User talk:Sabine's Sunbird/archive1

Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! By the way, you can sign your name on Talk and vote pages using three tildes, like this: ~~~. Four tildes (~~~~) produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! --Lst27 23:54, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Hi, and welcome. Please see my coments on talk:Old World warbler, and let me know if there is a problem with this solution (I'll be away for a couple of days, so may not respond immediately. jimfbleak 05:57, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Did you know has been updated

And an article you created recently has made the line up and is now featured on the main page. Enjoy! -- [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|^(talk)]] 09:32, Nov 11, 2004 (UTC) Ta muchly! Sabine 22:53, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Incidentally, would you mind checking the picture in the taxbox for Deer? The antlers always made me wonder if it was a garden-variety deer. Lunkwill 22:44, 18 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the comments on my Uganda contribution! I'm on a bit of "roots of Ugandan insurgency" kick and hopefully will be able to get everything I want up before my brain demands a break. ;) BanyanTree 01:03, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

polynesian sandpiper

I'd split unless there is so little to add that the species' articles would be near duplicates (eg kittiwake, where the range and leg colour are the only distinctions. Let me know when you do Tuamotu Sandpiper, I may be able to dd something from Shorebirds. jimfbleak 20:48, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I did some work on the page. Depending on your stance on the leucoptera-ellisi split, you'll either cheer or want to feed me to the vultures (ah, now where's my dichlofenac?). However, as the redlists recognize two species and Walters is generally reliable, I think we can too given the fact that I discussed it at some length in the text. The only major change was the move of leucoptera to the new name. Presently I'm doing some major revamping of the prehistorics. We got an article on Chendytes lawi in the process; if you want to add to it, you're more than welcome (it's an utter stump as of now) -- Dysmorodrepanis 04:46, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

VfD for National Sales Tax? Let Them Eat Cake

You can put {{vfd}} on that page, and in the VfD page, you can vote to delete it, and discuss why. --Lst27 (talk) 23:57, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Talk:American Black Oystercatcher

See comment on hiding things jimfbleak 07:24, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Phlooie vfd

Hi. I would have {{deletebecause| 9 hits on google. No more matches with fuzzy spelling.} this article as opposed to vfd. Bye. :-) --Gtabary 15:51, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Cons Biology

Although I posted that question on both talk pages it was really more about merging Cons. Ecol into Cons. Biol, not the other way around (one still has at least two journals with pretty much that name while the other ended up renaming itself "Ecology and Society"). Guettarda 01:54, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Bird authors

Hi. I usually get my bird authors from zoonomen.net. Keep up the good work. Mwng 09:16, 13 Dec 2004 (UTC)

African philosophy

I saw that you'd contributed to an earlier incarnation of the African philosophy; I'm in the middle (actually, nearer the beginning) of rewriting it, and wondered if you'd like to take a look and become involved again. Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 17:32, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply. Not to worry — it would just have been nice to have got some other people involved in it (my projects have a habit of turning into almost solo exercises). Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 09:14, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Well, throughout the article it uses lowercase "s". But I don't know anything about the rules of naming. Everyking 00:54, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Trinidad and Tobago

Yes, brilliant holiday, lots of new birds, nice people, safe, relaxing...we would recommend Tobago in particular to any one - Trinidad is good too, but lacks a tourist infrastructure, so you have to be keen om nature and stay at Asa Wright, which is excellent. the only seabird pic I have, other than the Red-tailed Tropicbird is of Audubon's Shearwater chick, currently on Shearwater, so that would be helpful, thanks, jimfbleak 05:46, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for doing the Audubon's Shearwater article. jimfbleak 05:07, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Latin poetry

I think it's already been dealt with. I'm a scientist too, so dont panic... Kenneth Charles 01:35, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Bird flight

Great artile, I'm going to nominate it for did you know on the main page. Any fact in the article that you think really stands out for the text on the main page? --nixie 02:15, 4 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I was going to do with hollow bones, but your suggestion is better :) --nixie 02:27, 4 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]
This was put on my talk page, I guess the bot doen't check who wrote the article.--nixie 23:55, 12 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Did you know has been updated and a fact from the article bird flight, which you recently created, has been featured in that section on the Main Page. If you have another interesting fact to submit, then please suggest it at the section's talk page.

sheathbill, again

Actually, I don't *really* care how the article ends up, considering my sole true duty was regularizing the infobox. Please see future devellopments at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Tree of Life#Contradiction in text, which discuss exactly this issue. Circeus 10:52, May 13, 2005 (UTC)

