Has eBird made people selfish with sightings?

[kevingwenyth <>]

I'm not part of COG, though was for one year.  I never attended meetings, as they coincided with another activity on mine.

However,  we see the emails and, like Shorty, have used specific info to enable us to see unusual birds.

Such details of specific locations are now rare, I also notice, and some requests by me for more info are ignored.

Gwenyth Bray 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Martin Butterfield <>

Date: 6/9/19 8:03 am (GMT+10:00)

To: shorty <>

Cc: COG Chat <>

Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Has eBird made people selfish with sightings?

I think it is very harsh to say eBird has made people competitive and selfish.  By posting to eBird the information becomes available to the world wide community instantly, and I believe if you use 'wanted' lists (which I don't)  the sighting comes to you as soon as the list is accepted by eBird.  

The reasons people don't post details of their lists are many and varied including:

1. protecting rare birds;
2. not risking their access to private properties;
3. don't like the tone of some discussions on the chat list.

I do appreciate Shorty's "I am now seeing species x at location y posts" but I don't usually send emails from my phone so don't do this.  But I do usually post my sightings to eBird as soon as I have finished at the site.

Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/

On Thu, 5 Sep 2019 at 22:58, shorty <> wrote:

Hi all,

When i first started birding i used the chatline and later on eBird to locate birds i wanted to see in Canberra. Once i joined the chatline and later eBird i have posted my sightings of rare or unusual birds as soon as i have seen them to alert other birders.

I have noticed over time that some wish to hide the birds they see and at times do not post their sightings until the next day?

I wish everyone could see the birds we get rare or otherwise and would hope that the day will come (back) that everyone would share these sightings for all to see.

In my opinion eBird has made made people far too competitive and far too selfish, a real shame.

Opinions?

Shorty