-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Bird behavior study
Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 09:30:59 -0500
From: Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>

Much as we all welcome hearing repeated reports that X species was found
at Y location, I fervently hope Ohio birders will more often provide
other information that the rest of us will welcome.
        Once you've provided us with X and Y, let us know more about how the
birds are behaving. If you want to tell folks how to add to their
state/county/year lists, fine, but remember these data are evanescent
and personal, ultimately not as informative as they could be. Who will
care in a hundred years?
        I hope Ohio birders are not just doing "stamp-collecting," accumulating
three data--species, date, and locality--for birds observed. We all see
things more worthy of sharing with others. I just was reading a great
book, "Curious Naturalists," by Niko Tinbergen, where I found that
careful observation of behavior can be far more interesting than
listing. It is available online at
https://ucscfieldexperience.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/curious-naturalists-niko-tinbergen1958.pdf
, and you can pick it up for fifty cents in used-book stores. In it you
can get some ideas about what you can learn in the field, and how what
you learn can be of lasting interest for others, if you just sit and
notice and record things instead of ticking and running. I'm sure
publications like the Ohio Cardinal would be interested in behavioral
observations.
        I'm not opposed to listing, or bird records--I have accumulated and
published them for years--but the work of naturalists like Tinbergen,
Lorenz, and Ohio's own Margaret Nice is captivating and inspiring. If
you get interested in how common tree sparrows behave in Ohio in winter,
do some work on it, it will be of more lasting interest than all the
shrikes you ticked.
Bill Whan





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