[texbirds] Re: Texas Bird Image Archives
- From: Jim Peterson <texasbirdimages@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Brush Freeman <brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 8 Mar 2015 17:03:58 -0500
Brush:
Thanks for posting this about the lack of bird images.
As everyone is aware, the photo-documentation of birds has become prolific
since we all threw away film and went digital. Almost everyone has a camera
in their pocket now. And frankly, there are about a 30-40 photographers who
are so prolific in certain areas that they can make up for problems within
a region. For example, there are probably 3-4 photographers that carry 70%
of all the photo-documentation for Region 6, because they take lots of
pictures. I'm extremely grateful for that, but I wouldn't mind spreading
the workload.
Part of this lack of photo-documentation is our own fault in the birding
community. We had gone decades archiving all of our written documentation
with North American Birds, TOS, and even local Audubon sightings in
newsletters. We never thought much about it. Written documentation was
important. Then suddenly when photography took-off and everyone started
taking really good images easily, we sort of acted like it was just
recreation. Images got spread all over the Internet when we should have
been archiving them along with the written documentation. All of that
photo-documentation helps reinforce our Texas accepted species. It helps
document rarities, and it helps us with plumage variations by adding a
visual reference.
In Texas, we have huge amounts of regional rarities that are beyond the
scope of the Texas Bird Records Committee in most cases. A Black-throated
Sparrow in Dallas County, for example, would be extremely rare there even
though it's fairly common just two counties to the west. We simply have had
no adequate structure for preserving photo-documentation of such species
should it become available. The status and distribution of all Texas birds
will have to rely heavily on these images in the future. It's not like our
museums are going to be re-filled with voucher specimens.
Since we now have a online mechanism with the TOS \ Texasbirdimages
website, I think it's just a matter of time before every photographer gets
acquainted with the importance of archiving images just like written
documentation
Our biggest problems are with regions that have a combination of both low
population and a lack well-visited birding locations, namely the Texas
Panhandle (Region 1), East Texas (Region 3), and Central Texas (Region 6).
So if you have images of birds that are at least fairly uncommon even for a
county in those regions (or any region), it might be worth it to submit
them.
Sorry for the speech-talk... and thanks to the photographers who continue
to submit work (over 500 photographers at present). I am always amazed that
so many do.
Jim Peterson
Dallas, Texas
http://www.texasbirdimages.com
On Sun, Mar 8, 2015 at 2:44 PM, Brush Freeman <brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> .
> Looking thru this I see quite a few gaps for region 6, not so regularly
> birded. Surely there are photos out there of the Bastrop Lake Blue-footed
> Booby, the Fayette Lake Common Black-Hawk, Rough-legged Hawk, Sabine's Gull
> etc. etc. It is kind of embarrassing we in the region are
> under-represented. ....You can view the archive at
> http://www.texasbirdimages.com/home and submit any photos you might have
> to
> fill in the blanks. I'm not a photographer but will try....Somewhere I
> have a photo of Black-throated Blue but I have given up for now, trying to
> find it. Likely it is mislabeled.
> **********************************************************************
> Brush Freeman
> 503-551-5150 Cell
> 120 N. Red Bud Trail. Elgin, Tx. 78621
> http://texasnaturenotes.blogspot.com/
> Finca Alacranes., Utley,Texas
>
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If the photographer is granting permission for use, please include the
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taken. Texasbirdimages generally does not to crop any images, but some
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