[obol] OBOL -- years from now
- From: "Paul T. Sullivan" <paultsullivan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Tim Rodenkirk" <garbledmodwit@xxxxxxxxx>, "obol" <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2013 23:59:15 -0700
Tim,
Not to discourage you from reporting sightings to OBOL, but I wonder about
its usefulness as an archive of bird information for future scientists.
I miss the paper record that was Oregon Birds when it had quarterly reports.
One can still go back to those earlier issues and look up something that is
vague in one's memory. Future scientists can look there too. No fancy
equipment is needed to read the record.
While OBOL in its serial incarnations provides for the exchange of
information on sightings, some social contact, some humor, some instruction,
and some edgy interactions, I wonder if "future scientists" will ever be
able to recover (or would want to recover) the archive from the server
before the last server that hosted this list, never mind the server before
that and the one before that. "Back issues" are not readily available. The
whole internet is transitory, in that the ability to read the ever-changing
format of storage is always evolving. Try to read a 5.25" floppy these
days.
More than once I've wanted to dig up some past info from OBOL, and found
that the current archive doesn't go back as far as I wanted to go. If I
didn't have it saved on my own computer, I couldn't get it.
It was ever thus. All the notes of the early explorers, the early birders,
etc, etc. Info in our mentor's childhood notebooks... They all slowly
drift away as times change and the next generation invents the "new" way to
keep records of birds. The younger generation doesn't care about the
memories and photos of the older generation until a) the younger generation
is over 40, and b) the older generation is senile or gone. Then we wonder,
"Who are these people in this old yellow photograph?" Where did uncle Ned
go birding in 1952, and what happened to his notebooks? (Cousin Jane burned
them.)
Birds change. Habitat changes. Birds' names change. The focus of our study
changes (study skins, egg collections, sight records reported to records
committees, county lists, CBC's, BBS's, NAMC's, now molt sequence aging of
each individual, eBird's format...) The next generation will have to do
their own birding. They will collect data in new ways to answer the
questions they want to ask.
Bottom line: See. Enjoy. Report. Relax. See some more. Enjoy some more.
Good birding, everyone,
Paul T. Sullivan
======================
Subject: A quickie- Coos/ Curry
Date: Thu Aug 1 2013 21:02 pm
From: garbledmodwit AT yahoo.com
I always like to post birds on OBOL thinking that a hundred years from now,
this is where some of the the scientist will be searching for whatever it is
they need info on:
Joe Metzler reports a molting adult PACIFIC GOLDEN POLVER and a BAIRD'S
SANDPIPER from Bandon Marsh on 7/31.
I saw a SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER at New River, Curry today- a strikingly
handsome juvie. Also there were 30+ W. Sandpipers (I didn't get looks at
many but the ones I did see were adults), about 20 Least Sandpipers (one a
juvie), 2 Greater Yellowlegs (both juvies), 4 Semipalmated Plovers, and 7
Long-billed Dows (calling adults).
Have fun all,
Tim R
Coos Bay
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