Getting a mention in the bird report. (1 Viewer)

cjay · Nov 27, 2003

Are you one of these birders who are annoyed at the same initials appearing after rare birds in your county bird report? Well here are a few tips for getting your initials in.

Take a look at your county reports & see which birds get very little lines. Usually very common birds. Observe these birds in the field & try to find a plumage aberration ie Pied Blackbirds, leucistic Starlings etc all could make the pages of your report. Or look at unusual behaviour, which could make the press.
Another good one is earliest & latest dates of migrants. If you spend an inordinate amount of time birding. (Like me)Look hard for early spring migrants & really go out of your way in autumn to record the last ones of the year. Guaranteed to get some initials.

Also last dates rarities were seen. Usually worth a mention.
Exceptional numbers of birds like counting roosting flocks of Starlings, Black headed Gulls etc. Take a walk around your local park is there any Muscovy ducks. Many birders do not record these so you can be the only one & get your name in print. Feral pigeons are another good one & so are escapes. Look out for Budgies or falcons with jesses on. Last but not least, if you do attend a Twitch send in your description in that night. Many Twitchers leave it until the end of the year or the month before sending in their description. By getting yours in first you may not get the finders initials after yours but you will not be mentioned as et al.

Good birding

Colin J.

cuddy · Nov 27, 2003

Some good tips there Colin, i have had a few problems this year with my records committee and im beginning to feel like stopping sending in records.

One tip i might add if you are the finder state this on your record card, two of my finds were given to other birders who are more regular contributers but who did not find the birds.

Stephen Dunstan · Nov 27, 2003

As someone who helps write a report it always surprises me how many birds we can't 'find the finder' for. In recent years they have included good Lancs birds like Hoopoe and Richard's Pipit. This doesn't include cases where the finder doesn't submit but we know who they are and credit them anyway.

Stephen.

Bluetail · Nov 27, 2003

You've been reading Bill Oddie's "Little Black Bird Book", Colin!

Cuddy, I know exactly what you mean. As I've mentioned before I've had birds attributed to me which I didn't find (even though I always stated very clearly that I wasn't the finder). I assume that records committees think that observers will be offended if they're not credited for taking the trouble. Generally speaking, they may even be right - but, personally, I couldn't give a damn. I simply don't send supporting descriptions in now.

Jason

cjay · Nov 27, 2003

One always hears of problems with Rare bird committees I have had only one record chucked out in my time. It was an early Tree Pipit in March.

Our Suffolk report has a good article about how to submit records & what sort of description they are looking for. It just stops the stringers from getting in.

CJ

logos · Nov 27, 2003

Never been able to understand why reports include initials anyway, I thought such reports were about birds rather than people. The inclusion of initials just makes reports harder to read.

If you don't send a report in it remains just that, a report rather than a record. If a bird is not properly recorded you may as well not have seen it, except for your own selfish reasons of course.

Spud

Michael Frankis · Nov 27, 2003

logos said:
Never been able to understand why reports include initials anyway, I thought such reports were about birds rather than people. The inclusion of initials just makes reports harder to read.

Hi Spud,

Because, when tested by vote, the majority of report contributors / bird club members want it. It may not be scientifically justifiable, but it is democratically justifiable. And (as far as I am concerned!) if contributors' vanity helps get more records submitted, so be it.

But woe betide the author/editor who puts down the wrong initials!

Michael

logos · Nov 27, 2003

I'd like to know when and how this lamentable trend began. Are records from someone vain enough to want to see their initials in print really that reliable I wonder?

Spud

Stephen Dunstan · Nov 27, 2003

Spud,

You make a fair point, but the BBRC do it so it is no surprise counties follow suit.

Several years ago Cumbria dropped all initials from reports for one year, it was reinstated for rarities after an outcry.

Stephen.

Edward woodwood · Nov 28, 2003

spot on Spud!

Some people don't want to be part of the 'scene' and if you don't play by the rules of the 'scene' you leave yourself open to criticism. We have a lot of birds in Norfolk supressed (see latest BBRC report) that I see no reason at all to doubt but people do (at a high level) just because no-one else has seen them.

One thing that has stopped me from sending in recs of good birds in the past is the fact that I don't want to see my initials after things - it seems to be an anally retentive game to me..although I have sent in this years rares. I don't twitch either so feel no guilt here.

As Spud says surely it's about the birds and not getting your cred up. After all in the grand scheme of thre world's birds and their conservation, who's seen what minor rarity in the U.K. is totally irrelevant.

Bluetail · Nov 28, 2003

Tim Allwood said:
After all in the grand scheme of thre world's birds and their conservation, who's seen what minor rarity in the U.K. is totally irrelevant.

