[obol] Are birding e-mail lists obsolete? (long post, ick!)
- From: Alan Contreras <acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OBOL <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 21:04:04 -0700
Joel raises an interesting question that The Curmudgeon has a couple of
thoughts about.
I use both Ebird and OBOL fairly often, but I don't use them the same way for
the same purposes. I generally use e-bird when I spend a chunk of time in some
specific, definable place and pay careful attention to whatever I find. I
often report those lists to e-bird, because they represent a reasonably
thorough effort on my part to do a sort of "mini-count" for a site.
But that isn't the way I bird all the time. Some of my birding is pretty
casual and patchy. That's just the way I am. For me, birding is a hobby, not
a job, and I approach it differently depending on the mood I'm in. I know it's
a sin, bit I don't always try to find or list all the birds where I happen to
be. And I never will. So I tend to post a lot of my more casual birding (and
of course any rarities) to OBOL.
It seems to me that if I find a bird I KNOW to be rare, I have an obligation to
get the word onto at least one of the birding lists. Relying on Ebird for that
seems a bit lazy. Surely we have some baseline obligations of courtesy to
other birders interested in seeing rarities.
Obviously the situation is different for a beginner or someone in new territory
who simply doesn't realize that a bird is rare enough to report. It seems to
me unreasonable to whack someone in that situation for not reporting.
Ultimately no birder can make another birder behave in a particular way. One
of the concerns I have about some trends I see in the birding world is that we
seem to hear more often that there is a right way and wrong way to bird. If I
hear from one more person that I "should" report to Ebird because it is the
right thing to do, I'll probably cease doing so at all - I have been birding
for 47 years and anyone who wants to be my nanny can go play in the traffic.
There are many ways to fit one's personal birding interests into the very large
tent that constitutes the birding world. I hope that both Ebird and OBOL and
other local lists can remain lively and useful.
Heck, I just wrote a long post, didn't I, a week after trashing others for
doing so. Well, Walt Whitman excused his contradictions with the phrase "I am
large, I contain multitudes." I am definitely large, so I'll let that be my
excuse.
.
.
Alan Contreras
acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
Eugene, Oregon
On Jul 11, 2014, at 8:10 PM, Joel Geier wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> As some of you know, I've been monitoring the eBird rare-bird alerts,
> mainly for Central Oregon but I also pay attention to Willamette Valley
> observations.
>
> What I've been noticing is that, increasingly, significant birds are no
> longer getting reported via e-mail -- neither on OBOL, COBOL, nor the
> Mid-Valley birding list (the three lists that I subscribe to).
>
> It's not that these birds are getting reported by out-of-state birders
> who just happen to be visiting Oregon. Most of them (at least in the
> MidValley region which I can speak for, as I manage the list) are
> birders who are subscribed to the e-mail list, and presumably monitoring
> the list for reports. However, they are not reporting back to the same
> lists that they monitor. Today's list from Marys Peak is just one
> example.
>
> Is this an "intimidation" thing? I do often hear from birders who are
> hesitant to post to OBOL, usually because they feel that their reports
> aren't "significant enough" for statewide attention.
>
> And yes, posting to OBOL might sometimes seem like climbing through the
> ropes into a pen full of sumo wrestlers.
>
> But both COBOL and the MidValley list are smaller, more
> community-oriented lists, and generally supportive for new birders.
>
> When local birders are no longer reporting birds of local interest to
> their local birding e-mail lists, I start to wonder if it's still worth
> the effort that goes into maintaining these lists.
>
> This is a concern that was raised by several birders who were still with
> us, back in the early days of BirdNotes (www.birdnotes.net), in 1998 or
> 1999. The way that we responded back then was to make it a policy to
> forward any reports of interest to the e-mail lists.
>
> I may be wrong, but I've picked up a strong vibe from some eBird users
> that basically they want to push birders to rely exclusively on eBird
> for their reports. Well, that's their prerogative but in that case, I
> don't think it's equitable to be monitoring the e-mail lists for rare
> bird reports, and then not report back to the same lists.
>
> I spend 5-15 minutes per day dealing with list administration issues
> (mostly spam) for the Mid-Valley list. It's not much per day, but over
> the course of the year, it adds up. I'd guess that Dave Lauten is
> spending a similar amount of time on OBOL, if not more.
>
> If birders no longer feel that e-mail lists are relevant, then I'm sure
> that both Dave and I, and probably also Jim Moodie out in Bend, could
> find better things to do with that time. Alternatively, people who have
> started just posting to eBird, and who still find these e-mail lists
> useful, could perhaps spend another minute or two to inform other
> birders of their most interesting finds.
>
> So far as the Mid-Valley is concerned, we have another thriving list,
> Mid-Valley Nature, which deals with general naturalist topics, and is
> often much more interesting than the narrower-scope bird postings. If
> list-oriented birders are gravitating toward eBird as their sole method
> of reporting, then I'm inclined to shift over to the Mid-Valley Nature
> list for future reports.
>
> Good birding,
> Joel
>
> --
> Joel Geier
> Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
>
>
>
>
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