Donana Bird tours article - disclaimer. (1 Viewer)

A few months ago, Rebecca and I were interviewed by a free-lance reporter, regarding our life and business here in Donana. The interview, with pictures, has now been published as an article in issue 30 of the "Living Spain" magazine.

Although we were aware that some photographs of ourselves were to be used in the article, it appears that some photos of birds have also been included in the article.

Rebecca and I have not yet seen the magazine article, but we received an e-mail today from a well-wisher, congratulating us on the article and our success story, but pointing out that there were pictures of what appear to be a juvenile Spotted Sandpiper and an adult Western Sandpiper. The writer asked if these were genuine vagrants to Donana, or whether it was "journalistic licence".

We can only assume that the editor of the magazine wanted to fill in some space and chose a few photos to add a bit of visual impact to the article. If the person who wrote to us is correct in his ID skills, we can only assume the editor did not know much about birding and made the wrong choice of photos.

We have never seen either of those species in Donana and would not like to give the false impression that they may be seen on any of our tours.

Journos are a menace, someone brought me an article in a magazine for the high-falutin' the other day on British birds in decline and the Tree Sparrow picture was an American Tree Sparrow. You have to laugh!

John

As a freelancer myself (not in birding magazines) I suggest you contact the editor and ask them to print a correction in the next issue. If he or she is decent they will do this willingly.