Tweeters,

You are invited to join BCBIRDS-- a fairly new, province-wide
E-mail group for birders in British Columbia. BCBIRDS is
primarily aimed at experienced birders, but beginners are more
than welcome to join the group, post sightings, and take part in
discussions. BCBIRDS has been in operation for about a year,
and is still increasing its membership.

There are currently 6 regional E-mail groups for birders in BC,
to which some of you may already belong (e.g. BCINTBIRD,
BCVANBIRDS). However, BCBIRDS is the only province-wide
group for communicating news about rare or interesting birds.

A particular focus of BCBIRDS will be reporting sightings from all
of the 4 "RARE BIRD ALERTS" in the province (Vancouver, Victoria,
Nanaimo, Okanagan Valley). Currently, you must subscribe to 3
different regional groups to receive all of these RBA reports, and 2
of the 4 do not report to TWEETERS.

To subscribe to BCBIRDS, send a blank message to the following
address: bcbirds-subscribe at yahoogroups.com , and follow the
instructions there.

Alternatively, you may visit the group's website at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bcbirds/ , and follow instructions
on the website to become a subscriber. For those of you who do
not subscribe to other "Yahoo" E-mail groups, you will be asked to
create a Yahoo ID and password. If you already belong to another
Yahoo group (e.g. Alberta Birds or IBLE in Idaho), use your
Yahoo ID and password to join BCBIRDS.

Wayne C. Weber
Listowner/Moderator
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net or
bcbirds-owner at yahoogroups.com

A more complete description of BCBIRDS, from the group website,
is attached below:

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BCBIRDS is a province-wide E-mail group for sharing information
about noteworthy bird sightings in British Columbia, Canada, and
for discussing topics of interest to B.C. birders

This group is intended to complement, not to compete with, the
6 regional birding E-mail groups in British Columbia.

APPROPRIATE SUBJECTS include messages about unusual or
noteworthy birds; birding trip reports; Rare Bird Alert transcripts;
bird-finding information; notices about new bird books, periodicals,
birding-related websites, etc.; upcoming birding field trips,
bird-related meetings, and birding festivals; and bird identification
questions.

PROHIBITED AND/OR INAPPROPRIATE SUBJECTS include virus
alerts; commercial advertising; the pros and cons of hunting or
falconry; cats vs. birds; care of cagebirds or birds in captivity;
evolution vs. religion; practical aspects of bird feeding; and discussion
of birding optics, digiscoping, etc.

All messages should include your full name, location, and E-mail
address in a "signature block" at the end. Anonymous messages
are not allowed.

Messages should include a brief, informative subject line. When
responding to previous messages, please remove or trim
unnecessary previous messages. Messages should be sent in
PLAIN TEXT only. Attachments are prohibited.

A more detailed version of the guidelines for BCBIRDS can be
seen in the "Files" section, which you can access after you join
the group. PLEASE read these guidelines before sending your first
message. The posting guidelines are based on those of TWEETERS
and BIRDCHAT, but there are some differences.

Welcome to BCBIRDS, and enjoy your group!