Subject: Yardbirds and beginners
Date: Aug 11 19:13:47 1994
From: CASSIDYM at delphi.com - CASSIDYM at delphi.com


It looks like there's an opening for us beginners to speak up, so I'll
grab my chance.

My first impression of Yardbirds was that it would follow the general
style of Tweeters: rather thann plovers, it would concern itself with
species differentiation of robins. I'd stil subscribe, because as a
beginner (when does someone graduate?) I'm hungry for anything at all.

I agree with Lisa's note entirely. I've had the pleasure of wandering
around with her trying to figure out what that bird is. We're not
going to come up with any great scientific discoveries (for now) doing
this, but by reading the "experts" we pick up tidbits that we can
apply in the field. A few thousand of these, and maybe we can call
ourselves "intermediate". I might be a beginner, but I'm advanced
enough to know I ain't there yet.

I thinnk if the style of Yardbirds was relaxed enough to encourage
non-expert discussion, it would work well. It would be great if Dennis
could drop by once in a while and offer some advice. I hope it stays
away from DNA analysis and measuring private parts of dead birds. I
wish we would be able to refer to 'sparrows" and "swallows" without
getting flamed.

Maybe Yardbirds would be a good place for us weekenders to talk about
our love and discovery of birding. Tweeters can be the place for the
pros to hang out. That way we won't be messing with their bandwidth
dealing with sparrows witha gray stripe on their head.

Lisa welcomed flames, I do to.

Marty Cassidy
cassidym at delphi.com

Seattle, WA