Not a country

Good catch. I've removed Puerto Rico. And I've got no objection to the page being renamed -- in fact, I'm almost certain that somebody will rename it if it survives VfD. Thanks for the feedback, and I'll try to get your name right next time! --Arcadian 03:04, 17 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Per your thought about re-focusing the article--I think that's a good idea, and if you have time you may want to add a couple of sentences into the article (maybe even just copying and extending your sentence about the Spanish Steps). Usually these articles get renamed at the same time that an admin decides if it 'won' the vote or not, so having your ideas inside the article before the vote closes would help you impact what the final article name would become. --Arcadian 03:48, 17 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

PLGA microspheres

Good job tracking down the source of PLGA microspheres. I had this one on my list of suspects for quite a while (although I thought it might be original research, because 12.26.96.146 (talk · contribs) contributed three articles by the same authors). It seems that the ingentaconnect pages are not in Google, and I don't think I am using their own search engine right. Can you check the other two (VEGF and PLGA microspheres and PVA hydrogel) for copyvios, and/or tell me how you spotted the other one? Rl 14:22, 25 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

ACK. Two more down. Thank you. Rl 15:18, 25 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Monty and Hitch (the early years)

So the crucial difference is that Monty Python fans are slightly more obsessive than Alfred Hitchcock fans. Then again, I can just imagine somebody writing an article on "Avian Behavior in Hitchcock's Movies". And it'd survivie a VfD too! It would lack that Pythonesque taint of silliness. ----Isaac R 03:52, 29 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Western Gull chick

I enjoyed the picture of the newly hatched chick that you added to the Western Gull article. Where did you take the picture? BlankVerse ∅ 13:30, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

In between finishing my BS at UC Irvine and going to graduate school I spent roughly three months on Santa Barbara Island, spending much of that time in a small bird blind recording Western Gull breeding behavior (in 1976). If you've read Drs. George & Molly Hunt's paper on female-female pairing in Western Gulls, I'm one of the acknowledgments. I always wore a knit watch cap when I was near the gull colony because the adults liked to fly towards your head, and poop on you as they veered off at the last moment. BlankVerse ∅ 03:40, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

alphabetic lists for birds

Hi! I noticed you alphabeticised the page Honeyeater. Just so you know, the random order of the bird lists is actually the taxonomic order, showing relationships within the family. I am trying to figure out how to revert the page, but I thought I'd tell you why before I did. Sabine's Sunbird 02:04, 19 July 2005 (UTC)

Hells Bells and Buggy Wheels. Thank goodness there's revert. I see you have done it and thank you for picking me up on it. L-Bit 08:57, 19 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Cordell Bank birds

"Hi! And welcome to wikipedia. I liked the article on Cordell Bank. I wasn't aware that the Wandering and white capped had even been vagrants in Cordell bank. I wonder, however, if it is customary to include them in bird lists except as rare freaks. Anyways, we can work out some wording that mentions them all. Sabine's Sunbird 03:47, 23 July 2005 (UTC)"

Hi! Thanks for all the formatting and adding the pic to the Cordell Bank article. NOAA lists all five albatrosses as occurring in the Sanctuary, but I'm pretty sure the White-capped is an unusual vagrant, it was the only one not also mentioned in Stallcup's book. Whichever way it makes sense to list the seabirds works; I'm not really wedded to any particular phrasing and I don't know how things usually are written on wikipedia yet. What would you suggest? --Wevets 18:40, July 23, 2005 (UTC)

*There is no particular convention on wikipedia, but most texts would draw the distinction between regular passage migranst and super rare vagrants. Personally in all my time in the Gulf of the Farallones I've met one person that has even seen a short-tail, let alone any other vagrant albatross. That said, Cordell Bank does attract weird vagrants on as regular a basis as vagrants tend to come. They had the first Parkinson's Petrel in N America last year. Perhaps a line about them could draw attention to that, and mention Wanderes and white capped?

