I have been pondering the merits of a Norfolk Viz-Mig feed on Twitter and was wondering if there would be much (any!) interest in this?
The idea, as the title suggests, would to report Viz-Mig in 'real' time as it is happening throughout the county. This would enable those of us interested in this phenomenon to share the news further than it maybe at present and while it is happening rather than at the end of the day.
As examples, the past weekends excellent Red Kite movement (which Dave N. would have liked to know about) and also the departing Blackbird movement (that Rob L. noted). Neither of these would (or did) feature on the RBA system, and probably rightly so, subscribers to a Rare Bird Alert may not take to being informed of some Blackbirds at dusk!
However there are a number of us scattered along the coast, and inland, for whom this stuff is just as interesting (sometimes more so) than an endless stream of Waxwing reports.
The emphasis would purely be on birds 'moving', falls of passerines etc.
So a few examples would be to include - 'Lap Bunt, 20W Sheringham SBO' but not 'Lap Bunt 20 still Burnham Overy Dunes', you would include - 'Marsh harrier 5 NW over Costessey' but not 'Marsh Harrier 45 Stubb mill roost last night' and something like 'Chaffinch 3150 W Hunstanton 0730-1030' but not 'Trumpeter Finch still on Sidestrand cliffs for twelfth day' (I wish!)
Now, having been involved with these sort of ad hoc group things before, I would want to know if there was real interest in this, as it would only be as good as the information that is added. For those that immediately say yes, step back and think for a second. Can you be bothered, after logging your sightings in your notebook (which we all do, right?), phoning your local contacts to announce a good day is going on, and informed RBA of your fly through Dick's Pipit, can you be bothered to log on to Twitter, in the field and upload your viz-mig highlights?
The other thing of course is that not everyone has a phone that is able to undertake this, the concern being that those who may have the most to give possibly can't.
So if anyone has any thoughts, opinions or other idea's (or even to let me know something like this is already up and running) please let me know.
Regards
Andy