Who remembers anyway? Who was it that added Yellow-throated Vireo to the British List? Grateful as I am, I'm blowed if I know. What proportion of the regular twitching community remembers, I wonder?

Jason

Edward woodwood · Nov 28, 2003

Andy Birch from memory Jason

sad or what!!!

Andrew Whitehouse · Nov 28, 2003

I think with the getting your name in bird reports for finding rarities, this probably is quite childish but I think it also motivates people to go out and find things and just get out in the field more generally. Then again, I suppose if the kudos of seeing your initials in print is a reflection of your ability to find and identify rare birds then perhaps, just to make it a really good test, they should put initials next to all the rejected records as well - just so we can all make as accurate an assessment as possible of someone's abilities.

Gerry Hooper · Nov 28, 2003

I found a Whitethroat on Nov. 25 one year, it got in the reports, can't remember if my name was there or not.
I enjoy reading the reports for the various ways a birds sighting is written up. e.g.Was noted, appeared, peaked ,lingered,remained,reported, found,passed,was identified...
While sites attract,hold , claim,
Amazing how many ways there are of saying almost the same thing.

Michael Frankis · Nov 28, 2003

Tim Allwood said:
One thing that has stopped me from sending in recs of good birds in the past is the fact that I don't want to see my initials after things - it seems to be an anally retentive game to me.

Hi Tim,

I'm sure if you asked for anonymity in the BBRC report, or anywhere else, that would be granted no problem.

Michael

HH75 · Nov 28, 2003

Hi all,
While I have no problem with my name appearing after a record that I was involved with finding and/or identifying(not that this is important:after all,in such a small birding community as we have here it's usually common knowledge who has found a given bird!),I would be deterred from submitting a description of a bird that I had seen but not found(even where the finder and/or identifier haven't submitted one).
There was a heated debate on the IBN a while back about "slip-streaming" i.e.finders of rarities taking offence at what they perceived to be attempts to claim false credit by individuals submitting their own descriptions of said rarities.The IRBC welcome as many descriptions of a given bird as is possible,as a feature may be apparent on the views obtained at a later date than that on which the bird is found,but this can lead to "bad blood" and ill-feeling,so is not worth the trouble?
I do think,however,that it is possible to get one's name withheld in such cases,in which case I would be more likely to submit such reports.Still feel bad about submitting a description of an Avocet that I didn't find and being the only observer to do so:my name really shouldn't be after that one....

Harry H

Michael Frankis · Nov 28, 2003

Hi Harry,

I've got a Black-winged Stilt to my name in British Birds (87: 521) that I didn't find, but was the only person to submit any notes from the day it was first found.

And I only submitted any notes myself because 'the crowd' were saying it was an adult, but I'd seen a whitish trailing edge on the secondaries when it flew, which (as far as I could tell) made it a first-summer, so I put notes in to give what I thought was the correct age.

Michael

Andrew Whitehouse · Nov 28, 2003

I got my name in for a White-rumped Sand, which I didn't find but the finder asked me to put in a description because he knew that I'd seen (and heard) certain features he hadn't. That seems to me to be a good way of organising things, although it probably works best in 'smaller' birding communities (this happened in Islay) where not many birders actually get to see the bird and they all know each other anyway.

Jasonbirder · Nov 28, 2003

Blimey....can`t believe i`ve missed this thread...beneath such an inocuous title lurks plenty of controversy!!

My thoughts for what they`re worth...

If you don't send a report in it remains just that, a report rather than a record. If a bird is not properly recorded you may as well not have seen it.

Mmm...why exactly? At risk of being shot down in flames, in my locality I never bother to submit anything to the county records commitee...Essentially its one clique of local birders who I don`t know or happen to bird with - thats no slur on their integrity or competancy or dedication, its just that they move in different circles have different agendas etc - If i find something I put the news out and anyone can come and see it - thats the point to me, not having it mentioned as a a figure in the middle of a dry systematic list lost in an obscure county report thats read once then filed away in a box for the next ten years!!

Never been able to understand why reports include initials anyway, I thought such reports were about birds rather than people

Thats a little bit dry isn`t it...I`ve always thought there were two elements to Birdwatching, the Bird being one the watching being the other!!! Which I suppose leads on to the fact that as birders we`ve all got a tendancy to be a little bit precious about ourselves! Birding at whatever level, UK or abroad is at heart an essentially trivial lesiure activity - it doesn`t really have any wider implications or benefits as long as we enjoy it fantastic but lets not kid ourselves about contributing to the sum of scientific knowledge or anything like that!

(I`m ducking for cover now!!)

logos · Nov 28, 2003

I'm not sure why you're remotely interested in whether names go against records if you don't actually contribute any of your reports.

You don't sem to understand the fundamental difference between a report and a record.

When you've reached maturity perhaps things will become clearer.

Spud

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