed to oneself as soon as they’re moderated? Via Facebook or something? Via bird-o?
Personally, I post them all to Birdline, unless there’s some doubt about the id, or I think it needs discussing for some reason. If it was something really special then I’d email the list immediately – I can’t post Birdlines from my phone, for some reason. Birdline also accepts photos.
I think Birdline is easier to search for older sightings than birding-aus, as the archive lets you search by species. Searching birding-aus requires a little more skill.
Peter Shute
Yes, well, I did qualify it by saying “possibly”. It would be interesting to see just how many people use Eremaea vs. how many use Birding-Aus to keep up to date with accidentals. The one advantage that Birding-Aus has over Eremaea is that the sightings appear in your in-box, whereas Eremaea you have to go to the web site then check each Birdline to see what has popped up. I guess that I am not anal enough to do that, I would rather the “heads-ups” arrived in my in box. Not that I am likely to go haring across the country after a blow-in. Guess I am not kiasu enough either.
Carl Clifford
I disagree with your last paragraph Carl – I think there have been more reports on Birdline Vic about the Stilt SP than there have been on Birding Aus – I may be wrong and can’t be bothered to count, but unfortunately both get used for this purpose. As to which is the faster to appear – that probably depends on the moderators!
I think there is also a slight confusion between Eremaea (which is a sightings database and intended for complete sightings at a location) and the Bidlines – which happen to be run on the Ermeaea site but are strictly for “unusual” reports.
And note that if you report sightings through Eremaea then they can be added to the BA Atlas.
Alastair,
You may have the stick by the wrong end here. Eremea, you will find, if you visit the site, is the main site for posting unusual sightings, by means of the various Birdlines it links to. As far as I remember, Eremea has been thus since its inception. Birding-Aus is more of a general news/discussion group. As is stated on the Birding-Aus home page, it is “a place for everyone with an interest in Australia’s wild birds, their conservation and behaviour”. Eremaea, on their home page states that it is “a free birding atlas to which anyone can contribute”. As you can see, the two do have different purposes.
Birding-Aus is possibly the quickest way to give a “heads up” on rarities sighted for Australian birders, and updates on where the rarity is day-to-day ( or sometimes hour-to-hour) and so they appear here. For general sightings, the best place to post them is on the BA Birdata database or by sending in an bird atlas sheet to BA.
Carl Clifford
David, I wonder whether this is true for non-Melbourne birders and does this mean that us interstate birding-aus ‘traditionalists’ need to visit two websites. I see that my email has been duplicated (and corrected where necessary) on Eremaea.
I think this topic may have been discussed previously on birding-aus so I don’t want to rehash, but are you saying that eremaea is the primary site for Melbourne/Vic birding as the discussion forum canberrabirds is for us in the ACT? Certainly I was not aware of this and I restricted my research to birding-aus before coming to WTP.
Whatsmore, on finding the bird we were advised by Melbourne birders, we met and conversed with, to post the finding to birding-aus. No mention was made of eremaea.
Regards
Alastair
Most people post on http://www.eremaea.com/BirdlineRecentSightings.aspx?Birdline=1&BirdlineSho wHighlights=0so that is probably the place to look
Good Morning birders,
Three of us hope to go to WTP on Monday in the hope of sighting the stilt sandpiper so any help with its location over the weekend would be really appreciated.
Regards,
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I disagree with your last paragraph Carl – I think there have been more reports on Birdline Vic about the Stilt SP than there have been on Birding Aus – I may be wrong and can’t be bothered to count, but unfortunately both get used for this purpose. As to which is the faster to appear – that probably depends on the moderators!
I think there is also a slight confusion between Eremaea (which is a sightings database and intended for complete sightings at a location) and the Bidlines – which happen to be run on the Ermeaea site but are strictly for “unusual” reports.
And note that if you report sightings through Eremaea then they can be added to the BA Atlas.
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Alastair,
You may have the stick by the wrong end here. Eremea, you will find, if you visit the site, is the main site for posting unusual sightings, by means of the various Birdlines it links to. As far as I remember, Eremea has been thus since its inception. Birding-Aus is more of a general news/discussion group. As is stated on the Birding-Aus home page, it is “a place for everyone with an interest in Australia’s wild birds, their conservation and behaviour”. Eremaea, on their home page states that it is “a free birding atlas to which anyone can contribute”. As you can see, the two do have different purposes.
Birding-Aus is possibly the quickest way to give a “heads up” on rarities sighted for Australian birders, and updates on where the rarity is day-to-day ( or sometimes hour-to-hour) and so they appear here. For general sightings, the best place to post them is on the BA Birdata database or by sending in an bird atlas sheet to BA.
Carl Clifford
David, I wonder whether this is true for non-Melbourne birders and does this mean that us interstate birding-aus ‘traditionalists’ need to visit two websites. I see that my email has been duplicated (and corrected where necessary) on Eremaea.
I think this topic may have been discussed previously on birding-aus so I don’t want to rehash, but are you saying that eremaea is the primary site for Melbourne/Vic birding as the discussion forum canberrabirds is for us in the ACT? Certainly I was not aware of this and I restricted my research to birding-aus before coming to WTP.
Whatsmore, on finding the bird we were advised by Melbourne birders, we met and conversed with, to post the finding to birding-aus. No mention was made of eremaea.
Regards
Alastair
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David, I wonder whether this is true for non-Melbourne birders and does this mean that us interstate birding-aus ‘traditionalists’ need to visit two websites. I see that my email has been duplicated (and corrected where necessary) on Eremaea.
I think this topic may have been discussed previously on birding-aus so I don’t want to rehash, but are you saying that eremaea is the primary site for Melbourne/Vic birding as the discussion forum canberrabirds is for us in the ACT? Certainly I was not aware of this and I restricted my research to birding-aus before coming to WTP.
Whatsmore, on finding the bird we were advised by Melbourne birders, we met and conversed with, to post the finding to birding-aus. No mention was made of eremaea.
Regards
Alastair
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