User talk:MeegsC/Archive 3

GOCE elections

Greetings from the Guild of Copy Editors Elections are currently underway for our inaugural Guild coordinators. The voting period will run for 14 days: 00:01 UTC, Friday 1 December – 23:59 UTC, Tuesday 14 December. All GOCE members in good standing, as well as past participants of any of the Guild's Backlog elimination drives, are eligible to vote. There are six candidates vying for four positions. The candidate with the highest number of votes will become the Lead Coordinator, therefore, your vote really matters! Cast your vote today.

Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors via SMasters using AWB on 01:50, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

The Gambia

Hello. You recently participated in a discussion regarding renaming of several pages from "The Gambia" to "the Gambia". There is currently an RfC on the naming issue at Talk:The Gambia. Feel free to participate in the discussion. Jafeluv (talk) 05:26, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Announcement

Hello! I'm The Arbiter, one of the coordinators for WikiProject Zoo. I am proud to announce the launch of a new portal: Portal:Zoos and Aquariums! ZooPro, ZooFari, and I worked hard to create a new portal for information on zoos, aquariums, and the associated projects and articles on Wikipedia. If you could head on over, take a look at our work, and maybe learn some more about zoos and Wikiproject Zoo, it would be great! Cheers and Happy Editing!

Delivered by MessageDeliveryBot on behalf of The Arbiter (talk) at 03:21, 14 December 2010 (UTC).

Re Cape May County, New Jersey

Thanks for the Freeholder updates at Cape May County, New Jersey. I have to set a reminder that the lists and templates of Freeholders in the state's 21 counties will change as of January 1, or so. I guess I have been lazy in going back and checking that the entries are up to date. Alansohn (talk) 02:44, 30 December 2010 (UTC)

No worries! I've been meaning to check on them for ages — and now I find I'll need to update them in two days anyway! :P MeegsC | Talk 03:36, 30 December 2010 (UTC)

GOCE Year-end Report

Season's Greetings from the Guild of Copy Editors We have reached the end of the year, and what a year it has been! The Guild of Copy Editors was full of activity, and we achieved numerous important milestones in 2010. Read all about these in the Guild's 2010 Year-End Report. Highlights Membership grows to 503 editors 2,589 articles removed through four Backlog elimination drives Our encounter with Jimbo Wales Guild home pages reorganized and redesigned Report on our inaugural elections Guild Plans for 2011 New barnstars introduced Requests page improved Sign up for the January 2011 Backlog elimination drive! Get your copy of the Guild's 2010 Year-End Report here On behalf of the Guild, we take this opportunity to wish you Season's Greetings and Happy New Year. See you in 2011! – Your Coordinators: S Masters (lead), Diannaa, The Utahraptor, and Tea with toast.

Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 06:32, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

attributing "Pluvialis dominica eggs and nest.jpg"

Hi MeegsC, I'm working on a non-profit book about lichens, and I would very much like to use your picture "Pluvialis dominica eggs and nest.jpg", but I'm not sure how to attribute it. Are you Megan Crewe? Is there any way in particular that you would like me to attribute the photo? Thanks, Byronlovesme (Brian Lacey) Byronlovesme (talk) 19:16, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Loons...

Hey MeegsC, how are you for time currently? I think Red-throated Loon is probably ready or near-ready for FAC. I am tidying up some refs at the moment but once that's done, any comprehensiveness issues left? It'll then be a good template for the others :) Casliber (talk · contribs) 21:54, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

RL is a bit nuts at the moment (except for a couple of weeks next month, I'm in the field from now until early May), but I sometimes have access to the net — and generally try to log on and do a bit when I can. I'll focus on the R-t Loon, and try to get that one ready. There's still a bit more to add on breeding (territoriality, nest site fidelity, courtship, etc.) and habitat, and I need to add at least some of the cultural stuff to the lead. MeegsC | Talk 02:31, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

Okay, I'll try to add what I can too. But not a bird I am too familiar with so I'm not too crash hot on comprehensiveness Casliber (talk · contribs) 04:59, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

Gorgets and loons

There's a heading for April 1. I think you're right, I've moved gorget, but left the redirect. Anything I can do with RTL? I suspect that that you have the material, but I'm happy tobe a second pair of eyes for mos, ref checking etc? Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:16, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

Supercilium

Hi. I've added a ref for "supercilium drop" but I can't think of anything that could be used as a ref for my paleness comment - this is, I guess, just my OR. SP-KP (talk) 18:30, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

GOCE drive newsletter

The Guild of Copy Editors – May 2011 Backlog Elimination Drive The Guild of Copy Editors invite you to participate in the May 2011 Backlog Elimination Drive, a month-long effort to reduce the backlog of articles that require copy-editing. The drive began on May 1 at 00:00 (UTC) and will end on May 31 at 23:59 (UTC). The goals of this backlog elimination drive are to eliminate as many articles as possible from the 2009 backlog and to reduce the overall backlog by 15%. ! NEW ! In an effort to encourage the final elimination of all 2009 articles, we will be tracking them on the leaderboard for this drive. Awards and barnstars A range of barnstars will be awarded to active participants. Some are exclusive to GOCE drives. More information on awards can be found on the main drive page. We look forward to meeting you on the drive! Your GOCE coordinators: SMasters, Diannaa, Tea with toast, Chaosdruid, and Torchiest

