![Image](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzDrG72ZRyfNd6bWNIYxQ_F8N3IzPROfjQYCfO_jmy0F2XU3J7wLIVNS6r0RnHPrHfCf9pTVXZVQR2YnG1MYH2AkH7PAd1OyeydfzMqBVXKqpaKw-TXMYdpK280sNXIBhlgQFx6IfRfuYfXiBOrgO7gzJzpe6ueIHlcZim_EF-rjrIVS1ISExcXAbF/w640-h214/Plovers.jpg)
I've been experimenting with my occasional blog for a while, now I want to make it more regular. The main purpose is twofold-firstly to keep in touch with birders all over the world, and secondly to promote my website. Now I've retired I've had to cut back on travelling and also general birding, but I still have a need to do something, and the website has become another one of my hobbies- http://www.aabirdpix.com . It is just for interest, I'm not selling anything. Whilst compiling some new pages I was researching shags, (or cormorants without silly innuendoes), and realised that like owls and kingfishers, many new species had been described relatively recently as a result of splits. I really love splitting, and keeping my list up to date, not because of "armchair ticks" but I find it interesting. However there is one big drawback, I'm not sure we've got it right. The problem is all the information leading to a world list (I use IOC as a basis) is p