Where the hell has Great-spotted Woodpecker come from all of a sudden?
Whilst I've generally accepted the fairly common omitting of hyphens in bird's names (should I though?), adding them in where they're not supposed to be is a step too far. Can we really not be bothered to actually know the names of the birds we apparently glean so much enjoyment from?
Obviously, despite more than 800 reads of this post some continue to completely and utterly ignore it!
It's becoming an endless daily job to edit posts of misspelled bird names, so many Chiff chaffs, Shellducks, Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, Kestrals and the like still appearing every single day without fail.
Frankly, if you can't be bothered to spell the names of the birds you see properly then I can't be bothered to edit your posts accordingly and I'll just delete the whole thing.
This forum has always maintained very high standards and their current erosion, mainly from newer members it has to be said, is not acceptable. It is your responsibility to ensure you're spelling bird names correctly, not mine. The standards in many (all?) aspects of birding in general are unfortunately diminishing rather rapidly and I certainly won't allow this forum to contribute to that.
In only three hours this evening, newly submitted posts contained: -
2 x Shovellers Tuftys Canada Heron Kestral Sparrow hawk Shellduck
Clearly, my plea seems to be being ignored or not read, which makes me wonder whether the more serious problem of divulging rare breeding bird nests on here may be ignored too. If posts begin to disappear people have been warned and I will do what is necessary to keep this forum the way it used to be before the seemingly recent phenomenon of misspelled bird names. Clearly the habit is spreading too, with Gooseander appearing in the sightings board at Pennington Flash in recent days!
Ending with a positive note though my thanks to the many who continue to support the forum and via their posts make it the excellent resource it is.
Could everyone please reacquaint themselves with the sticky posts at the top of this sightings forum, particularly the misspelled and abbreviated bird names.
I'm not going over the reasons why it's important (been there, done that ) but they're on the increase again and it's plain to see by the amount of editing to posts I'm doing, which frankly I really haven't got the time for!
We surely owe it to the birds to at least spell their names right and a quick glance at a bird book is all it takes.
Chiff Chaff, Sparrow Hawk, Oyster Catcher, Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Canadian Goose, Heron (what type?), Oik, Black Bird, SEO, Lappies, swan (lake?), Gold Tit, RLB, LTT, Wood Pigeon (it's officially one word now), Shellduck, Tawny (pipit or eagle?) are just a few of the recent ones .
Please take a few moments to read your post before submitting it. Let's keep this forum what it is; one of the best around
my thanks to the many who continue to support the forum and via their posts make it the excellent resource it is.
.