You are receiving a copy of this newsletter as you are a member of the Guild of Copy Editors, or have participated in one of our drives. If you do not wish to receive future newsletters, please add you name here. Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 07:49, 4 May 2011 (UTC)

Land birds

now deleted along with redirect from Land bird Jimfbleak - talk to me? 14:26, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Meegs, I notice you're working this up GA? FA? I have Harrap & Quinn Tits, nuthatches and treecreepers. You might have access to it anyway, but if not, and you think it might be helpful, I can scan it and send it to you as either as an image, or possibly as a rich text file. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 15:24, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

thanks for offer, but that potential FT's on hold for the time being, I thought I'd do Crex as the next FT, only three articles to do. I'll keep an eye on the nuthatch, and see if I've got any obscure stuff like parasites. I actually saw the Norfolk R-b N, so I have a soft spot for this bird, it's a real British list blocker for anyone too young to have seen it Jimfbleak - talk to me? 16:57, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Prehistoric birds

And can I write about prehistoric birds? — Preceding unsigned comment added by John Troodon (talk • contribs) 12:42, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

A misunderstanding

Hi MeegsC. I've just read an exchange on Wikipedia_talk:GLAM/ARKive where you asked a question, User:Snowman responds, and then User:Pigsonthewing (Andy) follows up with a response to Snowman which says "As you can see from the link I provided, above, all of the references added from ARKive were labelled thus (you were, I recall, calling for this to be done, a while ago);" You seem to have taken Andy as addressing you, and attributing to you something you had not said. You then say you're going to steer clear of the project to avoid stepping on Andy's toes. I hope you can see now that this was a misunderstanding: Andy's comment was not directed at you. I think you've interpreted an animosity from Andy which isn't there. I don't know if you've seen his reply to you.

As for the issue of ARKive reliability, it's each editor's judgement call to make whether a reference used by ARKive is suitable for Wikipedia, based on the citations that ARKive use. The vast majority will be. Note that you can add "via ARKive" to citations that you haven't checked yourself. Best wishes, MartinPoulter (talk) 11:30, 2 August 2011 (UTC)

Culmen

Had uploaded this image some years ago and just rediscovered it. File:MeasureBeakThrush.jpg can be altered/enhanced a bit if it is of any use. Shyamal (talk) 01:38, 10 August 2011 (UTC)

Taxonomic authority

Hey, MeegsC. I just started a thread on this on the Project Birds talk page. As you piqued my interest/frustration with this topic, and since I value your opinion, I'd be interested to hear your take on it. Natureguy1980 (talk) 04:55, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

GOCE drive newsletter

Invitation from the Guild of Copy Editors The Guild of Copy Editors invites you to participate in their September 2011 Backlog elimination drive, a month-long effort to reduce the size of the copy editing backlog. The drive will begin on September 1 at 00:00 (UTC) and will end on September 30 at 23:59 (UTC). We will be tracking the number of 2010 articles in the backlog, as we want to copy edit as many of those as possible. Please consider copy editing an article that was tagged in 2010. Barnstars will be given to anyone who edits more than 4,000 words, with special awards for the top 5 in the categories "Number of articles", "Number of words", and "Number of articles of over 5,000 words". See you at the drive! – Your drive coordinators: Diannaa, Chaosdruid, The Utahraptor, Slon02, and SMasters. >>> Sign up now <<<

Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 16:46, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

Mystery

Please solve this mystery if you can...

On September 23rd, traffic to Portal:James Bond doubled, and has stayed at the new level since then. I can't figure out what happened.

See http://stats.grok.se/en/201109/Portal%3AJames_Bond

Traffic to Outline of James Bond stayed the same (though it was at the higher-level already), which leads me to suspect changes made somewhere in Wikipedia.

See http://stats.grok.se/en/201109/Outline%20of%20James_Bond

I'd like to find out what happened, in case it reveals helpful link placement tips that can double the traffic to outlines too!

I look forward to your reply. The Transhumanist 23:58, 5 October 2011 (UTC)

GOCE drive newsletter

Invitation from the Guild of Copy Editors The Guild of Copy Editors invites you to participate in their November 2011 Backlog elimination drive, a month-long effort to reduce the size of the copy edit backlog. The drive begins on November 1 at 00:00 (UTC) and ends on November 30 at 23:59 (UTC). We will be tracking the number of 2010 articles (and specifically will be targeting the oldest three months), as we want to copy edit as many of these as possible. Barnstars will be awarded to anyone who copy edits more than 4,000 words, and special awards will be given to the top 5 in the following categories: "Number of articles", "Number of words", and "Number of articles of over 5,000 words". We hope to see you there! – Your drive coordinators: Diannaa, Chaosdruid, The Utahraptor, Slon02, and SMasters. >>> Sign up now <<<

Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 01:45, 29 October 2011 (UTC)

Nests

Someone asked me for an illustration of nests types (for off-wiki usage) and I decided to try out something - wonder if you know any illustrations that might give me additional ideas ? Shyamal (talk) 15:45, 7 November 2011 (UTC)

The fourth edition of Pettingill's Ornithology in Laboratory and Field has this interesting classification