That sounds reasonable - I haven't personally seen any vagrant albatrosses either (I've only got about 4 years in the GFNMS/CBNMS area though), but the folks in the NW Hawaiian Islands have been doing some really cool work tracking albatrosses with satellite tags, and we're finding out a lot more about albatross activity in all the west coast Sanctuaries as a result. Thanks for guiding a newbie on input! --Wevets 16:51, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

DYK

Did you know? has been updated. A fact from the article Island restoration, which you recently created, has been featured in that section on the Main Page. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently-created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Pornosaurus

You wrote: Feed to the Deleteasaurus. - That made me laugh out loud really, really hard. Thanks Fernando Rizo T/C 19:11, 30 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

DYK

Did you know? has been updated. A fact from the article Kittlitz's Murrelet, which you recently created, has been featured in that section on the Main Page. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently-created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 20:50, 10 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Birds

Hi, while working on Fauna of Australia I discovered there is no article on the Muttonbird (Mutton Bird?), there is a red link to Short-tailed Shearwater on the genus page. I would have thought that muttonbird was the most common name, I thought I'd check with you before I made a mess of redirects. --nixie 07:58, 14 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, I didn't know there were so many different muttonbirds.--nixie 22:18, 14 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Fernando Rizo's RfA

Thanks for your support of my RfA, SS. I really appreciate it, and I look forward to sharing some more laughs with you over VfDs. Take it easy, brother. Fernando Rizo T/C 19:24, 20 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I'm with you

Corvun's edits are unacceptable for an international enc - I'll do what I can. jimfbleak 05:23, 28 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you

Just wanted to say thanks. I found our exchange very intelectually stimulating. I also want to say I'm sorry if I came off a bit too haught-headed. I suppose I just got into it a bit too much. But, thank you again. After seeing your user page, I have a feeling we'll find ourselves very much on the same side in future encounters, to which I look forward. --Corvun 04:23, August 30, 2005 (UTC)

P.S. The name "Duck Hawk" isn't actually a misnomer. It merely refers to the fact that it eats ducks. A "hawk" isn't necessarily a specific type of bird, nor does it have to be a bird at all. For example, the Mosquito Hawk is an insect that preys on mosquitos. --Corvun 07:09, August

31, 2005 (UTC)

Identification query

On your user page, the object on the rabbit's head, although pancake-coloured and sufficiently floppy appears to be square - can you explain this anomaly? jimfbleak 06:01, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

re: Farallon Islands

I see from your response that you use commonwealth English...I had thought the appearance of "colonised" was an oversight or accidental occurrence in the article. I hope you don't mind that I changed "colonised" to "recolonized"...it seems me more appropriate that an article on an island group in California should use AmE spellings, just as an article on St. Kilda should use BrE spellings. As far as Cabrillo's having possibly sighted the islands, perhaps you could change that sentence to read as follows (inserting the correct information, obviously):

Peter White, author of The Farallon Islands: Sentinels of the Golden Gate, conjectures that Juan Rodríguez de Cabrillo, an earlier explorer, sighted the islands in <insert month> of <insert year>, <insert calculated difference of 1579 minus aforementioned year> years before Drake, although he left no record of having seen them. (Because of the San Francisco Bay area's famous fogs, it is entirely possible, however, that Rodríguez de Cabrillo never saw the islands.)

As far as the fogs go, believe me, I've seen them, and I can completely understand how he could have overlooked a few rocky islands...you can barely see the nose on your face. Also, do you know who this Sebastian Viscaino was? Possibly Sebastián Vizcaíno? If so, his name should be spelled correctly, and wikilinked in the article. I'm assuming it's him, but you've got the source material, not I... . Tomer ^TALK 20:26, 19 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

You might also want to squeeze in a note about how "farallón" means essentially just "rock" (as in the islet kind of rock), in Spanish. Not sure how to word it. Tomer ^TALK 22:41, 19 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps

The Spanish name for the islands, Los Farallones, simply means "The Rocks".

Tomer ^TALK 04:11, 20 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I was going to mention earlier, and neglected to do so, that the muddle over island/s is likely due to many people referring to SEFI as simply "the island", since it is, far and away, the most "important". I'm gonna go run now and make a map showing the position of the islands quick, before you can. :-p Tomer ^TALK 04:16, 20 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Wow. I'm really impressed with the work you and Ratzer have put into this article. Good job to both of you!

