I second Les's motion, with enthusiasm.  I use 4-letter codes to 
enter sightings in my old (DOS-era) sightings database, and many of 
them are different from the codes banders use.  So I try to stay away 
from them in my own posts to MD-Birds and other list-servs.

If I stray from the straight and narrow and start using 
abbreviations, y'all should feel free to flame me vigorously.

You too Rick!

Mike Bowen
Bethesda

At 03:00 PM 10/5/2009 -0400, Les Eastman wrote:
>Maddog wrote:
>>Black-throated Green Warbler. N is last letter in green.
>>On Oct 4, 2009, at 4:32 PM, Rick Sussman <> wrote:
>>
>>>What's a BTNW?
>
>This is why people should not use banding codes to report their bird 
>sightings. They are not always intuitive and can be hard to decode. 
>You save maybe 2 seconds of typing but waste cumulative hours of 
>your readers time while trying to figure them out.
>
>Les
>
>===========
>Les Eastman
>mailto:[log in to unmask]
>Havre de Grace, MD
>
>The eagle looked down on the river below
>And he wrapped his wings round him and he fell like a stone
>And the big salmon fought but the talons held true
>And he shuddered as the world turned from silver to blue
>                              Steve Earle

D.H. Michael Bowen
8609 Ewing Drive
Bethesda, MD  20817
Telephone: (301) 530-5764
e-mail:  dhmbowenATyahooDOTcom

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