• Stage 1 Ground and Cavity nests - without structure
  • A Ground nests - depressions with/out lining
  • B Cavity nests - i) preformed or (ii) excavated
• Stage 2 Platform nests - elevated with loose structure
• Stage 3 Cupped nests - in branches with structure
  • A - in branches
    • Statant cupped nests - with rims upright and supported from below
    • Suspended cupped nests - supported from rims or sides or both
      • Pensile - suspended from the rims or sides
      • Pendulous - deep with lower part swinging freely
  • B - re adapted
    • Adherent nests (cupped nests attached by adhesive to vertical surface)
    • Ground nests (cupped nests on the ground, with or without extension of structure forming a dome)
    • Cavity nests (cupped nests in cavities - preformed or excavated)

Are there any newer classifications of this kind ? Shyamal (talk) 16:05, 7 November 2011 (UTC)

Nice! There are a number of nest classifications, all of which attack things from slightly different angles. I'll have a think about potential illustration sources; I'm off to Madagascar in 2.5 hours and a bit pressed for time at the minute.  :) For other possibilities, how about a platform nest in a tree (eg. eagle aerie, crow's nest, etc.) or a domed nest on the ground (e.g. some New World warblers, etc.) Some day soon, I have to finish up that article! MeegsC | Talk 16:14, 7 November 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. Have added a stork nest to the illustration. Have a great trip ! Shyamal (talk) 09:59, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

Red Warbler range map

Hello, thanks for your message, I answer back on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Birds. Totodu74 (talk) 15:04, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

Atlas of Australian Birds

The edit history shows that you made a number of edits to Atlas of Australian Birds. A Good Article Review has been started on this article. You might like to make improvements to the article. Snowman (talk) 22:51, 21 November 2011 (UTC)

Madagascar's Spiny Forests

Hello. I hope your trip to Madagascar went well. The current image of a spiny forest in the Long-tailed Ground Roller article still has not, to my knowledge, received an OTRS. Were you able to take some pictures of the habitat and, if so, would you be willing to upload an image? Thank you. Rufous-crowned Sparrow (talk) 20:18, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

Hi RCS: Will do -- but I won't have access to the computer with the pictures until 27 December. I got a number of reasonable forest pix, though sadly the flowers weren't blooming while I was there. MeegsC | Talk 02:15, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

GOCE newsletter

Greetings from the Guild of Copy Editors Elections are currently underway for our third tranche of Guild coordinators. The voting period will run for 14 days: 00:01 UTC, 16 December – 23:59 UTC, 31 December. All GOCE members, as well as past participants of any of the Guild's Backlog elimination drives, are eligible to vote. There are five candidates vying for four positions. Your vote really matters! Cast your vote today.

Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 11:02, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

GOCE 2011 Year-End Report

Guild of Copy Editors 2011 Year-End Report We have reached the end of the year, and what a year it has been! The Guild of Copy Editors was full of activity, and we achieved numerous important milestones in 2011. Read all about these in the Guild's 2011 Year-End Report. Highlights Membership grows to 764 editors, an increase of 261 Report on coordinators' elections Around 1,000 articles removed through six Backlog elimination drives Guild Plans for 2012 Requests page report Sign up for the January 2012 Backlog elimination drive! Get your copy of the Guild's 2011 Year-End Report here On behalf of the Guild, we take this opportunity to wish you Season's Greetings and Happy New Year. We look forward to your support in 2012! – Your 2011 Coordinators: Diannaa (lead), The Utahraptor, and Slon02 and SMasters (emeritus).

Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 06:34, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Talkback

Hello. You have a new message at Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style's talk page. — SMcCandlish Talk⇒ ʕ(^Õل^ō)ˀ Contribs. 18:46, 7 January 2012 (UTC)

Ruff

Well spotted with the ref. I wrote the article and stilled missed it. Still my favourite FA bird. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 18:04, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, I only found it because somebody changed the journal name incorrectly (without the ampersand) and it didn't show when I corrected it. It took a while to find!  :) By the way, I haven't forgotten about the BNA article; I'll try to get to it this evening. MeegsC | Talk 19:34, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Bikram Grewal

Doesn't look very notable, but I've asked Shyamal, he should know. For some reason, all the BNA stuff for Common Tern seems to be open access at the moment, so I think I'm OK. Thanks for the offer anyway (I'm not sure what is going on, even amongst the terns, several are free, others are completely paywalled Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:56, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Bikram Grewal Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:20, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

GOCE March copy edit drive

Invitation from the Guild of Copy Editors The Guild of Copy Editors invites you to participate in their March 2012 Backlog elimination drive, a month-long effort to reduce the size of the copy edit backlog. The drive begins on March 1 at 00:00 (UTC) and ends on March 31 at 23:59 (UTC). Our goal for the drive will be to eliminate the remaining 2010 articles from the queue. Barnstars will be awarded to anyone who copy edits more than 4,000 words, and special awards will be given to the top 5 in the following categories: "Number of articles", "Number of words", and "Number of articles of over 5,000 words". We hope to see you there! – Your drive coordinators: Dank, Diannaa, Stfg, and Coordinator emeritus SMasters. 19:45, 20 February 2012 (UTC) >>> Sign up now <<< To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

