There is an article, click here, by Dominic Mitchell, (check out the comments - I've been rather active) on the Birdguides website summarizing the avian events of 2015, yet referring to the decreasing number of BB rarity description submissions. What could possibly be going on? This austere bastion of Victorian ethics, The British Birds Rarity Committee being bypassed by a new generation of Wi-Fi connected, instant access, disciples. How dare they?
Why should there be a need for a written description when I've got a camera? What possible gain could be had by mistakenly reporting a Calandra Lark - shit happens, no one dies! It would seem that that this same bunch of alienated goons are responsible for many of the reasons for why the average man has voted out of the EU - they simply have no grasp of reality in 2016? Oh, but it's important!! Get the fuck - it stops you from doing a man's job!
Who am I?
- Dylan Wrathall
- An individual, of no great importance, who is unable to see the natural world as a place for competition. I catch fish, watch birds, derive immense pleasure from simply looking at butterflies, moths, bumble-bees, etc - without the need for rules! I am Dylan and this is my blog - if my opinions offend? Don't bother logging on again - simple!
Love an argy bargy, keep on it Dyla.n Stuffed shirts
ReplyDeleteSometimes I just can't help myself - lambs to the slaughter! - Dyl
DeletePerfectly sensible comments Dyl. all of which I agree with but then I simply go birdwatching for my pleasure not to impress others with my knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI never got to grips with this 'only an accepted description validates a birds existence' business. If I found something which I recognised, then I 'had' it, and that was good enough for me. If someone else saw the bird, then better. Matters not. I once saw a raptor fly over my head while I was fishing on the final day of June 1981. No idea what it was but memorised the details. Years later I saw the same birds flapping about on the telly in a program about bird shooting in Malta.
ReplyDeleteThat's how I added Honey Buzzard to my list. I was told it didn't count. Too late, no description. Tough. I'm having it.
My favoured method was (still is) to find something, then make sure someone like a county recorder sees it too. That gets me out of writing anything.
Richie - I will try to fill you in on the details. I have been extremely fortunate to have found some incredible birds since moving to Kent in August 1993. I quickly became part of the Kent scene and conformed to what "they" saw fit. It started to go tits up when I recorded a flyover Stone Curlew, in the dark, and was asked, by the County Recorder, to provide a written description!
DeleteUmpteen county/BB rarities later I have the great fortune to find a juvenile Booted Eagle (28th Sept 1999) at Hope Point (in the company of Jack Chantler - an extremely gifted and experienced birder) which would have been a first for Britain but for the interference of some deluded Nic-nac.
I opted out of the system because the sighting was chronologically "lumped" with the individual that had been present in Ireland and the SW counties of England and was never treated as a separate individual - which it clearly was. The category "D" status being an affront to the integrity of Jack and myself - we are liars? Since then I have thought "fuck 'em" - I'll go my own way. I don't care whether it's moths, birds, butterflies or fish - the only person that needs to know is me! If I feel minded to share an experience, on my blog, then so be it - but that's as far as it goes. I don't require another opinion in order to make up my own mind.