. Tomer ^TALK 04:34, 6 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Aloha

I could use some help on Endemic birds of Hawaii and Great Frigatebird if you ever have the time. --Viriditas | Talk 02:48, 20 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Fantastic. There's no rush on anything but if you can find the time to check Hawaii recent changes once in a while (or add it to your links or bookmarks) that would be appreciated. I'll be adding most of the hawaii-related articles to that watchlist, so any activity on Hawaiian birds will show up there for your review. --Viriditas | Talk 11:29, 20 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Albatross

Looks pretty comprehensive to me, although I'm certainly no expert on these southern species. I've fixed a few typos and varied the terms used where words like "range" were used rather often. I'd certainly support this for a featured artilcle. jimfbleak 19:55, 15 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the heads up on the ordering convention. I had seen it alphabetized like that elsewhere and was not aware it was not the correct order. Phaldo 19:15, 23 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Egg War

Since you've contributed to the Farallon Islands article, I thought perhaps you'd be interested to know that I've put in a request for an article on the Egg War here. If you write the article, please remember to remove the article from that listing. Cheers, Tom e r ^talk 17:40, 20 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hey. Where's that article? I wanna read it! :-) Tom e r ^talk 06:42, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Excellent work! I copyedited it. Hope you don't mind too much. ;-) Tom e r ^talk 16:48, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Personally, I prefer "fléivär". (linky) :-) Tom e r ^talk 17:26, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Image copyright problem with Image:Takahe and chick.jpg

Thanks for uploading Image:Takahe and chick.jpg. However, the image may soon be deleted unless we can determine the copyright holder and copyright status. The Wikimedia Foundation is very careful about the images included in Wikipedia because of copyright law (see Wikipedia's Copyright policy).

The copyright holder is usually the creator, the creator's employer, or the last person who was transferred ownership rights. Copyright information on images is signified using copyright templates. The three basic license types on Wikipedia are open content, public domain, and fair use. Find the appropriate template in Wikipedia:Image copyright tags and place it on the image page like this: {{TemplateName}}.

Please signify the copyright information on any other images you have uploaded or will upload. Remember that images without this important information can be deleted by an administrator. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Thank you. Stan 16:17, 21 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

taxonomy

I still think of the chats as thrushes, and I'd be happier to see them there rather than lumped with flycatchers - can't remember the source though.

On the tits, the normal British English "tit" has obvious problems. I have no strong preference for any alternative - "Paridae" is not the common English name, I don't like "tit (bird)" type constructions if I can avoid it, "Chickadee" is purely NAm, "titmouse" is very old-fashioned in the UK. If you prefer any of the alteratives, go ahead. jimfbleak

FWIW, the Audubon field guide calls both titmice and chickadees "titmice". The Golden Books field guide basically says that titmice are crested chickadees. That said, Wikipedia:Use common names says that we should use the name articles based on what "most users" would search for, and I'd go out on a limb and say most people aren't going to be looking for Paridae if they're searching for tits. ;) Tom e r ^talk 20:51, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Re: List of Johnston Atoll railroads, etc

I thought they were already deleted. After updating all of the valid region lists to use {{US railroad lists}}, I thought the pages in question would be removed by whatever admin normally works through AFD. Regardless, based on Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of Wake Island railroads, I think it's safe to delete the lot listed there by User:Fg2 without going through AFD again. Slambo (Speak) 14:26, 24 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ah. Well, I am an admin. It seems that we could make a valid argument under a combination of WP:CSD:General:7 (I created them in the first place), :Articles:1 and :Articles:3. I could go ahead and speedy them, but if you're more comfortable doing a combination AFD for them, I'll support it (as long as the Puerto Rico, DC and state lists remain as they are still valid). Slambo (Speak) 15:54, 24 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Done. Slambo (Speak) 03:34, 25 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Image copyright problem with Image:Western gull chick.jpg

Thanks for uploading Image:Western gull chick.jpg. However, the image may soon be deleted unless we can determine the copyright holder and copyright status. The Wikimedia Foundation is very careful about the images included in Wikipedia because of copyright law (see Wikipedia's Copyright policy).

The copyright holder is usually the creator, the creator's employer, or the last person who was transferred ownership rights. Copyright information on images is signified using copyright templates. The three basic license types on Wikipedia are open content, public domain, and fair use. Find the appropriate template in Wikipedia:Image copyright tags and place it on the image page like this: {{TemplateName}}.

