[Tweeters] An additional suggestion for sending emails to Tweeters——-Re: Comment re E-Bird / Tweeters Posts

[Constance Sidles]

Hey tweets, K2 refers to the second-highest point of Montlake Fill (just as K2 is the second-highest peak in the Himalayas, though our peak is rather lower), aka Union Bay Natural Area. It is located at the memorial bench on the Loop Trail a few meters to the east of the Osprey Pole. 

FYI, there are many highly localized names for sites at the Fill. Some are supplied by the official mapmakers of the state: eg., Wahkiakum Lane is an east-west gravel throughfare cutting through the middle of the Fill, more or less. Some names are supplied by the UWBG (UW Botanic Gardens), which administers the site: eg, Shoveler's Pond. Many names have been supplied by local birders and are not to be found on official UW maps. The best map for these sites (and it is a map I made that is sadly out of date, so I need to update it!) is here:

https://wos.org/documents/Birding%20Resources/Sidles-fill-map.png <https://wos.org/documents/Birding%20Resources/Sidles-fill-map.png>

The reason birders named so many tiny sites at the Fill is because the birds here often stay close to the place they were originally spotted. The Lesser Goldfinch (a First of Fill) a couple years ago, for example, stayed pretty much along University Slough within a few dozen meters of the Wooden Bridge. The Brewer's Sparrow a little while before that stayed within 20 or 30 feet of the bush where it was originally seen. The Fill is a place of micro-habitats. To help people locate birds reported on eBird and Tweeters, naming highly localized birding spots proved to be quite useful.

For many years, a map was posted with the white board at the kiosk, which is located at the eastern terminus of Wahkiakum Lane. That map eventually disintegrated and needs to be replaced - hopefully with a new map that takes account of all the places that have changed over time. Many changes over the past 7 years were implemented by WSDOT as part of its mitigation plan to make up for habitat destruction caused the widening of the 520 bridge. For example, the Dime Lot, which used to be a parking lot that charged a dime to park, was transformed into a pond, renamed by birders The Bathrub. 

I can certainly appreciate how frustrating it is for people unfamiliar with the micro-spots of Montlake Fill to try to find a specific location mentioned in eBird or Tweeters. I have been working on creating a new map that gives all the latest names. If any of you want me to send you jpg's of the map (the map is in two parts), email me privately. Ironically, K2 is not on the new maps! But it will be ASAP. - Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com <mailto:constancesidles at gmail.com>





> On Apr 28, 2022, at 11:49 PM, Dan Reiff <dan.owl.reiff at gmail.com> wrote:

> 

> Hello Tom, Doug and the Tweeters Community,

> 

> Yes, I agree and support those suggestions. 

> 

> I also understand that at times individuals are trying their best to quickly share time sensitive information with us about a find and location and are focused on sharing and then getting back to observations in the field. I tend to overlook the typos or abbreviations and am just impressed and grateful that they took time from their field observations to share the information with our community.

> If I would like clarification, I send an email to them requesting clarification.

> 

> I would like to make an additional suggestion regarding sending emails to Tweeters. 

> I would find it helpful for senders to respond to a original email for a sighting, question or anything else by “reply all” and for all to continue to do so for the whole discussion.

> I believe this will result in clarity and efficiency and at times, honor the originator of the emails.

> At times, people will start a new email regarding the same subject and this is sometimes difficult to follow and makes it more difficult to find preceding comments.

> 

> Also, at times I have taken ten or more minutes to consider my response as I am typing it, then send it, only to find someone replied with a similar or same thought before I touched send, which is mildly embarrassing, but part of the deal with emails.

> 

> Also, I hope that the Tweeters administrators are still considering allowing at least one photo or sound recording to be attached to emails. I believe this will be a major improvement for species Identification purposes.

> This addition may also bring new people to the community as they ask for help identifying species and continue to learn from responses.

> 

> Thank you to everyone for sharing information. I have always appreciated that.

> Dan Reiff

> MI

> 

> 

> Sent from my iPhone

> 

>> On Apr 28, 2022, at 9:59 PM, Tom Benedict <benedict.t at comcast.net> wrote:

>> 

>> I agree wholeheartedly with Doug’s request. Acronyms and abbreviations should be like pronouns and always have an antecedent. The American Psychological Association Style Guide <https://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/abbreviations/> has useful guidelines.

>> 

>> Tom Benedict

>> Seahurst, WA

>> 

>>> On Apr 28, 2022, at 19:05, Doug Santoni <dougsantoni at gmail.com <mailto:dougsantoni at gmail.com>> wrote:

>>> 

>>> I love getting news of Washingtonn bird sightings on both Tweeters and E-Bird, and I’m grateful for all of this great information…but wondering if posters could please try to help some of us out by avoiding cryptic acronyms and abbreviations.  A recent Union Bay sighting referred to a “ho” near “UHC” (this sounds a bit unsavory), and I just saw comments, again relating to Union Bay, on K2 (isn’t that a mountain in the Himalayas?), which left me completely befuddled.  Could I kindly ask that posters be sympathetic to those of us who may not be in on this insiders’ language?

>>> 

>>> Doug Santoni

>>> Seattle, WA

>>> Dougsantoni at gmail dot com

>> 

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