[EBB Sightings] Harris sparrow at Sunol, SPTO escapes bobcat!

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 15:06:46 -0700, Les Chibana  wrote:

>Basic etiquette (usually unwritten) for most bird lists suggests that 
>posters spell out a bird's common name at the first usage followed by 
>whatever code you use. Thereafter, the code can be used.

These codes are fine for personal notes or entering banding data, but I
think are best avoided otherwise.  Here's a contest.  How many bird species
can you identify in the following message:

On yesterdays pelagic we saw many BUSH, RNPH, HEGU and HEGU. I also have a
BUSH building a nest in my yard and the RNPH in our local cornfield was
very striking, but the HEGU in the cage at the zoo was quite a surprise.
The CEWA in my yard got quite a rush from birders, but they were
disappointed when they arrived to see only a flock of CEWA instead. The
BTGW was a nice consolation prize. While waiting for the CEWA, several
people commented on how similar the flight calls are between YEWA and YEWA.
I'm not sure, but I think the CAWR sometimes imitates the song of the CAWR
and while checking through our local CATO flock I found the first state
record of CATO. 


-- 
Joseph Morlan, Pacifica, CA 94044  jmorlan (at) ccsf.org 
Birding Classes in SF start Feb.8  http://fog.ccsf.edu/~jmorlan/
California Bird Records Committee  http://www.wfo-cbrc.org/cbrc/