Dear Dan Victor,

I want you to know how much I appreciate all the work you do to make tweeters
the success it is. I particularly appreciate the staggering amount of
information available at the tweeters web site. The latest example is your
adding the information on where to report leg bands to the WOS page.

Last summer I visited Singapore. As you may remember I requested birding
information for Singapore on Tweeters prior to my travel. I got requests to
share received information, but no information. I embarked on my first
net-surfing, starting out at the many links you provide through the Tweeters
home page. Eventually I ended up at a Southeast Asiatic web site where someone
from Singapore lamented the loss of yet another piece of native habitat. I
contacted him and got lots of information from him.

The second night I was in Singapore I did a slide presentation on (of all
things) the birds of Green Lake (Seattle), for members of the local Nature
Society of Singapore. This put me in touch with local birders who generously
shared their expertise and time. They took me along on several outings,
including a day-trip into tropical rain forest in Malaysia. This is where we
caught the tail-end of the dawn-chorus, found elephant dung on the side of the
only sandy road leading into unbroken (as far as I could see) 11
million-year-old wilderness. Various types of monkeys were noisily making
their way through the tree tops. We caught a glimpse of a Hornbill and I
watched Black-thiged Falconet, Laced Woodpecker and Fiery Minivets (in all I
enjoyed watching some 70 species of birds I had never seen before in my life
during the trip).

My point is that, had it not been for the excellent information you make so
readily available to us cyberspace illiterates, my trip would probably not
have been as successful as it was.

Closer to home the Tweeters page provides tons of useful infromation for local
birding. From the most recent sattelite images showing weather patterns in the
region to tide predictions for many months to come. From links to almost every
birding organization imaginable to Dennis Paulson's home page with the
impressive and fascinating list of his publications.

Starting at the Tweeters home page you almost can't go wrong.

I am forever in your debt.

Gratefully yours,
Martin Muller, Seattle
martinmuller at msn.com