4 LETTER CODES: my experience.
These Codes are useful if one is walking in a marsh, jotting down birds in a little pocket notebook. Who wants to write Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Black-crowned Night Heron, or Northern Rough-winged Swallow when YCNH, BCNH, or NRWS get the message across? But the codes are confusing enough so that using them out of context on a LISTSERV is a disservice, and is in fact verboten on some LISTSERVs.
With some of the unofficial conflicting codes, say CAWR, which could be for Canyon, Cactus, or Carolina wrens, one doesn�t have to worry in our region, same for BTGW (Black-throated Green, or Black-throated Gray, warblers) or HEGU (Heermann�s or Herring, gulls). But unofficial abbreviations such as TRSW, CEWA, ROTE, BASW and others can refer to more than one species found hereabouts, although Trumpeter Swan is a bit of a stretch.
The same can not be said for QC6WBOP (Queen Carola�s Six-wired Bird of Paradise) � gotcha! Memorize the differences and make sure you can understand your own shorthand. Sometimes I get confused looking at my own notes later on.
If you are working from a complete checklist with clipboard in a comfortable setting, such as the front seat of a car, then these abbreviations are obviously unnecessary.
I use 4-letter codes for plants and non-avian animals, too. Some of them are amusingly mnemonic: RIOT � River Otter, VIOP � Virginia Opossum. These very seldom conflict with birds in the tidal areas where I do most of my birding, except for FICR (Fish Crow or Fiddler Crab?); but � there are several species of fiddler crabs, so the abbrev., to be technically correct, might have to be RJFC, Red-jointed Fiddler Crab (cf. Fiddler crabs of the world: Ocypodidae: genus Uca [pp. 176-179] by Jocelyn Crane, Princeton U. Pr., 1972, 736p., a $92.50 value I obtained from Sessler�s Book Store here in Philadelphia for $7.50 on June 7, 1983!; the question is � why?)
HOGC = Hogchoker. WHPE = White Perch. SLFR = Southern Leopard Frog. CGTF = Cope�s Gray Tree Frog. One of my favorites because a simple number gives you a full word is 5LSK = Five-lined Skink (Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel wouldn�t work, 13LGS has 5 digits). DITE � Diamondback Terrapin. BULL = Bullfrog.
They come in handy for plants: SPAL � Spartina alterniflora, SPCY � Spartina cynosuroides, SPPA � Spartina patens, DISP � Distichlis spicata, AMHA � American Hackberry, EARE � Eastern Redcedar, BAHA � Baccharis halimifolia, IVFR � Iva frutescens, SWGU � Sweet Gum, etc. � you get the picture. Do not utter the 4-ltr. abbrev. for Crab Apple in polite company.
There are several English names for most of the saltmarsh vegetation species, so I find it easier just to use their scientific names, clunky as they sometimes are, rather than try to remember, for example, if Baccharis halimifolia is high tide bush, groundsel tree, saltwater bush, or any of its several other English and colloquial names.
I assume the 4-ltr. codes in the Crossley guide are accurate, although he spells Pete Dunne�s name 3 different ways, perhaps as a joke.
Sometimes, if they are names you know well, 4-ltr. abbrevs. work for people, too, say if you are recording all the folks on a bird club outing.
These 4-ltr. abbrevs. save me time and effort, and serve as a sort of catalyst, sparking one�s mind to the full-blown thing, somewhat analogous to T. S. Eliot�s philosophic construct of the �objective correlative� � as long as you can remember what they stand for.
Best to all. � Harry Armistead (HAAR).
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