Diane, I'm having to send this to you via "Tweeters." A message sent
directly to halcyon.com through the university server always seems to
bounce back. My reply is below........

Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 16:24:51 -0800 (PST)
From: Maureen Ellis <me2 at u.washington.edu>
To: Diann MacRae <tvulture at halcyon.com> REPLIES DO NOT GO THROUGH!
Subject: Re: 10-25-98 Des Moines, WA, Marina Follow-up
In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.19981026125303.007cde30 at mail.halcyon.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.A41.3.95b.981026160932.5272A-100000 at homer29.u.washington.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Diann,
I have an advantage in being an environmental research scientist employed
at the University of WA in that I have a "telnet" account with a good
sized chunk of storage space on the university server. That is where I am
keeping my records. I have also downloaded some to small floppies, but
will keep backups of these records (saved posts that I have sent to
Tweeters over the last few years) on the bigger ZIP-type disks (100
megabytes or more) so I can keep this information in one place rather than
large numbers of the stnd 1-2mb small disks. Dating back long before the
computer perk that comes with my current position, I have numbers of files
of written notes on all kinds of styles of paper sitting in magazine type
containers plus notebooks of various kinds. Maybe a major project for my
retirement years---whenever that'll start 15 to 20 years down the road, I
can compile these notes to cyberstorage also, some going back more than 30
years from consistent bird surveys in other states.

So, do you have storage space on a 'public' server to keep records? Or do
you have a home computer with a ZIP drive to save your bird notes as you
generate them? You might use a scanner to transfer your written notes
(are they typed or hand-written?) to a computer word processing format,
like MS Word, or a spreadsheet format, like MS Excel, to move the text
material to a computer environment then organize it according to date,
location, season, whatever. You have many options with your vulture data.

Do have fun!
Maureen Ellis me2 at u.washington.edu Univ of WA and Des Moines, WA

"Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of
confusion and bamboozle requires vigilance, dedication, and courage."
-Carl Sagan-
********************************************
On Mon, 26 Oct 1998, Diann MacRae wrote:

> Hi, Maureen
>
> In your recent posting you comment on keeping all of your records on a
> database. May I ask what (stuff snipped)
>
> Regards, Diann
>
> Diann MacRae
> Olympic Vulture Study
> tvulture at halcyon.com
>
>