Please signify the copyright information on any other images you have uploaded or will upload. Remember that images without this important information can be deleted by an administrator. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Thank you. Admrb♉ltz (T | C) 03:57, 28 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Endemic genera

Hi. No, I'm not sure about genera at all, to be honest. I must admit I don't know enough about Neotropical birds to make a good guess at how big this category would get if we didn't set the threshold higher - any ideas? If too large, we could make genera a subcategory I guess? Articles have to exist though, of course - is anyone going to write a separate article on each separate Tanager or Woodcreeper genus? SP-KP 16:30, 3 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the appreciation on Bird Endemism ... it's going to take a long time, but eventually the subject will be well-covered enough for my liking. Albatrosses .. remind me what the main points of contention were? Actually, better to kick off a discussion on the Albatross talk page, as you say. Let me know when you do that and I'll be happy to give an opinion or two. SP-KP 17:13, 3 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the reminder on albatrosses. I think that it should be easy to convert this into something NPOV, which was my only concern really. As long as (i) the main page makes it clear that there are two approaches, but no consensus yet, and (ii) any species lists give each taxon a NPOV scientific name e.g. Diomedea (cauta) steadi, and then (iii) any taxon page for a 'controversial' taxon points the issue out, I think the issue goes away. SP-KP 19:15, 5 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Pacific bird extinctions

This weekend or possibly better after this weekend would indeed be a good time to start - I am striving to have the Prehistoric Birds section on Late Quarternary extinctions set up til then. It will contain all I could dig up on extinct Pacific taxa, which is quite a lot, but only a fragment of the islands has been surveyed to date (I hope there will be some work on Raiatea soon, to see whether we're correct in interpreting the Bay "Thrush" as an Aplonis starling...).

The sections that are browsable on the Prehistoric Birds, as well as the corresponding families on Extinct birds, are already done and can be perused at leisure. I'll be putting some work into avian extinction stuff myself over the next months, as I will be doing a talk on the subject, Steadman is currently preparing a monograph on the subject ("Extinction and Biogeography of tropical Pacific birds"), which I am eagerly awaiting. -- Dysmorodrepanis 00:08, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hey

Just thought you might be interested in Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Battle of Hogwarts (2nd nomination) because you participated in the first vote. Savidan 21:11, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Kentish Plover

Sorry, I was under the impression that the Snowy Plover was a completely different species. Shyamal 03:36, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Albatross

Hi. I just thought I'd ask where you were up to with getting this up to FA status? SP-KP 00:38, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding the edits; I suppose you're right, it just struck me that some people might take the "absent" statement as "never, ever happens". - Aerobird 18:34, 4 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I reckon I'll have a look at the WP. :-) As for Michael, having made a mockery of the grid for the past...what 10 years? it does get just a wee bit tiresome. Last year was a bit of fresh air, true - aside from Indy, of course, but we won't go there... (Now of course if he'd drive for Minardi, we could really see what he's made of! ;-) - Aerobird 03:15, 5 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Remora

Your remora photo kicks ass. Thanks for that. Got any more? --Chinasaur 04:28, 4 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That is an amazing shot for snorkeling. Guess it explains the lighting. I have been interested in remoras ever since I encountered one while snorkeling off the beach in Fort Lauderdale (not great snorkeling...). It behaved really strangely, following me around and then hiding among debris and then sneaking up behind me again... --Chinasaur 09:41, 4 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Image:Wandering_dance.jpg

Please forward L. Guerin's permission e-mail, together with your e-mail asking for that permission, to permissions AT wikimedia DOT org as described at Wikipedia:Confirmation of permission. Thank you! Lupo 14:14, 8 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Albatross

You have my support, and please feel free to copy this message to wherever the vote is held. I can't think of anything relevant that's missing, and I only picked up one minor caps inconsistency. Nice article, and a lot of work. jimfbleak 15:32, 9 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

notes in Albatross

Hi there, I noticed that Albatross is on FAC, and at first glance, it looks great. I'll take a better look later, but I thought I'd ask about something cosmetic. Personally, I've never seen inline citations used like this^[1], that is^[2], at least not in a print source^[3]. I'm not sure if there's a reason for you using that format,^[4] but if you don't mind,^[5] I'd like to change them to this format.^[6] To me it seems more readable, and more conventional. I'll be happy to make the switch if you like. —Spangineer (háblame) 06:49, 10 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Albatross image

Apologies, I hadn't known that by-nc-sa was incompatible with by-sa (though I guess it makes sense). I've moved your question and my response to the Albatross image talk page, and contacted the photographer for his thoughts. Albatrossish 02:44, 17 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

FA

Congratulations! SP-KP 22:06, 20 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you

Thank you very much for welcoming me to Wikipedia and guiding me in the correct direction! We will follow your indications from here on out. Amotis 09:55, 27 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]