Records

If you saw my last post about Guineafowl you may have also seen the comments on the facebook version of the post regarding recording and it’s importance.

It’s not always about the rare stuff either. If you don’t submit records of the common birds you see, if numbers dip it may not been seen to be happening. It could be missed. Before you know it we’ve lost a species or two. Spotted Flycatcher and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers are two species in Norfolk that are now difficult to find. The Willow Tit is next to impossible. I wonder if changes had been monitored more closely could we have done something to better the situation? What will be next ‘House Sparrow’ perhaps.

The message is ‘records are important’ – even old ones. Old records enable a base line to be set.

I’m reminded of records kept by the late father of my friend Paul. When he passed we sent all his Norfolk records into Norwich Museum so they could be archived.

Paul’s dad was a lighthouse keeper (as was Paul) and kept meticulous records of weather and birds he saw. Thankfully some of the records that he kept when he was on Coquet island off Northumberland were saved and sent off to friends in Newcastle that ensured they were saved in a repository so they could be used in the future. The illustrations used to support his notes impressed me so much I photographed some before they were sent.