I wonder if there had been a Victorian era equivalent to this and someone asked the question re optical aids, 'I've just acquired a telescope, can I include species seen through this device, rather than my own eyes?'
Is the camera trap any different?
Just asking.
Indeed ...
With the advance in technology it is probably a matter of years not decades whereby digital imaging in mainstream scopes and binoculars could mean that images are no longer of the actual creature, but a binary representation ... dilemma for all birders then??
For the scientific record if it occurred, it occurred. As Richard says, if it's for your own personal recording, then no. I guess you have to have 'experienced' it in real time, in person ... but then, similar to dead animals*, can it go on the 'house/garden' list as that is a separate entity to yourself ... ?
Moral conundrum.
(* Did it die on the property, or was transported in by other means?)
Interesting - I just found a freshly killed water shrew (puncture mark on the flank) on our land. Quite an exciting record (at least for me) as there are none from the atlas nearby.
Easily overlooked and certainly under recorded - but a strange situation - a definite record for the locality - but can I include it on my garden list?
This type of debate occasionally occurs within entemology as birders get interested. As far as I am aware, most serious entemologists do not worry themselves of lists
The more serious ones tend to call themselves entomologists though.
24) Magpie
btw starting to think of 'rarity of the month', a pretty occasional thing.
The criteria are something of a cross between a bird being an actual area, region or state rarity; being a really good garden bird; a really good bird for your particular garden (eg a commonish bird elsewhere but the first you've ever had for your garden in xx years), along with other factors like being a lifer etc.
Ken's Lesser Spotted Woodpecker one obvious contender??
The top three for January seem to me to be Ken’s Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Jared’s Peregrine then a tie for third between the Barnsley Little Egret for H and the Scaup for Ryan ( good job Jos has been Down Under otherwise he’d no doubt blow us all away with a flyover Steller’s Eider or similar :eek!: )
Still getting between 35 and 45 Yellowhammer each day, perhaps the Pine Bunting will pop in again on its way back to Kazakhstan, otherwise I’m still on Siskin watch......