SARBN: a few admin notes...
Trevor Hardaker
Good morning all SARBN subscribers,
It’s been a while since I last sent out these notes and we’ve had a number of new subscribers join the SARBN family since then so, mostly for the benefit of all the newer members, but also as a reminder to all the longstanding members as well, here we go again…
How to join:
Either by logging on through the website at http://groups.google.co.za/group/sa-rarebirdnews or emailing me directly at hard...@mweb.co.za to ask to be added to the group.
Please also forward this to all of your other birding friends who might also be interested in joining the group and I will then happily add them as subscribers. The more birders that we have right across the Southern African subregion that are aware of SARBN and reporting their sightings through to be shared, the more chance we all have of possibly catching up with those mega rarities...:) It would be fantastic if we could still get LOTS more members and increase the size of the subscriber base substantially, because the bigger our reach for SARBN is, the more likely we are to increase the number of really good birds that are being reported through the system timeously for everyone to enjoy!
Types of subscription:
All email – this is the route that most keen birders would set their subscription to – each email is delivered as and when it is sent giving people the opportunity to go immediately after a particular bird if they need to.
Digest email - digest email shows the full content of up to 25 messages in a single email per day and multiple digest emails if more than 25 emails have been sent out in a day (which has probably never happened yet!). The full text and all photos are available in the digest format apparently (although I don’t have personal experience of this as I’ve never tested it myself), but it only comes out once a day, so you may receive important news that needs to be acted on quickly too late to do anything about it.
Abridged email – a daily summary email showing all new activity in the group where you can see the sender, subject and a brief summary, but not necessarily all the text or any photos included.
You can obviously choose what type of subscription you want, but be aware that you may not always get all the information or photos depending on your choice of subscription. If you would like to change your type of subscription but don’t know how, you can also email me directly and I will do it manually for you.
I know that some people have also been having issues recently with accessing the emails via the web interface and this is because Google groups has changed their setup. If this affects you also, please go to the website and click on “settings” at the top right and then select the option to go back to “classic Google groups” and this should then revert everything back to the way that it was previously when the messages on the website were easily and fully accessible.
How to report a sighting:
Sightings should be reported directly to me as I am the only one (barring a few exceptions) that can actually post to the group. You can send the sighting via email to hard...@mweb.co.za or via phone to +27(0)827800376 (voice call, sms, Whatsapp or Telegram) – the latter options of Whatsapp and Telegram messages would be preferred if possible but, strangely enough, not everyone uses these apps. Please don’t just post the sighting on another email group or on Facebook and tag me in it. You are, of course, welcome to post it anywhere else too, but please also send it directly to me to ensure that I get to know about it straight away, rather than picking it up later when I get to check other email groups or Facebook. Please save those details in your contact list so that you have them with you when you are out in the field.
What to report:
Basically, I report on anything that would be considered a Southern African rarity. So, if you open your field guide and the distribution map of the particular species doesn’t show a large swathe of colour on the map across the subregion, but just a number of little crosses indicating where the birds have been recorded, that is almost certainly a reportable species. However, equally of interest are birds that are considered to be out of range. Once again, if the distribution map in your field guide doesn’t show the species you have recorded as occurring where you have seen it, then it is probably worth reporting. One should also bear in mind that the distribution maps in many of the older field guides will probably be slightly out of date, so you can also use the SABAP2 maps on the website at http://sabap2.adu.org.za/ to check the most up to date distributions e.g. species like Long-crested Eagle which has expanded their range substantially in recent years and now regularly occur in areas where they would be considered well out of range based on the distribution maps in some of the older field guides. And, if you are still not sure whether it should be reported or not, rather just send the info through to me anyway and then I can decide whether it is of interest or not to report on.
What to include with your report:
Species of bird – obviously
Your name – especially important when sending messages to my phone as I don’t have everyone’s details saved in my phone and often have to ask who the message is coming from.
Locality – a description, as detailed as possible, of where you have seen the particular bird. If you can send GPS co-ordinates, that is even better, You don’t need to have a GPS, all you need is a smart phone (which almost everyone has these days anyway). You can send me a dropped pin via Google Maps or, if you use Whatsapp, you can send me your location from there (a built in function in the app – just click on the paper clip at the bottom and then select location and then click on “send current location”. Don’t send me a live location, just a current location, as the live location will move around as you do…) or, if you are atlassing and using the fantastic application BirdLasser, you can also get the co-ordinates straight off of there. It is really very easy to provide this kind of detail and almost everyone should have access to get this information to me.
Additional info on site: please include any access issues or whether it is private property or who to contact to arrange access, etc. The more info included, the better.
Photos – especially from the field, you can just take a “back of the camera” shot with your cellphone and send it through to me as additional confirmation of the record. In fact, this would be really appreciated as it helps me to decide immediately if it is a confirmed record or not of if I have to go back and ask a whole lot of questions before posting the news to try and make sure about things.
When to send the report:
As soon as is humanly possible after seeing the bird. Don’t wait until you get home or finally download your photos, etc. Timing is everything and the sooner the news can get out, the better. Preferably send the reports through straight from the field (if you have reception of course, which is not always the case). A delay of a few hours between seeing the bird and finally reporting it can often be the difference between lots of other people getting to see it or everyone missing out because the bird has moved off already.
Updates on previously reported species:
Please also continue to send these through to me – I am constantly being asked whether a particular bird is still around and the only way to know this is based on the update reports that I receive from all of you. So, even if the bird has been hanging around for weeks or months already, if you happen to see it again, please just drop me a note to let me know that it is still around. Negative reports are also just as useful, so if you have been to look for a particular bird that was reported and didn’t find it, that is also useful info for me to have as I can then let others know about the situation.
It is up to all of us to make the effort to report news and updates on rarities. We can’t just benefit from news that others send through and not give back anything ourselves – we all need to keep the flow of information going. That is the only way that this service will continue to be of use to everyone.
Photos:
If you have managed to get photos of a particular rarity, it would be appreciated if you could also email a selection of those through to me, so that I can select one to include in the next formal report. These go out on Monday and Thursday evenings and look so much better when they are well illustrated with photos of all the recent rarities.
Reports, alerts and updates:
Formal reports with photos covering all of the known records are sent out twice a week, on Monday and Thursday evenings. There will also be interim breaking news alerts or updates on certain of the more important rarities that get found (those of national or subregional significance), but I don’t send out alerts and updates for birds that are just regionally out of range as this would clog up everyone’s inboxes to include all of those as well. All of these regionally out of range birds are included in the twice weekly formal reports though. If you are keen to know about these regionally out of range birds as soon as they are reported, I would also encourage you to join the Telegram or WhatsApp group for your particular region. There are groups that cover most of the Southern African subregion where birders post news and updates on the various rarities in those areas, but please be aware that these are not chat groups and are only there for sharing rarity-specific information.
Birding and twitching ethics:
Lastly, I would just like to remind everyone out there that it is up to all of us to not give the twitchers a bad name and, when trying to connect with a particular rarity, to act ethically towards the bird and courteously and considerately towards the other birders who might also be looking for it and towards the land owner if the bird happens to be on private land. If the bird happens to be within the confines of a nature reserve which had additional rules like not getting out of your car, etc, please also respect those rules. Your one selfish act might spoil it for many others. So, please keep that in mind. You can view BirdLife South Africa’s code of ethics for birders on their website at www.birdlife.org.za for more info on this.
Alright, that’s enough boring admin stuff for now, let’s get back to the birds… and hopefully get to report a few exciting megas in the not too distant future.
Kind regards
Trevor