[texbirds] Written details, written or sketched a dying art form
- From: "Collins, Fred (Commissioner Pct. 3)" <Fred_Collins@xxxxxxxx>
- To: "1 Texbirds (texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 15:05:03 +0000
Thank you Cameron for starting this thread. Some really good resources has been
brought before the group.
I get the e-bird rare bird report daily and the lack of knowledge of what even
constitutes details is tragic. Some are often just a couple of words: "seen
well", "in backyard", "I am confident this is what I saw", "present all day". I
think these convey the idea, all examples equals no details. I know that many
people prefer to communicate in text form: "C U soon." Imagine a Tale of Two
Cities by todays standard: "it was the best of years, it was the worst of
years..whatever ;-(, ;-)" Somehow this does not convey the same sense and
emotion and would not be considered a classic. I wonder if a picture could
convey that, maybe a drawing but a photograph?
I have always thought how unfortunate that the future will not have the
wonderful letters to read and learn history in a personal way. One of the most
exciting letters I ever read was from Ted Parker. He wrote it on the several
hour flight returning from his first trip to Peru. Of course that trip set him
on his life's destiny. Thank goodness he could write well and didn't mind
writing a very long letter. Had he not practiced those skills up until that
time we would not have such a treasure. (BTW, I lost my copy of this letter in
my 2009 house fire in case one of you have a copy you could send me.)
Ted and all of us from older generations were taught to write and practiced
writing in journals or at least letters to friends, family, and Santa. (Do kids
text Santa today?) We also had experience since our first birding days of
writing descriptions of birds. I like blogs because they are just electronic
journals in computers. However, since text are short and tweets even shorter I
am uncertain that the younger generations will ever master the idea of complete
descriptions. Blogs can include great color images including drawings. Let's
hope at some point new birders learn the value of written descriptions and
convey to the future what miraculous things they see and learn.
Fred Collins, Director
Kleb Woods Nature Center
20303 Draper Road,Tomball TX 77377
Harris County Precinct 3
Steve Radack Commissioner
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