Common Tern

That issue seems to be resolved for now, so my inclination is to leave as is for now. I've filed your note in case it's needed later. I'd picked up the Gesner usage from Linnaeus' initial citation, and that's one of the reasons I said it was established usage. Thanks for the offer of help, I'll take it up when I get stuck. Now, on to today's comments! Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:50, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for kind offer, Snowman seems content to leave as is unless others object, and I'd rather at least give a chance to people to verify the text, especially as the sources are already slanted towards books — just happens that I had tons of terny stuff on my bookshelves. I'll take up your offer if the problem arises again. It's ironic that "subscription required" normally gives no problems, but has arisen here because it's actually accessible! I had a look at the other BNA terns, and there seems no rhyme nor reason to which are full-access. Thanks again Jimfbleak - talk to me? 17:44, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Spiny Forest Pictures

MeegsC, I'm a bit late in replying, but thank you for the spiny forest pictures. I went ahead and switched one into Long-tailed Ground Roller. Thanks again. Rufous-crowned Sparrow (talk) 02:08, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

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Science lovers wanted!

Science lovers wanted!

Hi! I'm serving as the wikipedian-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution Archives until June! One of my goals as resident, is to work with Wikipedians and staff to improve content on Wikipedia about people who have collections held in the Archives - most of these are scientists who held roles within the Smithsonian and/or federal government. I thought you might like to participate since you are interested in the sciences! Sign up to participate here and dive into articles needing expansion and creation on our to-do list. Feel free to make a request for images or materials at the request page, and of course, if you share your successes at the outcomes page you will receive the SIA barnstar! Thanks for your interest, and I look forward to your participation! Sarah (talk) 19:24, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Persondata

Hello. You have a new message at Wikipedia talk:Persondata's talk page. GoingBatty (talk) 17:39, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

Resizing photos

The Pelican article is being prepared for GA and eventually FA. I was resizing the photos in the article because it looks very messy to have some wider than others. I don't go round changing the size of images in general but I did resize the 8 Pelican species images in the table a couple of weeks ago and I reckon they look much better as a result. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 12:47, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

OK. Point taken.:) Cwmhiraeth (talk) 17:28, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Question on CfD

I see you did find the instructions. Categories are a bit different then articles and have some extra checks in place for renaming. Also, if you follow the process, there are bots to rename all of the articles so editors do not have to do this. While in this case, your actions may be supported, there have been many cases where deletion or renaming of category contents has not be approved for many reasons. Vegaswikian (talk) 19:23, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Cley Marshes

I was thinking idly about working up Cley Marshes over the next few months as a companion piece to my other Norfolk FAs, Titchwell Marsh and St Nicholas, Blakeney, and a quick Google search for existing stuff led me to your sandboxed version. Do you have any interest in a collaboration? If not, assuming you're still based in the US (???), is there anything I can do to help? I do occasionally go to Cley, so I could take photos of anything not available on Commons, ask for leaflets (invaluable for the Titchwell article — most of the history) etc. I don't want to tread on your toes with this, so I'll do as much or as little as you want, with no tears Jimfbleak - talk to me? 08:31, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

Fine, I look forward to it. My preference is to work in article space, but no big deal either way. I think this will take a while anyway, I'll need to go to Cley to see what they have got at the Visitors Centre, and I'm in Vancouver for part of next month, so whether I'll go before then remains to be seen. I imagine the Titchwell structure will be satisfactory. I should be able to track down some milhist, which will get us a copyedit from User:Dank eventually, with luck. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 17:05, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

if the library hasn't disappeared in the austerity slash-and-burn ): Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:29, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

Automation

I have been thinking about the semi-automated tasks you suggested, but I have not had much time because I have been busy in real life. I have made some IOC and Wiki page name comparisons and I have started to show some lists on the Birds talk page. It might be possible to clean up some Wiki page names and binomials on the Wiki in order to make it possible to do more by automation. The main discussion on these lists is on the Birds talk page. Snowman (talk) 14:09, 12 June 2012 (UTC)

correction needed in Madagascar cuckoos section, I think

On 18 July 2012 cuckoos section in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_birds_of_Madagascar says,

"Unlike the cuckoo species of the Old World, North American cuckoos are not brood parasites." Isn't this accidentally backwards? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.123.28.70 (talk) 15:51, 18 June 2012 (UTC)

No, it's correct; NA cuckoos aren't brood parasites and most Old World species are. However, that comment is irrelevant to the Madagascar birds! I think it's a standard "family introduction" that the bot that created these lists put at the top of the family grouping, as it appears the same in most of the lists. I'm slowly (and I do mean s-l-o-o-o-o-o-o-w-l-y) going through this list and cleaning it up, and I'll make sure to do that section next. MeegsC | Talk 01:42, 19 June 2012 (UTC)

Cley

I was thinking the same, whenever suits you Jimfbleak - talk to me? 15:16, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

I've merged the content into mainspace, and put the potential sources to look at on talk. I've left the existing image for the time bing, plenty of time to sort out pics later. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:42, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

Good point, let me have a think about how to fix this. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 13:27, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

