From: JG Cracknell <calidris@bigfoot.com>
To: <ukbirdnet@dcs.bbk.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: [UKBN] Honey Buzzards
Date: 07 November 2000 22:50
In article <E13tB8k-0005Az-00@sqp.admin.susx.ac.uk>, R.J. Fairbank
<R.J.Fairbank@sussex.ac.uk> writes
>The latter point is as maybe but I'm not alone in believing that NRs paper is
>far from scientific and fails to address the points made by many, and concisely
>summarised by Mike Crewe.
>UKBN isn't much of a scientific forum - but you do get instant peer
review. As for the comments about HB's nests not being easy to find.
I've found a few abroad - once I found one I found it pretty easy then
on. The problem I guess in England is just finding ONE and having the
Schedule 1 to do it in the first place! Yes I know of places where they
are breeding where Common Buzzards are common and rare - but I am not
going to quote any more than what's been published by the RBBP and I
don't think anyone else should. Though HB's in Summer are easy to see -
just look at the popularity of watchpoints in Norfolk and Devon. Come
on - with this sheer number of pairs we are looking at it's greater than
>the Welsh Red Kite population - yes I know it's in a smallish area - BUT - come on someone must be picking this up along the way. Lack of reports to County Recorders etc. Where are the massive number of rejections?
James, you almost slipped up here. Yes, the sort of figures I'm talking about for Honey Buzzards are very small, particularly on a European scale. See
British Population is Still Relatively Small .
>As for the "rude" comments. Well I think the problem is this. People
were going "oh this is this" and "this is that" and not really backing
it all up with papers and reports in an in-depth manner. It's so easy
to pick holes in one or two sentences. I think what we need to do is
agree that UKBN is a discussion forum, email is not the best medium in
the world - it's never the same as a letter to the Editor of BB!
This is very true. Email seems to bring out the car syndrome -- people can be outrageously rude to each other in a manner they would never contemplate face to face.
>I've described UKBN before as people kind of talking like they would down the
pub. Hence that's why time and again one or two members of this list
whisper filthy jokes down the ether - not something you would shout out
:-)
I'm not worried about the abuse. We all know what it means when football teams start going for the man, not the ball! Or ad hominem as the lawyers say!
--
James Cracknell - james.cracknell@bigfoot.com
Dedham Vale, Nr. Ipswich, Suffolk, England
