George wrote: I like Sue's codes and they are very simple to understand. 

William wrote:  Am I correct in assuming that birders are striving to use
the same abbreviations as bird banders?

 

I have no problem with Sue using her codes; they do make the report clean
and aligned and she includes a legend.  However, am I correct in that they
are not standard band codes?  Aren't band codes all 4 letters?

 

As far as the abbreviations, here's the problem for me as a novice birder
when reading the posts:

 

I joined this list to learn more about what birds are around in our area and
where they are.  I don't have a lot of context at this point to decode the
codes.  The other day YCNH was in the subject of a post. As I'm still
learning about birds, I really didn't know there was such a thing as a
Yellow Crowned Night Heron--it could have referred as easily to a Yellow
Crested Nuthatch or Night Hawk or something.  So I was curious to see what
the bird was; I clicked on the post and read it and learned what the bird
was, as it was spelled out in the body of the post.

 

When I encounter a reference to an unfamiliar bird, I pull out a field guide
to look it up and study it so hopefully I'll be able to recognize it when I
see it.  Using only the codes in a message means that often I first have to 
translate" the code (someone sent me a link on the Internet but I also have
Avisys, which lets me search by the code) before I can look the bird up.  I
m not lazy, but I also have a lot of email traffic to go through.

 

It's fairly easy to go from a bird name to the code, as they are pretty
logical in construction; going the other way is less easy for this novice. 
I am learning the codes, slowly; however, hopefully this list always has a
constant stream of new birders like me who don't have the context to
understand the codes.  Thanks for your consideration in not using codes or
providing a key or the full name somewhere else in a message.

 

Thanks for all to post to the list--it's really helping me learn about birds
in the area!

 

 

Betsy True 

Alexandria, VA 

 

Check out my website: 

http://www.betsytruedesigns.com 

 

See Lynda Prioleau's website: 

http://www.matlyndesigns.com