To my shame, despite all my years on Wikipedia I've never done a history merge, so it took a bit of trial and error, but the article now has history back to 21 June 2007. Let me know if I've made any errors (no guarantee I can fix them... ) or if there is any cleaning up to do. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 13:53, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

The alarming changes to the article size on 21 Dec 2008, 23 May 2012 and today are. of course, due to the two separate histories now being intertwined. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 14:01, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

Update

I'm beginning to struggle for sources now, exhausted my own resources and can't find much more on the Internet. The obvious gap is non-avian animals. I've been through the non-print stuff in your list of resources, many are dead and I think most of the rest is already covered fairly well. I'll go to the reserve at some stage (at Titchwell they had two really useful under-the-counter leaflets) but it may not be before I go to Canada, especially given the rubbish weather. Do you have anything that helps, or ideas? Apart from the voles, it's quite likely that there aren't any notable animals, so we may have to go with what we have if all else fails. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 11:14, 2 July 2012 (UTC)

Harvest Mouse, European Otter, maybe some dragonflies; I'll see what I can find. Do you have Billy Bishop's book or Moss Taylor's book on the site? I may have the latter in a box somewhere (many books still in boxes, years after our move!!), though we may have given it to some Sheringham friends. MeegsC | Talk 14:57, 2 July 2012 (UTC)

I've added some stuff the NWT sent me, I'm waiting for page numbers before reffing. No, I don't have either book. Butterflies and dragonflies would be good, although I doubt that there is much unusual at this location Jimfbleak - talk to me? 18:57, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

Bishop's book is ISBN: 978-0952803102, while Taylor's is ISBN: 978-0954254506. Just in case you can find them at your local library — they're definitely not at mine!  :) MeegsC | Talk 19:02, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

Cley Marshes

After Saturday, I won't be around much for a couple of weeks. If necessary, when I get back we could run the article, after a bit of tidying up, as it is. It's only slightly shorter than the Titchwell FA (33k v 35k). I can't find anything else, but if possible, we could do with a bit more on the history of the reserve since 1929 and the military history. Archaeology is a bit thin, although there may not be much more available. Anyway, it's all yours for the time being. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 11:47, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Vegetarian Finch

Hello! Your submission of Vegetarian Finch at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and there still are some issues that may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! LauraHale (talk) 12:49, 8 July 2012 (UTC)

Hello. This is a friendly reminder that your nomination still needs a quid pro quo review. Also, it appears that you modified your signature to include a | character. Unfortuantely, that is a special wiki character and will sometimes cause your signature not to appear properly. Instead use {{!}} or |, both of which will render as a | without problems. Thanks, ThaddeusB (talk) 19:28, 19 July 2012 (UTC)

Hi Thaddeus. I've had the same signature since 2007, and no-one has ever told me there's a problem with it. What is the issue? I'm just off the Galápagos boat, and will do my "review" today or tomorrow. It took me a while to figure out how to download the text counter! :P MeegsC | Talk 21:33, 19 July 2012 (UTC)

When it appears inside a template (such as at DYK) the signature will be cut off after your name due to the "|" character. See this revision to see what I'm talking about. No need to change it's visual look, just use the html code for | (as explained above) instead of the literal character. --ThaddeusB (talk) 22:52, 19 July 2012 (UTC)

Okay, I've now reviewed Bultfonteinite. MeegsC (talk) 00:20, 20 July 2012 (UTC)

thanks for the welcome and formatting help

Thanks for showing me how to fix the formatting issue and for the welcome.Summertime4 (talk) 19:37, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

Pelican at FAC

Because all the FAC pages are transcluded onto one big page, the FAC instructions ask us not to use templates on the FAC page, such as "yes" checkmarks. - Dank (push to talk) 02:01, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Ah! Sorry about that. I'll change them now. MeegsC (talk) 02:12, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Bultfonteinite

Could you take another look at my nomination of bultfonteinite? Chris857 (talk) 16:13, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

DYK for Vegetarian Finch

Graeme Bartlett (talk) 00:03, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

DYK for Golden-crowned Sparrow

Graeme Bartlett (talk) 00:03, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Cley Marshes

The article is now fractionally longer than the Titchwell Marsh FA, and there are no obvious gaps that I can see. Unless you have more material, I propose that we give it a couple of days for checking and copyediting, and then send it to FAC towards the end of the week, what do you think? Jimfbleak - talk to me? 14:32, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

OK, at FAC now Jimfbleak - talk to me? 16:21, 8 August 2012 (UTC)

No problems, add anything you have when you can, but we should be OK (cross fingers) Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:10, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

Norfolk Coast SSSI

I'm intermittently working on this SSSI in a sandbox, and it occurred to me that there could be a long-term FT with the SSSI and the main reserves in it. Some of the reserves, like NWT Salthouse Marshes and Scolt Head NNR have very limited access or facilities, and I'm not sure they merit separate FA articles. Titchwell and Cley are no-brainers, but what else? Holme Dunes NWT/NNR has a visitor centre and car park, Holkham has hides and sells permits, any others that spring to mind? Jimfbleak - talk to me? 09:50, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for reply. I think the featured list is a good idea, but it would have to have a different title since all the former SSSIs were subsumed into the Norfolk Coast SSSI. In fact, the FL could be "North Norfolk Coast former SSSIs" or something similar. I agree that not all the sites would merit articles, and your suggestions are pretty much what I had in mind, sites with visitor facilities and some proper history, rather than just protected saltmarsh. I hadn't realised Holkham was so big (4000ha). Cley is at FAC now, one support from our milhist friend, Dank so far, but early days yet Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:26, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Ashy Storm-petrel

It was Dawson's Birds of California. Sabine's Sunbird talk 23:28, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

I haven't had access to that book for about seven years, sorry. Sabine's Sunbird talk 04:27, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Pish/Gish

I found that out when I looked at the discography. That was my screwup, sorry. 75.71.39.16 (talk) 04:01, 21 September 2012 (UTC)

Meanwhile in Norfolk...

