The BESG website has passed another milestone – 300,000 visitors. And after nearly three years of posting more than 700 items on bird behaviour.
We initially planned to wait until half a million visitors to make an announcement. But things are changing fast in the local birdwatching scene. There are signs of a possible paradigm shift in the mindset of local birdwatchers. And we are eager to announce this.
The local nature society’s birdwatching community is at last returning to observing bird behaviour – after a decade and a half of obsessive listing (above). Birding stalwart Lim Kim Chuah recently teamed up with prize-winning photographer Lee Tiah Khee to make a simple post on the behaviour of a Greater Racket-tailed Drongo. This may be a small start but it is a significant start. We welcome such a major move.
The teaming up with Tiah Khee, a major player in bird photography, also indicates that local birdwatchers are recognising the role digital photographers are playing in gathering information on birds, especially bird behaviour. Initially viewed with some suspicion, they are now accepted as the major player.
Photographers are focused in getting more than just portrait shots. They are out in the field most of the time. They are the ones to make sightings well before birdwatchers. Furthermore, they have the images, not just any images but excellent images, a standard that birdwatchers have yet to reach.
BESG has been collaborating with photographers ever since we started three years ago – amateurs as well as professionals photographers. And believe it or not, most of our contributors have been and are, bird photographers.
So a big THANK YOU to bird photographers and a big WELCOME to birdwatchers who are returning back to the fraternity of bird behaviour observers.
YC Wee
Singapore
May 2008
