Re: May I humbly suggest to post notable sightings only

[Shireen Gonzaga]

Many people do not use ebird and social media, and this is their only means of keeping in touch with birding news. This is especially true for elderly birders who can no longer go in the field but would like to keep track of what's happening. Many of them never adopted social media and bird tracking apps. For them, I suggest we keep this mailing list content as diverse as possible.

On Saturday, September 24, 2022 at 10:31:24 PM UTC-4 howi...@gmail.com wrote:

Hi,

I am posting this with no ill will. May I humbly suggest that we post notable sightings (or other relevant questions and topics) only to this group. I personally do not think it is necessary to post every listing to the group; after all you can submit your list to eBird and there are many ways to explore them. This way it is a lot easier to navigate this group.

Thank you for your considerations.

Howard Wu

Herndon, VA (but birding in MD and DC from time to time)

[Gail Frantz]

From the 20th century:  So true whimbrel.

ebird and social media are not in my realm.

All reports from Balto County residents and any others posted on Mdbirding  are gratefully received.

G Frantz 

 

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[JAMES SPEICHER]

What Howard is proposing would alter the foundational purpose of the "listserv."

See

http://www.mdbirding.com/about.html

I don't believe that's what most people would want.

Jim Speicher 

On Sat, Sep 24, 2022, 10:31 PM Howard Wu <howi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

I am posting this with no ill will. May I humbly suggest that we post notable sightings (or other relevant questions and topics) only to this group. I personally do not think it is necessary to post every listing to the group; after all you can submit your list to eBird and there are many ways to explore them. This way it is a lot easier to navigate this group.

Thank you for your considerations.

Howard Wu

Herndon, VA (but birding in MD and DC from time to time)

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[Matthew Felperin]

I second Shireen. This is not a rare bird alert forum and is intended for enthusiasts across the spectrum of birding. There is indeed a lot of posts, so you could forward all messages to a specific box so it does not clog your general inbox.

Matt Felperin

Roving Naturalist - NOVA Parks

Park Naturalist - Patuxent River Park

Director – Patuxent Bird Club, MOS chapter

On Sep 25, 2022, at 10:04 AM, Shireen Gonzaga <whim...@comcast.net> wrote:

Many people do not use ebird and social media, and this is their only means of keeping in touch with birding news. This is especially true for elderly birders who can no longer go in the field but would like to keep track of what's happening. Many of them never adopted social media and bird tracking apps. For them, I suggest we keep this mailing list content as diverse as possible.

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[Gail B. Mackiernan]

I agree with James, many people do not use eBird or are not on the various email alert systems. But they enjoy the posts on the google group.

Yes, I realize that it is hard to believe but a LOT of birders do not use eBird. For example, recently there was a group of about 20 birders at Wheaton Regional and it was a good day with lots of sightings. However, of those 20, only 3-4 lists were submitted, including mine. This is of course unfortunate, as these data are very useful, but not everyone is into this sort of activity.

Gail Mackiernan

Colesville

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[sts77]

I completely agree, even if I may not read some silly comments it's nice to have the ability to connect just a little.

(Silly comments like mine)

Lol

Steve

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

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[Patricia Valdata]

I agree with all who like the variety of information we get on this listserv, but I'd also love to see more notable sightings here. I just found out there was a Golden-winged Warbler in Somerset County on September 14. That would be a life bird for me, so I would love to have looked for it, but it wasn't reported here. If it came through on an eBird alert, I missed seeing it. I don't always check ebird reports on a daily basis, but I get this mailing list on my cell phone, so I can check that much more often.

This list used to be THE place for sighting reports. Facebook isn't a reliable source because there's so much content that many postings don't show up on my newsfeed (and the algorithm is always messing with it). eBird alerts aren't as reliable as I'd like--I've noticed that when I submit an eBird list on my phone, a notable sighting (when I'm lucky enough to spot one) doesn't make the alert that's emailed out the next day. So I wonder what other sightings aren't included in the alerts? I tried getting on the groupme list but was never able to connect, so I have no idea if that's still a thing.

It would also be nice to have a way for people who are planning to go birding (outside of scheduled field trips) to announce where and when so others could meet up with them.

Pat Valdata

Crisfield, Somerset County

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[Rick Borchelt]

To Patricia's point, I think we're well past the time when there will be any "the place" to go for bird sightings.  The birding community (and for that matter, the natural history community generally) is hopelessly fractured by the many alternative notification platforms, each of which caters to a defined constituency, and there is no incentive to aggregate sightings from across the wide spectrum of FB, eBird, GroupMe, and various listservs.  MDBirding (and its predecessor, Osprey, and before that Voice of the Naturalist) arose at a time when there were few other competing notification platforms so they could ensure reliable coverage of most notable sightings in the area. And, IMHO, they existed at a time when the birding community was more committed to ensuring widespread access to expertise and sightings and mentorship.  

What is needed is a person or an entity with access to all the platforms aggregating sightings information in a single site.  I used to do that for the regional butterfly community with a weekly summary of notable butterfly sightings for MD/DE/eWV/NoVA, drawn from FB, iNaturalist, listservs from seven states, and personal communications.  It was a TON of work for a mere fraction of the sightings that the MD birding community has.  I frankly don't see anyone/any group stepping up to do this for MD birds, assuming they even had access to all the uber-secret GroupMe accounts in the area. Nor realistically do I think that person/entity would be valued for doing the job.  

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Rick Borchelt
College Park, MD
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