I followed your suggestion about making a list of nature reserves. I'm struggling at the moment to find the two dates and one area in the table, I'll keep looking, but if you can help, that would be good.

I copied the format from List of Louisiana state parks, which used the last column for a photo. However, one saltmarsh looks much like another. Options are:

• Stick with photo
• Lose the last column
• Use for something else (coordinates??), what do you think?

Jimfbleak - talk to me? 07:41, 29 August 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, it's like a production line now, I've put North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest at FAC, Nature reserves in the North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest at FLC, started working up Holkham National Nature Reserve, and my copy of British Birds that cam yesterday had an article celebrating 100 years of history of Blakeney Point! I think once Holkham, Blakeney and Holme Dunes are done, that should be enough with the existing and potential FAs/FL for a featured topic. Do you fancy a collab on any of these? Jimfbleak - talk to me? 07:00, 4 September 2012 (UTC)

No big deal, I offered knowing you had an interest in the area, but I'm happy to do these on my own. The more I do, the more transferable info I have. Enjoy your tour Jimfbleak - talk to me? 14:00, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Description

I obviously did do this, since it's in the edit history, but I have no idea why. I can't even blame it on collateral damage while making another change. I've changed it back. My apologies, I can only blame temporary insanity. Any thing similar, just revert me Jimfbleak - talk to me? 15:50, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

Snowman seems to have solved the problem. It appears that I was editing an old version of the page and inadvertently took out more edits than I meant. Details on my talk Jimfbleak - talk to me? 05:43, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

Chimney Swift

Thanks for your recent additions to Chimney Swift! Since you seem to know what you're doing, perhaps you would check out my addition to the discussion on the Project birds page. (Regretfully, my ability to respond to my talk page is sketchy at best). Thanks, ~E 74.60.29.141 (talk) 05:35, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

Harvard referencing

You might find this of help as you are fan of this style. Add importScript('User:Ucucha/HarvErrors.js'); to your User:MeegsC/common.js page and you will see big red letters where there are problems. I fixed a few on Bird nest but it seems like it has accumulated quite some. Shyamal (talk) 08:52, 11 October 2012 (UTC)

Noted by your friendly neighbourhood stalker too Jimfbleak - talk to me? 10:47, 11 October 2012 (UTC)

That should have been /common.js not /commons.js Shyamal (talk) 08:27, 12 October 2012 (UTC)

Thanks Shyamal! I don't use that style any more (too many problems), but I need to fix the articles I put it in... MeegsC (talk) 10:04, 12 October 2012 (UTC)

Chimney Swift

I noticed you've been working this up, I've got Chantler & Dressens if you need page numbers, or the text Jimfbleak - talk to me? 15:22, 28 October 2012 (UTC)

That will definitely be helpful! I'm on tour (Sri Lanka) at the moment, so I'm not likely to have huge amounts of time to work on it, but I'll definitely take advantage when I'm home again. Thanks! MeegsC (talk) 15:32, 28 October 2012 (UTC)

I had a three-week birding holiday in Sri Lanka a few years back, one of the best places I've ever been to. I loved everything, the birds, people, temples, food — I envy you Jimfbleak - talk to me? 11:03, 5 November 2012 (UTC)

This is not a newsletter

This is just a tribute.

Anyway. You're getting this note because you've participated in discussion and/or asked for updates to either the Article Feedback Tool or Page Curation. This isn't about either of those things, I'm afraid ;p. We've recently started working on yet another project: Echo, a notifications system to augment the watchlist. There's not much information at the moment, because we're still working out the scope and the concepts, but if you're interested in further updates you can sign up here.

In addition, we'll be holding an office hours session at 21:00 UTC on Wednesday, 14 November in #wikimedia-office - hope to see you all there :). I appreciate it's an annoying time for non-Europeans: if you're interested in chatting about the project but can't make it, give me a shout and I can set up another session if there's enough interest in one particular timezone or a skype call if there isn't. Thanks! Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 11:09, 10 November 2012 (UTC)

JSTOR

Hi there. You're one of the first 100 people to sign up for a free JSTOR account via the requests page. We're ready to start handing out accounts, if you'd still like one.

JSTOR will provide you access via an email invitation, so to get your account, please email me (swallingwikimedia.org) with...

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The above information will be given to JSTOR to provide you with your account, but will otherwise remain private. Please do so by November 30th or drop me a message to say you don't want/need an account any longer. If you don't meet that deadline, we will assume you have lost interest, and will provide an account to the next person in the rather long waitlist.

