[Birdtalk] Birdnet/Birdtalk - final thoughts from me (?)

[JOEL and KATHY BEYER]

Before people get confused, the Rare bird report "section" on the utahbirds.org website is not for reporting rare birds.  Rather, it is 1) an historical record of all rare bird sightings over the past years, 2) the list of rare birds that require documentation if sighted, and 3) the current birds under reviews by the Utah Records Committee, and the downloadable form needed to document rare bird sightings to the Committee.  BlIRDNET is the means to report your rare bird sighting to other birders.

Joel

Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 11:37:53 -0700
From: dlj11350 at yahoo.com
To: birdtalk at utahbirds.org
Subject: [Birdtalk] Birdnet/Birdtalk - final thoughts from me (?)

NOTE: THIS MESSAGE IS BEING SENT VIA BIRDTALK, NOT BIRDNET - JUST WANT TO MAKE THAT PERFECTLY CLEAR SO THAT I'M NOT TAKEN TO TASK BY ANYONE
 
After I'd made my little posting re the crows, I read comments from the "COMBINED" postings list, and then looked at my personal email and read a slug more comments from a good number of people. I was rather unnecessarily angry all last evening over this flap that was being made to seem like it was my fault. I just went back and reread comments from people that appeared on the "combined" list re my crow sighting. About half the people responded via birdnet and half via birdtalk. So, that's that. After reading a good number of pieces of private mail I came to the realization that most people who visit the site find it easiest to just send in everything they have to report or just say via birdnet. That's not meant to be a snotty observation. It just seems to be the case. 
Just before I started writing this I went to utahbirds.org and scanned down the left hand of the site and found the RARE bird report "section" - which means that the site does include a place for people to report rare birds. Why people don't use it regularly is something I wouldn't know about. 
I think this thing could be hashed out for the rest of all time and eternity, but unless someone (don't look at me) decides that something needs to be done, and then actually goes ahead and does it, this sort of mini-problem is going to come up again and again and again...
I don't have a cell phone or any other fancy electronic gadgets - I'd hate to be left out of the loop if any wonderfully rare sightings were posted and I didn't have the chance to find out about them until it was too late.
Holy cow! I remember when birding was just very fun, exciting, enjoyable, and when there was a sense of community where all sorts of birders would contact other birders by phone to tell about observations (rare or not) or to ask, "Hey, we're going out by the airport to see the Lark Buntings - wanna come along?"
Anyway...
David Jensen
P.S. I've also heard from a good number of people who just don't care about the whole "separation-of-reports" thing - they're perfectly happy just to go to the "combined" list to see what's going on in general.
 
 
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