transferred this from sighting thread to discussion thread and thought sligfhtly tongue in cheek what some of these abrevations could be interpreted as
Gippo (Egyptian Goose) Anatidae Racism Fudge Duck (Ferruginous Duck) Unprintable Oyk (Oystercatcher) Loud Bird Barwit (Bar-tailed Godwit) Jocular Refreshment break after a sighting tour Blackwit (Black-tailed Godwit) Dark Jocular Refreshment break after a sighting tour Pec (Pectoral Sandpiper) From her indoors when I'm slipping off for a walk Lesserlegs/Greaterlegs (Lesser/Greater Yellowlegs) Short birding trip or Marathon Birding trip Dick's Pipit (Richard's Pipit) Unprintable Mipit (Meadow Pipit) Bed Icky (Icterine Warbler) Dodgy sighting Subalp (Subalpine Warbler) Small hill Gropper (Grasshopper Warbler) Ilegal PG Tips (Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler) put kettler on
You could add :
Sprosser (Thrush Nighingale) Not to shouted directly at another person.
cheers jason
Geoff Hargreaves said
Wed May 11 11:10 PM, 2011
all very amusing,but somewhat,shoving stuff up hillswhen the new 'official' scrabble list includes innit as a usable word.Christmas afternoons just will not be same in our household.
just enjoy geoff
Craig Higson said
Wed May 11 7:36 PM, 2011
Ian Boote wrote:
transferred this from sighting thread to discussion thread and thought sligfhtly tongue in cheek what some of these abrevations could be interpreted as
Gippo (Egyptian Goose) Anatidae Racism Fudge Duck (Ferruginous Duck) Unprintable Oyk (Oystercatcher) Loud Bird Barwit (Bar-tailed Godwit) Jocular Refreshment break after a sighting tour Blackwit (Black-tailed Godwit) Dark Jocular Refreshment break after a sighting tour Pec (Pectoral Sandpiper) From her indoors when I'm slipping off for a walk Lesserlegs/Greaterlegs (Lesser/Greater Yellowlegs) Short birding trip or Marathon Birding trip Dick's Pipit (Richard's Pipit) Unprintable Mipit (Meadow Pipit) Bed Icky (Icterine Warbler) Dodgy sighting Subalp (Subalpine Warbler) Small hill Gropper (Grasshopper Warbler) Ilegal PG Tips (Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler) put kettler on
Ian Boote said
Wed May 11 2:53 PM, 2011
transferred this from sighting thread to discussion thread and thought sligfhtly tongue in cheek what some of these abrevations could be interpreted as
Gippo (Egyptian Goose) Anatidae Racism Fudge Duck (Ferruginous Duck) Unprintable Oyk (Oystercatcher) Loud Bird Barwit (Bar-tailed Godwit) Jocular Refreshment break after a sighting tour Blackwit (Black-tailed Godwit) Dark Jocular Refreshment break after a sighting tour Pec (Pectoral Sandpiper) From her indoors when I'm slipping off for a walk Lesserlegs/Greaterlegs (Lesser/Greater Yellowlegs) Short birding trip or Marathon Birding trip Dick's Pipit (Richard's Pipit) Unprintable Mipit (Meadow Pipit) Bed Icky (Icterine Warbler) Dodgy sighting Subalp (Subalpine Warbler) Small hill Gropper (Grasshopper Warbler) Ilegal PG Tips (Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler) put kettler on
Ian McKerchar said
Tue May 10 9:50 PM, 2011
With regards the BTO codes Steve, my comments are only applicable to their use on this forum as it is that which is my only concern
Steve Suttill said
Tue May 10 9:43 PM, 2011
In response to Ian's (note the use of the apostrophe) posting (copied below) I thought I'd move the discussion to a more appropriate place.
I would agree with almost everything Ian says, but not " the dreaded elitist BTO codes". It's not the codes that are elitist, it's those who use them in the context of this forum that are elitist. They are just another (recognised) form of shorthand. I'm not going to write Greater Spotted Woodpecker in my notebook when I can write GS
What does annoy me (amongst many other things) is some people's refusal to use capital letters (upper case, if I'm being pedantic ) for species' names - the RSPB being the greatest offender. 90% of the time it probably doesn't matter but if someone reports a little gull which turns out to be a small gull and not a Little Gull, surely you can see why it is important.
Steve
PS any grammatical errors in this post are also entirely deliberate
Ian wrote:
Hi all,
the use of abbreviated bird names and the incorrect spelling of birds names is a contentious one, not least as many would ask if it matters much but many users of this forum have answered that it does and I have to agree.
