Interest in a Herp "twitchathon" ?

[JasonL]

THEY ARE.... we're going to have Eulamprus sp. instead of trying to pick between the invisible differences between heatwolei, tympanum and quoyii.

Yes, well there will be E. tenuis as a seperate entity..

 

[JasonL]

Come on, every Sydney herper should know all the local frogs by call. If you don't , you simply need to get out in the bush more................. I tend to agree that it should be on sight though, otherwise it would make it pretty easy to pick up 5-6 species by winding the window at dams and streams

Yes, that is part of the reason, you could easily knock up alot of points from Kiama to Forster without leaving the car and in quick time, and this is what I want to avoid, as the aim is to get people out walking, enjoying the bush and people getting a bucket load of points from frog calls will put others off wanting to participate, also it opens up the margin for error even further.

 

[smacdonald]

Yes, well there will be E. tenuis as a seperate entity..

They're certainly tricky buggers to ID. My Eulamprus IDs are always slight, insubstantial, meager, flimsy, weak, doubtful, dubious, questionable, suspect, vague, nebulous, hazy...


Stewart

 

[slacker]

They're certainly tricky buggers to ID. My Eulamprus IDs are always slight, insubstantial, meager, flimsy, weak, doubtful, dubious, questionable, suspect, vague, nebulous, hazy...

You should just ask me then, Uncie Stew. I'm always right :lol:

 

[taylor111]

count me in for one in qld

 

[spongebob]

Yes, that is part of the reason, you could easily knock up alot of points from Kiama to Forster without leaving the car and in quick time, and this is what I want to avoid, as the aim is to get people out walking, enjoying the bush and people getting a bucket load of points from frog calls will put others off wanting to participate, also it opens up the margin for error even further.

In birding a twitchathon is not about going about the bush. It's about seeing/hearing as many species as possible in the proscribed time. That means going to as many different habitats as possible. Most of the time is spent sitting in a car looking at the bush! The Hunter region is the best birding area for twitchathons in Australia as there are so many habits in close proximity.
I'm game for a herp version, but I think we need to include frogs (and their calls), and have some way of "accrediting" the teams to ensure their ID prowess is up to scratch. I also think like the birdos it should be Australia wide-lets find out where the herping centre is!

 

[i_LoVe_AnImAlS]

sounds great where abouts is it??

 

[JasonL]

In birding a twitchathon is not about going about the bush. It's about seeing/hearing as many species as possible in the proscribed time. That means going to as many different habitats as possible. Most of the time is spent sitting in a car looking at the bush! The Hunter region is the best birding area for twitchathons in Australia as there are so many habits in close proximity.
I'm game for a herp version, but I think we need to include frogs (and their calls), and have some way of "accrediting" the teams to ensure their ID prowess is up to scratch. I also think like the birdos it should be Australia wide-lets find out where the herping centre is!

Sorry Bob, it's not going to happen, snakes and lizards can't be heard from a call, so frogs wil have to be sighted, I don't want this comp to be just for those few people who can name all the frogs they can hear, It will be a point score system, things like snakes will be worth more points than other "herps", frogs will be least points, the red listed species will get you bonus. I'll work it all out in the next few weeks and post it up, if people are still keen I'll run with it.

 

[spongebob]

Fair enough but it aint a 'twitching' exercise as birdos would know it where every species no matter how rare or how difficult to spot/hear is worth one point.....
Sounds a bit like a herping treasure hunt!

 

[eipper]

Are you serious in that you cannot tell the difference between a quoyii and a heatwolei from sight

granted heatwolei and tympanum are a bit harder...but look at the snouts.....pointed in heatwolei and rounded in tympanum

tenius gets its own...so should leuraensis

Cheers,
Scott

 

[JasonL]

Yes they will Scott, I will have to go through and make the lists but the idea is to be able to id it from a quick sighting, no touching, and half the team need to see the animal for it to count. I am aming to make this weekend "user friendly" so Mr Joe average herper can have a go and be rewarded for the amount of effort put in and not miss out to much because he couldn't ID every skink, frog he caught a glance of, there will still be plenty of herps to keep the better herpers interested and buisy anyway

 

[JasonL]

Fair enough but it aint a 'twitching' exercise as birdos would know it where every species no matter how rare or how difficult to spot/hear is worth one point.....
Sounds a bit like a herping treasure hunt!

Yes Bob, their are many more birdos than herpers, I think keeping it a little bit on the simple side will encourage more interest, if it goes well and becomes an anual event then we will change it in future years, but at this stage I think it would be more beneficial to keep it simplified.. As for the name of it, I don't won't to use the "twitchathon" name, as thats for birdos, and their a weird bunch....any thoughts on a new name?

 

[smacdonald]

When I go on a snake twitch, I say I'm 'snitching'. I have a friend who goes looking for banksias, so we say he's 'bitching'.


Stewart

 

[wiz-fiz]

great idea. i'm in.
hopefully i'm in syd when it's on.


Will

 

[spongebob]

Herpathon

 

[JasonL]

Herpathon

A herpathon it is...

 

[zulu]

re Interest

I think the NPWS will scare many of the timid species jason,they are always on the look out for saturation hunters,"satchos",good luck theyll have cells waiting at goulbon jail near Ivan Millat and corn snake keepers.