Subject: Re: overwhelmed by mail?
Date: Jan 9 10:50:48 1995
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


I gather that most of the recent unsubscribers are people who just
subscribed to tweeters, from information in the article in Pacific Magazine
on Christmas day, and it turned out to be more than they anticipated.

I don't think we're losing "regulars" even though the volume has indeed
been turned up. I hope everyone agrees that we do in fact have a balance
among bird news and birding philosophy. The dissemination of bird news has
been around a long time, and it still flows well from rare-bird alerts and
word of mouth through telephone and birding trips. Bird-identification and
bird-finding stuff is valuable grist for the tweeters mill, and we haven't
been saturated with that sort of information by any means. And I consider
birding philosophy a special aspect of tweeters, as I don't think I've ever
been exposed to as many diverse viewpoints as we have recently. It's as if
we threw open a WOS meeting to such discussions, with the difference that
more people are willing to express themselves by this less threatening
medium, I think. Anyone with any thought at all can proffer it, and no one
will interrupt you!

I'll admit I can't imagine being on BIRDCHAT, on which you get STILL MORE
messages on STILL MORE subjects!

I also am willing to experience 50+ messages coming in when I turn on my
mail, as I did today, because I'm one of the tweeters who spends a lot more
time at the computer than out birding, not necessarily by choice. When I
do go birding, I always have great experiences, but for the most part
they're not cosmic enough to take up space by sharing them on a Monday
morning. Since the ROSS' GULL, I haven't seen a bird that justifies
capital letters. I never before felt any Walla Walla/Tri Cities/Moscow
envy, but I'm really impressed lately by the concentration of unexpected
birds in that part of the world (it behooves the DOT to keep those mountain
passes open for the volume of birders heading over there from Puget Sound).
If this represents more time spent in the field and a honing of
identification skills, congratulations to all of you in the unsung
heartland.

Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416