Dear Wayne and Tweeters,

Yes, that book is a "must-have." I am hoping that Santa Claus will pull through for me, overlooking a few spates of naughtiness.

On to the topic of directions to birding sites, or more precisely, to rare bird locations: Wayne is right here, too. Sometimes the bird simply cannot be found, not because it isn't there any more, but because the birder cannot figure out the directions.

For example, my own directions yesterday to the Rusty Blackbird could have been better--I think I said "a hundred meters or so" south of Minkler Road--but on reflection, it is probably more than that. I should also have mentioned that there is a line of trees (I think it runs along a creek) just south of the pasture where the bird was; I should also have mentioned that one passes a house on the corner of Minkler and Hoehn, and that the pasture is south of the house.

I castigate myself for these lapses because I have been on the receiving end of much worse directions. I teach elementary school kids, mainly those for whom English is a second language, but sometimes, even after years of practice decoding the unfathomable scrivenings of my pupils, I cannot decypher just where that Blank-tailed Blanksnatcher was seen by last Wednesday's Niskwoozits Audubon field trip.

On to the suggestion: if birders want to point the way for others, then they should provide the distance from a fixed, identifiable local landmark to the location of the bird, along with a geographical direction (rather than lefts and rights). It would be better yet to provide two such markers. For example, the bird was perched on a haystack two hundred meters west of the intersection of Mud Street and Hay Road, and three hundred meters north of a yellow silo. That, along with county, city, and road name, and the other birders will have a shot at finding that Blanksnatcher!

Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch
near Lyman, Washington


Tweeters,

Now that "A Birder's Guide to Washington" has been published by the
American Birding Association, many of the inquiries formerly sent to
Tweeters about "Where is such and such a place?" should be
superfluous. In my opinion, every serious birder living in the state
should own a copy of this book, which covers the vast majority of
frequently-birded localities in Washington. For example, Point No
Point and Foulweather Bluff (Kitsap Co.) are well described on pages
192 and 193 in the book. If someone can't be bothered to spend $30 to
buy the book, then I don't think they should be wasting our time by
asking directions to localities that are well-known to most or many of
us.

At the same time-- despite the comprehensive coverage of the book
(yup, this is a disguised plug for the book)-- there are many good
birding localities that are *not* described in the book, and a brief
description of such localities by the person posting the message would
be helpful.

Stewart Wechsler does have a point when he suggests that many of us
are too brief or too vague in describing birding localities. At the
very least, I would suggest including the county (or city, if in or
near a major city), as well as the name of the locality, in the
subject line or in the first line or two of the message. This would
be helpful, especially for those who are on less than intimate terms
with Washington geography.

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net


----- Original Message -----
From: Stewart Wechsler
To: Paul Moorehead

Cc: Tweeters
Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2003 9:33 AM
Subject: RE: A happy return to birding


> Paul,
>
> For me the value of Tweeters is to be able to QUICKLY read at least
roughly
> where birds are occurring in the region. My difficulty with
Tweeters is the
> amount of time I spend reading postings that don't quickly tell me
that (or
> that only tell me about sightings of common birds). It's not worth
my time
> to Google or Dogpile the locations.
>
> Thank you
>
> Stewart Wechsler
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Moorehead [mailto:pjm2 at nwlink.com]
> Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2003 8:19 AM
> To: ecostewart at quidnunc.net
> Cc: Tweeters
> Subject: Re: A happy return to birding
>
>
> Rob, tweets,
>
> One of the great things about computers and the internet is the
> availability of information. Try a simple input of "Foulweather
Bluff"
> and/or "Point No Point" into google or dogpile and the adventure
begins.
> It's easier than posting a request to start referencing state
locations
> and, for me at least, more fun.
>
> Gyrfalcon still haunting the Samish Flats, vicinity of the west 90.
> "Samish Flats" "west 90"
>
> Cheers,
> Paul
>
> Paul Moorehead
> Guemes, WA
>
> Stewart Wechsler wrote:
> >
> > Rob,
> >
> > Many of us don't know where Point No Point or Foulweather bluff
(or am I
> the
> > only one?). Could you please start your postings with a reference
to
> where
> > the birds were seen in relation to the portion of the state it's
in and to
> a
> > county or major city or major body of water or land form.
> >
> > Thank You
> >
>
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>



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