Birding 'click' groups

[george...@gmail.com]

Surprised you didn't know of the Chicagoland bird 'click' groups like the Stokie click, Itani, a few at Montrose, and one at Centennial Trail, to name a few. These clicks keep things to themselves and never post, except for Al but it's always posted late which usually is useless. The exception is usually Joe Lill who almost always gives descriptions and directions. And if you are a beginnner, forget about it, you'll get the cold shoulder almost every time and sometimes the wrong directions.

 And I thought this was suppose to be about helping other birders, not saying who you were with or who told you about it, or what your bird count is for the year, or what license plates you saw on  your travels !

 And If you do know who I am, and choose to give me the cold shoulder, don't worry I'm use to it, and I wouldn't want to have anything to do with you anyhow.

[Rachel Brenner]

My thoughts on this:

I always have found birders (as a group - there are always individual exceptions in any kind of group) to generally be friendly and helpful to anyone who was friendly and polite back, both in the Chicago area and down here in Tennessee.  

I also have always enjoyed all of the posts both here and on social media whether they are specific sightings and directions to a bird or lists or who saw the bird (which actually can be important information if it's a difficult bird to ID - knowing that numerous and/or experienced birders saw it) or various other kinds of information - to me, it's all part of birding (yes, even the license plates - Al's posts are now a very enjoyable birding-related tradition for me).  Seems that people share whatever information is significant to them as birders and as a whole, it creates a nice sample of what birding is for a wide range of people.

I would suggest that if somebody posts about a bird without giving specific directions and someone wants to look for it, respond and ask for directions.  I have done that several times - sometimes the bird is on private property or is a species that needs to be protected from being disturbed by large numbers of people so exact location won't be given and sometimes the bird didn't stick around, but the rest of the time, I've usually been able to get the information I need to go looking for it.

I also appreciate those who do post, but if nothing interesting has been posted and I want to go birding, I go birding and see if I can be the one to find something interesting (I usually am not :) )

Rachel Brenner

Nashville, TN (formerly Chicago area)

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[Jill Niland]

I think postings on IBET have dropped off over time, but that's not due to 'cliques' but to the use of social media to easily post sightings with photos on Instagram and on various Facebook pages---COS, CAS, IOS and other local birding organizations-- or to their own FB pages. One of the people said to be in a clique has posted numerous photos on Facebook just in the last couple weeks. I rarely post on IBET these days---social media is a lot easier and a birder can request and get almost instant feedback on bird ID there. I've been in the Chicago birding community almost thirty years and almost always find other birders to be helpful, especially to beginners. 

Jill Niland

Chicago

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[John Roegge]

I’m sorry if this gentleman has had bad experiences with local birders as mine have been quite different. In fact just yesterday a fellow birder I did not know that I ran into volunteered to help me find my lifer Barn Owl in the Burnham Nature area. As a beginner many years ago one of the things that I appreciated most was the friendliness and patience of other birders.

  I think, as Jill mentioned, that the explosion of all the other social media options has somewhat splintered the flow of information. I will also point out that for some birds and in some situations maybe it is best that information is not spread too widely as overexposure can be bad for the benefit of the bird in question. I am not bothered by that as the birds’ welfare comes first. 

 I still find the reports that do run on IBET to be helpful especially the previously mentioned ones of Al Stokie and Joe Lill.  . Thanks,  John Roegge,  Chicago

 

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[Motmot]

Wow.  After reading your post I checked to see if I could find you on Facebook which as Jill mentioned, is where most of the rare or unusual bird sightings show up.  I did not find your name there unless you are using an alias.  You are therefore missing out on the IOS, COS, CAS, Illinois RBA, Illinois Birding Network and many other birding groups. This is where pretty much all rarities show up and way before IBET (ILBIRDS) posts show up.  You can also set up an Ebird needs list which will flag anything you have not yet seen in Illinois.  If you have had bad experiences in the past, it might help if you improve your crappy attitude.  Most birders, including the ones you personally mentioned, are very forthcoming with their sightings and if you are only getting information from one place, you are missing a lot.  Your loss.

Cindy Alberico

Will County

PS.  I love to read about Al’s license plates because I keep a yearly list of those as well.

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 26, 2021, at 5:09 PM, george...@gmail.com <george...@gmail.com> wrote:

Surprised you didn't know of the Chicagoland bird 'click' groups like the Stokie click, Itani, a few at Montrose, and one at Centennial Trail, to name a few. These clicks keep things to themselves and never post, except for Al but it's always posted late which usually is useless. The exception is usually Joe Lill who almost always gives descriptions and directions. And if you are a beginnner, forget about it, you'll get the cold shoulder almost every time and sometimes the wrong directions.

 And I thought this was suppose to be about helping other birders, not saying who you were with or who told you about it, or what your bird count is for the year, or what license plates you saw on  your travels !

 And If you do know who I am, and choose to give me the cold shoulder, don't worry I'm use to it, and I wouldn't want to have anything to do with you anyhow.

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