Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!sunic!tut!ra!misan From: misan@ra.abo.fi (Annika Forsten DC) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: Re: Latin names (was: Birding Magazines) Message-ID: Date: 11 Jan 90 11:33:02 GMT References: <2359@leah.Albany.Edu> <425@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> <428@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> Sender: misan@ra.abo.fi Organization: Abo Academy, Finland Lines: 143 In-reply-to: sandee@loligo's message of 10 Jan 90 18:37:06 GMT In article <428@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> sandee@loligo (Daan Sandee) writes: In article misan@ra.abo.fi (Annika Forsten DC) writes: > After birding all over this country for four years, I have yet to meet one > true Hispanic (meaning Spanish-speaking) birder. If you read AB, you will > see many contributors with Spanish names : I'm sure all those have English > as their mother tongue. The millions of Spanish-speaking Americans don't > bird, apparently. Although the areas they live in are among the most inter- > esting in this country, birdwise. > Quebec is another matter. Although they no doubt lack the birdwatching > tradition of the English-speaking peoples, they do watch birds, and publish > about it (in French), and contribute to AB (in English). They have a rare- > bird-alert hotline in French, so they must have standardized French names > for most North American birds (after all, the hotline mostly is for reporting > non-local birds). I suppose, because birding isn't a common hobby among Hispanics, they don't get the bug from their friends, so it doesn't spread, etc. After all, most birders start birding because their friends do, and in the way their friends do it. That's probably the reason why there are so few female birders here in Finland, and fewer young boys in the US (if I've understood the matter correctly). > I meant taxonomy, not records keeping. Although the latter subject also would > profit by European-wide co-ordination. Yes, so did I. I know the chief responsibility of the IRC should be record- keeping, but they could deal with both I think, as noone else does the job otherwise. Of course it would be good the have a committee dealing with only taxonomy (more biologists?). I don't know if the IRC has done anything so far, though. > .... stuff deleted ... subject changes to Finnish birding .... > >There is the Association of Birding Societys which assists the ministry, > >but they have very little money and only 3 employees. You are a member > >of this society if you are a member of any birding society in Finland > ... so you don't have to get them interested ; they already are. Although > you could start a discussion in those journals and try and find somebody > to publish in the preservation society's journal. Sorry, I'm not sure of I or you misunderstood. The members of the Associaton of the Birding Societys already are birdwatchers (8000) and that's not nearly enough. There are a birding articles in the preservation societies' journals, but these hardly ever deal with birding or identification, just conservation issues. I have a feeling they don't promote birding very much. Also these journals are not very high quality, with few photographs. True, I could try to do something about it myself, as I am complaining, but I'm a rotten writer, especieally in Finnish (my mother tongue is Swedish). I could hold courses on birding (which I've done once) but I'm not very good at that either, besides I really don't have time to do it. Unfortunately most birders just think of themselves, they are not intresting in doing anything for their own birding society, much less for the general public. I've planned to show slides and such at 'the pensioneers club', but as I have no dead-line I never have the spare time to plan it. I've promised to teach the juniors about shorebirds, though. >> >There are two birders in Holland who have been trying to establish (since >> >autumn -88) a Euro Bird Net where we exchange information >> Why aren't these people on this newsgroup ? Surely if they know about computer > networking ... Can you tell me how to contact them ? I have an > Email birding contact in Holland and she never mentioned Euro BirdNet. Try the following: Pieter Bison bison@hnykun53 or bison@kunpv1.psych.kun.nl Rolf Deby deby@henut5 or deby@henut5.bitnet If your email contact doesn't know about Euro Bird Net, tell her to mail Pieter and join. I've no idea if Pieter of Rolf reads news, we've never discussed it. > It's mutual - the regret, I mean. I hope you did some birding while you > were here. March is a great time (although April is better). I saw a > Fulvous Whistling Duck (or Whistling-Duck, as the AOU would have me spell > it) in March 89. So did I, at Myakka River State Park. We also had a Cinnamon Teal there. If you like and can send you (or any one else who's intrested) my species-records list by mail. It's written in Tex, but even if you don't have Tex, it should be readable. My boyfriend and I spent two weeks touring the country, we visited the Keys, Everglades, Tamiami Trail, Sanibel Island, Myakka, Fort de Soto, Pine Island, St. Marks, St. Merritt Island, Kissimmee State Park, 'the prairie', Loxahatchee. Total 176 true species and 6 escapees. I got about 135 lifers. The trip was solely for birding, i.e. we spent all daylight hours in the field (or driving to the next site). Do you guys travel a lot? To Central or South America? To Europe or Africa? Elsewhere? I've done birding trips to Israel, Morocco, the Gambia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Siberia, Mallorca. If anyone needs any information about any of those destinations, don't hesitate to ask. Also if anyone needs information on any destinations in the world there is a birder in England, Steve Whitehouse who collects tripreports. He has lots of them, so if you are planning a trip anywhere and need information about birding the area, do contact him. He'll sell you copies of the reports for not much more than the copying price. His service is well known in Europe, have you heard of him before? The adress is: Steve Whitehouse 5 Stanway Close Blackpole Worcester WR4 9XL He issues a catalogue of the reports every year. It includes many hundred reports and costs 70p. > We can continue by Email to save net bandwidth, if nobody else wants to > take part (in the original discussion about Latin names, for instance). As noboby has disliked the conversation so far, and one vote has been given for it, let's continue until somebody protests. In December I visited Morocco, where we had 195 species, among those 1 Slender-billed Curlew (The European counterpart of Little/Eskimo Curlew?) Sorry I can't remember which American species I mean. The one that's almost extinct, like the Slender-billed. 1-4 Slender-billeds usually overwinter at Merja Zerga in Morocco. This is the only know certain winter site for the species. The area is a reserve, but hunting is allowed with a special licence (only certain species though, not Slender-billed). In front of our eyes, the one bird we saw, was shot in flight. It did not die, but broke its right leg. Incredibly bad luck, when you consider that there are tens of thousands of birds at Merja Zerga. We saw the bird shot on the 6:th, Pieter Bison saw the bird still alive, but less active than 2 other Slender-billed present on the 24:th. Hopefully it will survive, but what are the chances of its being able to fly north to breed? If I'd come to the US to watch shorebirds, which site and which time of the year would you recommend? If you are intrested I could post some of the information that comes through Euro Bird Net. Please post your views. Annika Forsten , Abo Akademi, Finland misan@ra.abo.fi