Tweets,
Thought I'd throw my two cents in on the topic. There are valid arguments on
both sides of this discussion; yes one could ask if they don't places, they
can google it etc..; yes a poster can provide more clarification. I'd like
to provide some realism to the clarification message. Lets take an example
of a day filled with birding many common places around Puget sound. A birder
covers Nisqually NWR, then traveled up and birded the Port of Tacoma for
Gulls, Kent Ponds (Green River NA), UBNA (the Fill), Discovery Park and a
couple more places. Active birders often cover many places during a day and
you could insert this for many parts of the state. Some people have
suggested that one might not post directions to protect a location as a
"secret", here is my perspective from a very active birder in Washington
having lived in both eastern and western WA and been actively birding in WA
for almost 17 years (moved to WA in early 1990). I have just come home from
a long day of birding and want to get out my results to share with people
who might be interested in knowing what is being seen, possibly plan birding
for Sunday (if this was a Saturday), the places mentioned above have had
directions posted to them many times and it would significantly lengthen a
post to put directions to them. Where do we draw the line, should everyone
clarify every place they bird? That could get very lengthy. So my goal in
not posting specifics, but rather "The Fill", Port of Tacoma etc.. are meant
for quick reference points that I can post the information of my sightings
quickly and get the information out.
Yes, I know some people may not know the spot and I see places I'm not
familiar with all the time in posts both E and W Washington. However if the
place is a common spot, why in the responsibility on the poster? If I want
to know where a spot is I know the tools (and they've been discussed here
most of them) to find that information. If the spot is a new location or an
fairly obscure location then the poster should elaborate. Some may disagree
with this approach but it does work every day in the state for many birders
and many of us have only so much free time and we'd rather spend it birding
in the field or looking at new identification techniques than to post long
messages about directions to Ocean Shores or some other common place that is
readily referenced in birding guides and many tweeters posts. If the
standard becomes overkill of clarification I know quite a few birders that
might stop posting on tweeters and I can guarantee that the collective
information level will go down. One can also search the tweeters archives as
most places have had directions posted to them at least once before. For
those not familiar with places, you are very welcome to email me for
directions if you find something confusing in one of my future posts.

Just my two cents.

Scott Downes
downess at charter.net
Yakima WA