Combined Beats List – June 2016

The law of diminishing returns brings the inevitability of repeat sightings and has checked the momentum of the combined beats’ list for June. Despite recording 370 species during the month, the list total has advanced by just 45. As at June 30^th, it stands at 1796.

Just to confuse things a little, only 14 new species were recorded since June 1^st. A late submission from May boosted last month’s total after publication and life is just too short to issue a correction. However, if the summer doldrums bite next month, we may be able to individually acknowledge the new entrants.

It is said that you should never have a favourite amongst your children. The same can be said of 10,000 Birds beat writers, but we are not as sensitive on the whole. We are used to rejection and accolades are often difficult to cope with. However, my personal favourite for the third month running is Dragan (cope with that), who continues to share his sightings as he goes along. Imagine that, Mike! I am delighted to say that despite her initial reluctance to embrace eBird, Clare was the most productive beat this month, responsible for nearly all of the new stuff.

Next month, there will be a sweepstake open to all 10,000 Birds readers. Which beat will make the biggest contribution between July 1^st and 31^st? Call Corey to register for the sweepstake and he will allocate your beat. He is up late most nights, so call any time.

It is a dream, nay, a mission statement of 10,000 Birds to see as many of the World’s birds as possible. A Strickerian task for an individual, but the combined eyes and optics of beat writers around the globe might be able to make a fair fist of it.

Thus, a combined list of current beat writers will be compiled to see how many birds, weird and wonderful, common or unusual we can find between us. All birds are equal on this list; parking lot birds or pelagic species, breeders or fly-overs, all will be accorded the same status and each shall be worth 1 credit on the list. There may be a bit of backroom competition by the beats as only the first of the species will be noted on the list, but with a little delving, there is more information here than we first realised.

Unexpectedly, every entry can be highlighted as a link. So if you wish to check how many Mallards have been seen by the beats you can. Should the fancy take you, you could call up a 10,000 Birds life list (from 2016 onwards (backdating has not been ruled out, but logistics make it unlikely) for a particular location or simply study the rest of the checklist from which the link was chosen.

This is not an exhaustive list as a few of the beats do not use compatible listing software, or have reservations about revealing sightings of sensitive birds. Others, by their own admission, are Luddites and believe that the pinnacle of human technological achievement was reached on the day that man first bound a notebook in moleskin. Still, the list will be as complete as we can keep it and will be updated on the first Saturday of every month.

The Management and beats at 10,000 Birds send a big hat tip and a collective thank you to eBird for their facility which allows us to easily register the beat sightings into a joint account.