I've been a member of Tweeters for a while now and am
finding myself just deleting the digest when it
arrives instead of opening it. Why? Because of the
amazing disparity of respect towards some members. I
constantly try to document my sightings with pictures,
so that I can know if I am wrong or not with my ID. So
if I say this is a "pigeon-tailed nutcrusher" people
can look at the photo and say, "no...it's such and
such". However, there are plenty of members who report
the same sighting, without pictures, and their word is
taken as gospel.

How many of those sightings are wrong? Do they get the
"why don't you look in a field guide before posting"
emails that I get? Do they get the four word "it's a
green heron" emails I get when I post a photo with an
incorrect ID? Sure, those people probably don't mean
any harm by their emails, but emails like that are
hardly educational. Granted, there are a few members
who really are helpful and explain WHY my sighting is
incorrect, but those are few and far between. What's
the reason for my ranting here? Because I would hate
to think that other members are feeling as I
do...hesitant to post for fear of being wrong. But
isn't that part of learning? Part of birdwatching? The
discovery of new ideas, the constant education? And if
someone IS afraid of posting, we may miss that rare
bird that he/she DID see. I would rather help someone
learn that a green heron can have a light colored
bill, than to miss the possibility of seeing a least
bittern just 5 miles from my home. Remember, NONE of
us were born with a field guide in our head. I'd love
to see more compassion, fewer knee-jerk response style
emails. After all, this is supposed to be fun, right?
Right??

Marian Murdoch
Belfair, WA
marianmurdoch at yahoo.com



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