Thank you! Steven Walling (WMF) • talk 21:01, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

AFT5 office hours

Hey all :). Just a quick note to say we'll be holding office hours in #wikimedia-office at 21:30 UTC this Thursday (the 29th) to show everyone the additional tools we're thinking of working on. All attendence and feedback is appreciated :). Thanks! Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 14:10, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

Chimney Swift

Well done with the lifers, I saw Brown Wood Owl, don't remember Jungle Owlet though. I'll have a look and see which is easiest route (depends how much extra it adds) Jimfbleak - talk to me? 15:53, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

Fine, I wondered if you were aiming for GA/FA. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 16:00, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

I'll scan the pages, I think. Can you email me? I've mislaid your RL email, which I need for an attachment Jimfbleak - talk to me? 16:23, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

I assume the docs reached you. This is almost certainly more info than you need, but just for the sake of completeness I thought I ought to say I can give details of the European records is needed Jimfbleak - talk to me? 20:36, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

Swifts

I sent the files at 16.45 on 5th, they haven't bounced, so not sure what's happened

I've sent again as separate emails, pdf first, Word second. I've edited out the map and the drawing of the nest from the Word file to reduce the size from 10.2MB to 3 MB in case the file size was a problem. Hope they don't disappear into the ether this time! Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:55, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

Nyctyornithinae

Hi. I'm afraid I can't remember where I got this from, although I do remember finding it somewhere, rather than making it up! I've just checked about a dozen likely candidates amongst my book collection and there's no mention of this taxon. If I track it down, I'll let you know. SP-KP (talk) 19:52, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for December 24

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Fermentation and respiration

I think the tag by the user was due to a logical problem in the sentence. Fermentation i.e. breakdown of carbohydrate into alcohol and carbon dioxide is the result of organisms respiring anaerobically. I suspect we should just drop a part of the sentence and it should be fine. Shyamal (talk) 05:14, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

American coot

Hi, I looked at your GA review on the American coot page and have tried to clean up the references and add to the intro. One question I had was if the "Culture" section should be eliminated due to lack of citation? Please let me know if there's anything more I can do to get it up to standard. Gabriel.hassler (talk) 22:17, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Editor's Barnstar

Dear MeegsC, Thank you so much for your wonderful work on the Golden-crowned Sparrow article last year! It was very inspiring for me to see you address so much of the feedback that was posted on this page, turning it into a much better article in the process. I also really appreciate your thoughtful support of the Article Feedback tool and I hope that you will continue to find it useful in coming years. If you would like to keep in touch more often, I invite you to join our editor engagement mailing list, where we discuss initiatives that support new users and experienced editors on Wikipedia. We recently opened this list to the public, so we could have more frequent conversations with valued community members like you. To join us, you are very welcome to sign up here. And if you haven't already, I also encourage you to contribute to the current discussion on whether or not to deploy Article Feedback v5 widely on the English Wikipedia (see RfC). Because of your familiarity with this tool, you are in a unique position to present an informed perspective on its potential benefits. Note that we are adding a few final features recommended by the community, such as simpler moderation tools and better filters (see project update). Thanks again for being such a great contributor -- I look forward to more collaborations with you, to help make Wikipedia better for all of us! Regards as ever, Fabrice Florin (WMF) (talk) 19:32, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

AFT5 newsletter

Hey all; another newsletter.

• If you're not already aware, a Request for Comment on the future of the Article Feedback Tool on the English-language Wikipedia is open; any and all comments, regardless of opinion and perspective, are welcome.
• Our final round of hand-coding is complete, and the results can be found here; thanks to everyone who took part!
• We've made test deployments to the German and French-language projects; if you are aware of any other projects that might like to test out or use the tool, please let me know :).
• Developers continue to work on the upgraded version of the feedback page that was discussed during our last office hours session, with a prototype ready for you to play around with in a few weeks.

That's all for now! Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 16:22, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

New Article Feedback version available for testing

Hey all.

As promised, we've built a set of improvements to the Article Feedback Tool, which can be tested through the links here. Please do take the opportunity to play around with it, let me know of any bugs, and see what you think :).

A final reminder that the Request for Comment on whether AFT5 should be turned on on Wikipedia (and how) is soon to close; for those of you who have not submitted an opinion or !voted, it can be found here.

Thanks! Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 19:20, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

Composite image

Hi! Would you care to share your opinion about the composite/single infobox image issue here? I would really appreciate it. Thanks! --Life is like a box of chocolates (talk) 01:13, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

bird image

I must have misunderstood from the talk page discussion. I thought it was being suggested the width be increased to 300px. Looking at other such composites I saw 275 being used, and at that width it seemed good to me. I am all for 300 if it works. μηδείς (talk) 17:23, 26 February 2013 (UTC)

small ground finch

Hi. I've just noticed you replaced my photo. Do you think I have misidentified it? The replacement does appear to be a juvenile. Charlesjsharp (talk) 09:23, 8 March 2013 (UTC)

Article Feedback deployment

Hey MeegsC; I'm dropping you this note because you've used the article feedback tool in the last month or so. On Thursday and Friday the tool will be down for a major deployment; it should be up by Saturday, failing anything going wrong, and by Monday if something does :). Thanks, Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 21:28, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

