Tweets,

First things first, this is my last posting to Tweeters. Second, hurray
Michelle!!

I have been the owner of over 15 list servers/chat lines/message boards over
the years. I have also monitored a number of boards for groups who follow
hate crimes, etc. In all of this time I have only ever excluded one person
- on a White Supremasist thread when he threatened violence against another
user. Offended by Don B? Are you people completely nuts or what? There
are real problems in the world and if you have time to bitch and moan about
someones tone when talking about something relative to the board (more
later) then you need a reality check. Nasty? Don was never nasty, but some
others were...and I wrote to a number personally to ask them to have some
human kindness towards others. Vulgarity? Do you actually hear people
talk? Good or bad this is what real people say and I'd rather get that from
them than some watered down pablum suitable to the faint-of-heart. Where
there's passion, there are strong words. Give me passion any day.

As for what is relevant about birds... The cat thread, the coffee thread,
the evolutionist/creationist thread, and the hunting thread are all
completely legit. Bird people come in many shapes and forms and interests
(thank you Dan for recognizing that). Some of us are interested in ecology,
others in listing, some in just looking, and everyone in learning.

Cats...major preditor of songbirds, subject of many papers including some
from Audubon....no, no bird stuff there.

Shade grown coffee...Do you read or watch the news? See the announcement by
Starbucks over the past week working with many worldwide conservation funds
to use shade grown buyers. Extensive discussion in some articles about loss
of critical habitat for both tropical and migratory birds due to coffee
farming methods...no, no bird stuff there.

Evolutionist/Creationist...Evolutionary theory is THE basis for most
biological and ecological science. Does the word niche ring a bell? The
overall threat of fundamentalism is also relevant, that is unless you
believe, like James Watt and Ronald Reagan that once you've seen one
redwood, you've seen them all. Michelle is right - if you want to really
find out what a fundamentalist society is - go to Afghanastan - I would
especially recommend this for women on the list.
NO Education, 100% body cover, no speaking in public, complete obedience to
ANY male. Couldn't happen in the US? Do a quick search for Beverly LeHaye
on the web, it should scare the crap out of you. Science, evolution,
ecology, political/religious threats to knowledge...no, no bird stuff there.
***A clue for the religious - if you don't want a threat to your religion,
then quit using your religion to threaten. Stay out of politics, stay out
of other peoples lives - it is YOUR religion and has no relevance whatsoever
to anyone else.

Hunting...To join or not to join Ducks Unlimited...I learned more from this
thread about the org and what was going on than I had by contacting WDU
directly...no, no bird stuff there.

Not bird related? What about Ruth's wonderful dragonfly posts?

A list server/discussion group, once limited is boring as Hell, so why
bother. Plain bird stuff? Try BIRDCHAT. But then don't get tangled in the
dreaded feeder, vs. watcher, vs lister, vs ornithologist thread...SCARY.

I've enjoyed interacting with folks on TWEETERS, but sometimes one needs to
stand up for principle. I'm sure Don will be back - or that he'll host his
own version of TWEETERS for the thinking crowd, maybe I'll see you there.

Rob Conway
Bellevue, WA


Birder? You judge.

Lists 700+ US
3377 on my world list

US I've lived/worked/gone to school in Yosemite National Park, California,
Brownsville, Texas; Miami,Florida; Elko, Nevada; several places in Alaska;
Tucson, Arizona; Denver, Colorado; Saginaw, Michigan; Palo Alto, CA;
Princeton, NJ; Boston, Mass and San Diego, CA - I've also visited every
state in the union (including 15 trips to Hawaii).

10 years with a mining company doing exploration work and I always made time
for birding. I've spent time in Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Surinam,
Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Borneo, Java, Malaysia, China,
Vietnam, Phillipines, Japan, South Korea, India, Turkey, South Africa,
Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Zimbabwe, Zaire, Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso,
Morocco, Algeria, Mexico, Belize, Guatamala, Costa Rica, Panama, Russia,
Finland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and all of Western Europe, every
Canadian Province and Territory, Greenland, and most of the major islands in
the Caribbean. Also over 100 days at sea. (my last passport had 30
supplemental pages and I had almost 2,000,000 frequent flier miles on Pan Am
at one time)

Always willing to help with RFI's for any of those places.

Always looking for birds, at work or play.

I'm not a photographer, or even a member of the ABA - I usually bird alone
and love doing it just to see the critters. If I find a rare or unusual
bird I usually just smile; sometimes I pass on the info to a few selected
friends so they can add to their lists, or their own personal birding
pleasure. (Did that last year for 2 people with a YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO I
spotted in our little Bellevue neighborhood).

My serious birding days have ended. Now I have a life. Busy at work and
play. Get most of my birding thrills vicariously - one of the reasons I
loved TWEETERS. Now - why bother?

Good Birding to You!! Especially Ruth Sullivan!

Rob



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