Re: [Maine-birds] Yellow-headed Blackbird Wells

Hi Maine-birds:

I figured I'd take this as an opportunity to mention, from the owner/moderator perspective, some updates in this group. 

First of all, I want to thank everyone who participates in this group and makes my role easy by staying on topic and being civil. This group has a little over 1,600 members and it says a lot that I don't have to put much effort into managing it anymore. That said, Google has changed some tools over the last year or two that make it increasingly harder to moderate all posts and approve requests to join in a timely way. I'm sorry to any folks who waited long for their membership to be approved or messages to get through. We do get a fair amount of spam, which Google is good at catching, but it also catches random messages and replies. 

Thanks to Ingrid for sharing the link to the GroupMe earlier today. I started that group when the Steller's Sea-Eagle first showed up. (January 2022) as the GroupMe app is a much faster and more efficient way to communicate. It has since become the primary source for most rare bird updates in Maine (for now) with over 3,700 members, and while I will try (and I'll encourage others) to still cross-post noteworthy records, that is the best place for the fastest information. Here is a link to the group's rules and instructions for joining: https://tinyurl.com/MaineRBAGroupMeRules

There are also a handful of Facebook Groups, like the very popular "MAINE Birds" and of course lots of sightings on eBird. We are definitely in a "Paradox of Progress" with bird alerts right now, where we have increasingly better and faster ways to communicate, but with so many options and avenues things are also getting worse. I recently made a video on this topic, if you're interested in a deeper look (and don't mind the self promotion), available here: https://youtu.be/6YpweAjwBWM

If I can help anyone with Google Group or GroupMe questions, let me know.

Thanks again,

Doug Hitchcox

Maine-birds Moderator

On Aug 28, 2024, at 12:33 PM, Joanne Stevens <joshawk@maine.rr.com> wrote:

I just saw 23 ebird reports of a Yellow-headed Blackbird seen yesterday on Webhannet Dr. in Wells.  Interestingly no reports were posted on Maine-birds.  This seems to be the trend now but it would be a nice courtesy for someone to post rare bird sightings on Maine-birds as not everyone uses ebird.  Maine has had several rare and very rare birds this year but there's been little timely alert on Maine-birds.  Please take a few moments to think of others, maybe some who may not actively chase rare birds but would be happy to see one if it was close by.

Thank you,

Joanne Stevens

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