Lee Hurrell wrote:What's the difference Gibster? And what's BOU?
Hi Lee.
The BOU is a long-established body who's main job is to reside over and update the 'official' list of birds recorded in Britain, which includes deliberating on whether a species is genuinely wild, just an escape or even misidentified. They are exceedingly thorough and tend to await all details before making a decision. Which on occasion may take several years (or more!) This is particularly the case with contentious issues, the foremost two being that of taxonomic (re)splits or (re)lumps and the question of provenance of certain vagrants. Are they genuine or are they escapees?
Here's the quote on their Homepage: "For over 100 years the British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) has maintained a list of birds that have been recorded in Britain and Ireland.
Records of birds new to Britain are passed to the British Ornithologists’ Union’s Records Committee (BOURC) by the British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC) after that committee has examined them. The BOURC Secretary prepares a file summarising each record. The file contains original descriptions and supporting documentation, including BBRC comments, correspondence from independent specialists, an analysis of the captive status of the species and its escape likelihood, and extracts from books and journals referring to migration and vagrancy patterns. Records are circulated by post and require unanimous agreement on identification and a two-thirds majority on categorisation. All files are archived for future reference.
The Committee also studies taxonomic advances and initiates research into this field. In October 2002, the Committee’s Taxonomic Sub-committee published a paper in Ibis setting outlining the basis on which they will base their taxonomic decisions (Guidelines for assigning species rank. Helbig et al. Ibis (2002) 144: 518-525).
Information on feral populations is monitored, and reviews are undertaken of older records. Anyone can ask for old or rejected records to be reviewed by the BOURC if they provide fresh evidence to justify re-examination.
This is time-consuming work, particularly when it involves detailed research or discussions with experts who are often based abroad.
The 'Official' British List
The following organisations have indicated their support for the work undertaken by the BOU and its Records Committee in maintaining a list of birds recorded in Britain. They have indicated that the decisions on both status and taxonomy reached by BOURC are accepted by them as comprising the 'official' British List.
● British Trust for Ornithology ● Countryside Council for Wales ● English Nature ● Joint Nature Conservation Committee ● Royal Society for the Protection of Birds ● Scottish Natural Heritage ● Scottish Ornithologists' Club ● Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust ● The Wildlife Trusts "
Then you get folks like Lee Evans (do a Google search, but don't get him confused with the sweaty so-called stand up comedian!) Lee has a profound interest in birds, particularly of those occurring in Britain. Over the years he has amassed a huge amount of data regarding scarce and rare visitors and is undoubtedly an authority on the subject. He has consistently seen and chased more rare birds than almost any other person in Britain ever has. Lee became frustrated with the BOU's decisions regarding what could and couldn't be counted on a person's list, so he formed the UK400 Club, whereby any birder with 400 or more species on their UK list could (for a fee) join up and receive emails and messages etc on latest developments in the British birding scene. Lee's choice of taxonomy is more liberal than that of the BOU. He also allows several contentious species into the 'genuine article' category rather than 'pending' or 'escapee' category. Twitchers hoping to reach 500 species in Britain tend to follow the UK400 Club taxonomy simply because it allows more species than does the BOU list.
However, Lee does come out with some radically daft accusations, personal insinuations and can generally rub folk up the wrong way without seeming to try. Lee G R Evans has often be dubbed Lrge Ego and El Presidente amongst others. He is a man to be admired and respected by those who understand his passion, but he is also an object of unfortunate ridicule.
Imagine the BOU as Butterfly Conservation and the UK400 Club being those members of UKButterflies with over 50 species on their UK list who want to add more. Pete can be the leader. BC say the Black-veined White seen a couple of years ago is a release and therefore untickable. Pete disagrees - the winds were favourable and a supporting cast of commoner migrants arrived at the same time. So he uses his knowledge of butterfly vagrancy patterns to put up a sound argument and tick it. It is now official and other UKButterfly 50Club members can count it too. Even though BC know the guy who released it!
Apologies for the length of that reply, but you did ask
Gibster.