I do not have any problem with the four letter codes
used in birding circles. I usually use them in the field when jotting
down the various birds which I am seeing. It is a lot quicker than
writing down the full name.
I believe that when posting to
MOBIRDS-L or other similar sites that the recommended
procedure is to mention the full common name of the bird in the
subject line and thereafter it is acceptable to use the acronym in the
body of the message.
One does not have to learn 800+ codes but
usually just knowing 50 or 60 should cover most of the species one
will see in a day's birding here in Missouri.
By the way (and
some people say "btw"), the code for Northern Rough-Winged Swallow is
NRWS. N for Northern, R for Rough, W for Winged, S for Swallow, not
that difficult really!
As for FOY or FOS, I believe that these
should probably be understandable in pretty short order to represent
First Of Year or First Of Season without taxing the mental
capabilities of most people.
In the final analysis, as with
various other options among people interested in birds, it is "to each
his own" on the way one persues his/her birding
interests.
Larry Lade
Saint Joseph, MO
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---
On Thu, 3/24/11, David Becher
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From:
David Becher <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: NO SIGHTING
-- Comment on 4 letter bird codes
To:
[log in to unmask]
Date: Thursday, March 24, 2011, 9:37
PM
In my personal opinion four letter codes have no place in
messages on MO-Birds. They are vital for banding and useful
for field records, but have no place in written
communications. By the way, I also detest the use of FOY, as a
word. Iwill admit it is a usable abbrevation although I would
not use it. As for Edge's arguement about not knowing
the full bird names, it is not valid in my opinion. The
correct four letter codes are not always obvious from the names
because of ambiguous codes where more than species
has the same initials or a bird has more than two names and the
birds name has changed over time. It is not worth anyone's
while to remember if Northern Roughwinged Swallow is NRSW or NORS or
NROS or ROSW or whatever unless they actually use them in the
field which I suspect most do not. I do not have the time or
interest to memmorize the 800+ codes for US birds not to mention the
9000 or more for the rest of the world. When I read a message
and have to stop and think which bird the code is referring to it
wastes my time and reduces the value of the message as
communication. That is my opinion, if you want to use them in
e-mails go ahead.
David
Becher
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