Sightings thread

[htcdude]

Does anyone know if it's possible to get a Wildlife Sightings section added into the 'British Wildlife' section of the forum? I think it'll be handy, particularly to birders, to see up-to-date info of rarities around the country.

Nige

[Deb London]

If you want to know more about rarity updates, you might be interested in this thread:

rarities..... whats the best and quickest way to find out about them?

A rare bird thread was set up on WAB, but has predictably petered out. I think it requires dedication and organisation to keep adding data.

This is only my opinion.

[artdemole]

Could end up in the wrong hands.If the sightings were to exact.

[htcdude]

Ah I know where I can find sightings for most parts of the country, but I was thinking just for people on here, I meant creating a new section under the British Wildlife, not just a new thread, then people can post new threads for sightings they see, rare or not.

Nige

[Paul mabbott]

If it's a birdy thing then I hope it's kept in the Bird forum. Most of us aren't twitchers and would like to avoid unnecessary posts on that sort of thread ....

[Picidae]

Originally Posted by htcdude

Does anyone know if it's possible to get a Wildlife Sightings section added into the 'British Wildlife' section of the forum? I think it'll be handy, particularly to birders, to see up-to-date info of rarities around the country.

Nige

See the link Deb referred to.

I'm sure it's been discussed elsewhere as well. A 'Rare Bird Sightings' not only needs to be accurate (ie. in Identification) but also up to the minute/hour, for it to really be of much use to anyone who is a keen twitcher otherwise it's just a waste of time. And who is going to review/confirm/ID stuff before it's posted? You only have to look at the amount of bird ID Q&As we get on WAB for really common birds to know there's very few people that regularly post on the bird forum that would reliably be able to separate eg. a Blythe's Reed Warbler from a Eurasian Reed Warbler, or a Richard's Pipit from a Tree Pipit! Most birders (that do regularly twitch rare birds) will have ready access to text alerts/mob phone alerts or at least a reference for their local sightings board run by the various County birding groups that will give them much more reliable info that could be posted here I'd imagine.

And how would you define ''rare''? I'm not sure how valuable a two/three day old (unconfirmed!) sighting of a Pallas's Warbler or Yellow Browed is going to be other than to someone in the local area who's never seen one. Let's face it, for many birders on here, what is regarded by them as 'rare' may well be just a scarce bird in their local area and not worth including in a 'rarity' sightings that's given for the whole Country. If indeed, such a forum is used for proper 'rare' birds, then i personally would rather the news came from a reputable rare bird alert service where the news is not only very up to date, but also the sighting itself has been confirmed by a number of birders before I fork out time and expense to twitch it!

Perhaps it would make better sense, for people just to add their 'best bird of the day' on the thread of that name, or perhaps have a separate thread for 'Your personal rarities', where it doesn't matter that the information being posted is upto date or even accurate or even actually 'rare' in the proper definition of the existing 'rarities' listings provided by RBA etc.

[bob.phillips]

I agree with Pic!!

Bob P.

[Jackaroo]

I think I must agree with Picidae here. It seems to me that a "twitchers almanac" so to speak,would be a little too specialised for a site like this.It's one thing for dedicated pursuers of rare species to be sending one another "up the wrang dreel" all over the country,quite another for the members of this site, which ,I think, prides itself on the broadness of it's scope to be posting false alarms all over the shop.True,it's interesting to hear of rarities turning up and the affirming passion of those who seek them out is inspiring but I think they would be better served by a site dedicated to that passion.

Does that sound exclusionist? Not meant to.

Jackaroo.

[actionfinch]

Originally Posted by bob.phillips

I agree with Pic!!

Bob P.

and i agree too

[Naturenutz]

2 Great northern Divers at chew Valley lake today,oops sorry posted without reading the thread,just the title.