A certain European S was found faternizing with a certain Columba Livia...

We have two list serves in Minnesota. One (Mnbird) is a general list that people can post pretty much anything relating to birds (as long as it's not politically partisan) and the other (mou-net) is for posting rare birds, odd bird behavior or movement. Some people don't like that there are two lists. Some people in the birding community don't get along. If you're on a list serve, you know what I'm talking about, it's the same in any geeky community.

Someone recently brought up that it's a shame that Minnesota birders are so nasty that we have to have to listserves. It cracks me up, I've been on nasty listserves and I would not call mnbird or mou-net nasty or cantankerous. Here's the birder idea of cantankerous: "You didn't mention seeing a weak olive vest on the bird you saw, are you sure it was in fact a dusky flycatcher?" The birder equivalent of a fight is questioning sightings or someone's bird knowledge. For the people involved it's very serious, but for outsiders looking in, it just confirms how nerdy and geeky we are. Some of the posts that show up from time to time can be misread in tone and interpreted as flaming, but it's more the result of people lacking social skills and being a little too direct in their emails.

I've been so tempted to respond to some of the posts that are showing up, but I don't think I would contribute anything new to the subject only get off a couple of zingers that would make me feel. Plus, I would probably end up engaging in a war of emails with someone I don't care for and really I'm too busy writing the calendar to spend sending emails slams back and fourth.