Subject: Re: amateurs in research
Date: Oct 19 12:23:26 1995
From: David Wright - dwright at u.washington.edu


On Thu, 19 Oct 1995, Stuart MacKay wrote:

>"What are birders going to do when there are no species left to list ?".

But Stuart, many US birders are involved in conservation -- but maybe not
so many are focused on bird-banding, which is your particular bent. And
there *are* birders over here doing banding: Don's hawk bunch, similar
groups back east, etc. Maybe this is disappointing compared to the
situation in the UK, but maybe this simply reflects a relatively larger
number (and concentration) of birders in the UK, and a longer history of
organized banding groups there as well.

Another reason there may be relatively fewer dedicated amateurs doing
bird biology over here: maybe there are relatively more opportunities on
this side of the pond for people who want to do bird biology to do it
as their life's work at wildlife depts, universities, etc., thus removing
them from the pool of "amateurs." (I hope no one regards them as
thus being removed from the pool of "the dedicated.")

So get that Sanderling project going, put out a call for others to
join you (don't forget WOSnews and Earthcare NW), and see what kind of
response you get before you write us yanks off...

David Wright
dwright at u.washington.edu