Abbreviated bird names are on the increase within posts and personally I don't think they're always a good thing. We need to appreciate the huge cross section of users within the forum and that many simply don't know what a LW is, or GCG etc etc. I don't think it's much to ask for a Grebe at the end or the extra few seconds to type a full name is it? God forbid the reincarnation of the dreaded elitist BTO species codes, BX indeed! This forum is used by all ages and experiences and it is important to me that it remains accessible to everyone. If we could just give some extra thought to the use of abbreviated names that would be appreciated, ask yourself if a 13 year old birder just starting out would have any clue what you're on about without having to wrack their brain for 20 minutes, or search back through a thread to find out what is meant by it.
And onto spelling. My spelling is admittedly terrible, praise be to the spellchecker I say but it seems that bird names are increasingly being spelt wrong on this forum. Whilst we may very well understand what is meant by an incorrect spelling or not, this forum is intended to improve our birding knowledge where possible and the perpetuation of commonly misspelled names is surely working against that. I'm sure we all have a bird book and it might just be worth checking that we're spelling some of these names correctly or as is mostly commonly the case, not unecessarily splitting bird names into two. Chiffchaff for instance, has never been spelt Chiff Chaff! Small beer perhaps but in the scheme of things getting them wrong on a public forum such as this is simply encouraging others to spell them the same way.
p.s. any spelling mistakes within this post are purely intentional.
You could add :
Sprosser (Thrush Nighingale) Not to shouted directly at another person.
cheers
jason
in our household.
just enjoy
Gippo (Egyptian Goose) Anatidae Racism
Fudge Duck (Ferruginous Duck) Unprintable
Oyk (Oystercatcher) Loud Bird
Barwit (Bar-tailed Godwit) Jocular Refreshment break after a sighting tour
Blackwit (Black-tailed Godwit) Dark Jocular Refreshment break after a sighting tour
Pec (Pectoral Sandpiper) From her indoors when I'm slipping off for a walk
Lesserlegs/Greaterlegs (Lesser/Greater Yellowlegs) Short birding trip or Marathon Birding trip
Dick's Pipit (Richard's Pipit) Unprintable
Mipit (Meadow Pipit) Bed
Icky (Icterine Warbler) Dodgy sighting
Subalp (Subalpine Warbler) Small hill
Gropper (Grasshopper Warbler) Ilegal
PG Tips (Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler) put kettler on
I would agree with almost everything Ian says, but not " the dreaded elitist BTO codes". It's not the codes that are elitist, it's those who use them in the context of this forum that are elitist. They are just another (recognised) form of shorthand. I'm not going to write Greater Spotted Woodpecker in my notebook when I can write GS
What does annoy me (amongst many other things) is some people's refusal to use capital letters (upper case, if I'm being pedantic
Steve
PS any grammatical errors in this post are also entirely deliberate
Ian wrote:
Hi all,
the use of abbreviated bird names and the incorrect spelling of birds names is a contentious one, not least as many would ask if it matters much but many users of this forum have answered that it does and I have to agree.
Abbreviated bird names are on the increase within posts and personally I don't think they're always a good thing. We need to appreciate the huge cross section of users within the forum and that many simply don't know what a LW is, or GCG etc etc. I don't think it's much to ask for a Grebe at the end or the extra few seconds to type a full name is it? God forbid the reincarnation of the dreaded elitist BTO species codes, BX indeed! This forum is used by all ages and experiences and it is important to me that it remains accessible to everyone. If we could just give some extra thought to the use of abbreviated names that would be appreciated, ask yourself if a 13 year old birder just starting out would have any clue what you're on about without having to wrack their brain for 20 minutes, or search back through a thread to find out what is meant by it.
And onto spelling. My spelling is admittedly terrible, praise be to the spellchecker I say but it seems that bird names are increasingly being spelt wrong on this forum. Whilst we may very well understand what is meant by an incorrect spelling or not, this forum is intended to improve our birding knowledge where possible and the perpetuation of commonly misspelled names is surely working against that. I'm sure we all have a bird book and it might just be worth checking that we're spelling some of these names correctly or as is mostly commonly the case, not unecessarily splitting bird names into two. Chiffchaff for instance, has never been spelt Chiff Chaff! Small beer perhaps but in the scheme of things getting them wrong on a public forum such as this is simply encouraging others to spell them the same way.
p.s. any spelling mistakes within this post are purely intentional.