Subject: [Tweeters] Banding - Time to stop this thread which has gotten
Date: Apr 11 19:22:34 2012
From: Reginald David - rdavid at ilhawaii.net


Tweets,

List managers, please stop this increasingly acrimonious and fruitless debate.

I am an ornithologist who has been working in Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific for many years. On some of the projects I have worked on, some as a second, third or fourth generational bander - we have had birds that have been banded more than 50 years ago, re-banded a time or two and are still viable reproducing members of their species. I can without having to look at records state that I have many birds that we track that have far exceeded the normally life expectancies of the published literature. This topic is similar to the ones that decry the collection of bird specimens - to no resolution.

In my humble opinion this thread has exhausted any useful need to continue it, and has now become personal and extremely ugly. I am a frequent visitor to your great state and those surrounding you in which many of you bird. My experience with Tweets has been fantastic, open, constructive and inclusive . Continuing this debate does not reflect well on us in my opinion.

Reg
Reginald David
Rana Biological Consulting, Inc.
P. O. Box 1371
Kailua, Kona, Hawaii 96745-1371

329-9141 Phone
937-0124 Cell
rdavid at ilhawaii.net
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