Note from Fabrice

Dear MeegsC: Thank you so much for your kind note on my talk page about AFT 5! I am really glad that you like the newer version of the tool -- and appreciate your offer to put it on some of the articles on your watchlist. This is something that you can do next week, when we re-enable the tool on the English Wikipedia (we had to turn it off for technical reasons to convert the current feedback to a new data format, and it's taking longer than expected, sadly). I'll ping you when it's back up -- and you'll be able to simply add 'Category:Article Feedback 5' to display the feedback form at the bottom of your pages. I also really like your suggestion to list feedback from all articles in a project's "watchlist" -- this idea makes a lot of sense to me, because it encourages productive collaborations around shared interests. I've included it as 'Wikiproject-specific feedback pages' in our wish-list of features to consider for future releases, on our requirements page. We will also explore other ways to make this tool more useful to editors and integrate it better with the article talk pages -- as well as apply any new lessons learned from our other pilots on the French and German Wikipedias. In the meantime, I am very grateful for all that all you have done to make this experiment possible on the English Wikipedia. You led by example, showing how this reader feedback can be used to improve article quality, as demonstrated by your fine editing on the Golden-crowned Sparrow page. (Speaking of which, did you know that this bird stops by in our backyard twice a year on its way to and from Alaska? That's why I picked this article as our main test page: I wanted to find out for sure if it was the right bird, to answer the original question I posed on other sites like Quora). Thanks again for your support, MeegsC -- I hope we can do more together in coming years! Fabrice Florin (WMF) (talk) 06:49, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

Bird migration

Hallo MeegsC, I think you might be the person to ask ... could you help, and in particular do you know others who could help, in getting Bird migration up to GA? It's a well-established article and much of it is pretty much GA-ready, but citation is patchy, and it's certainly a piece of work finding decent sources (done several this morning). It's the kind of article where teamwork would be a benefit, I think. Or tell me if you think the task hopeless, of course... All the best, Chiswick Chap (talk) 10:17, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

Article Feedback is now live on English Wikipedia

Hi MeegsC,

I wanted you to be among the first to hear that we just released an updated version of Article Feedback on the English Wikipedia today, at long last!

This new version of AFT5 is now available on an opt-in basis to any editor who would like reader feedback for articles they watch. To enable feedback on articles you are working on, simply add the 'Article_Feedback_5' category on those pages -- and the AFT feedback form will appear at the bottom of the articles.

Read more about this release on the AFT5 talk page. For tips on how to use this version, visit this testing page or check out this FAQ.

Please let me know what you think of these new features. We are now wrapping up new development for this project, but will fix any critical bugs that remain, and will collect community suggestions for the next few months before building any more features -- while we wait on upcoming votes on the French and German Wikipedias later this year. We will determine our next steps for this tool based on their community decisions.

Over time, we hope this engagement tool can help more users contribute productively on Wikipedia, as well as invite editors to improve articles based on reader feedback.

Many thanks for all you have done to help us provide this helpful service to our users! I look forward to continuing our collaboration in the future ...

Onward! Fabrice Florin (WMF) (talk) 00:52, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

AFT5 re-enabled

Hey MeegsC :). Just a note that the Article Feedback Tool, Version 5 has now been re-enabled. Let us know on the talkpage if you spot any bugs. Thanks! Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 00:55, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

"Homosexual male Mallards"

Umm... Can I ask why you think these ducks are homosexual? Male Mallards often hang around together. MeegsC (talk) 16:31, 5 May 2013 (UTC)

Good point. Near the lake/at the shooting location, there was a group of four male Mallards loosely hanging around together (left side of the image below) and this male couple (right side of the image below) While the ducks in the loose group kept some distance among each other and occasionally separated, the couple on the right behaved like a heterosexual Mallard duck couple in a way that they always kept very close together and remained separated from the other group. When they moved, one duck of the couple was always very closely following the other one and when they didn't move they frequently established body contact as shown on the set of photos. --NorbertNagel (talk) 18:30, 5 May 2013 (UTC)

Red Links

I don't like red links. I find them hideous to look at. I see no point to having links to pages that do not exist. I also find it annoying that there still remain things which do not have articles. Ferocious Flying Ferrets 15:12, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

Pertaining to expanding Wikipedia, I suppose you have a point. I will not admit that I was wrong, but I will acknowledge that you were right. Not that it matters, but I do believe we have had arguments before, back in 2008, about classifying birds as dinosaurs. Good times. Ferocious Flying Ferrets 14:32, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

Love history & culture? Get involved in WikiProject World Digital Library!

World Digital Library Wikipedia Partnership - We need you!

Hi MeegsC! I'm the Wikipedian In Residence at the World Digital Library, a project of the Library of Congress and UNESCO. I'm recruiting Wikipedians who are passionate about history & culture to participate in improving Wikipedia using the WDL's vast free online resources. Participants can earn our awesome WDL barnstar and help to disseminate free knowledge from over 100 libraries in 7 different languages. Please sign up to participate here. Thanks for editing Wikipedia and I look forward to working with you! SarahStierch (talk) 17:50, 23 May 2013 (UTC)

Image

Hello, MeegsC. You have new messages at Snowmanradio's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Quarter Million Award

		The Quarter Million Award
		For your contributions to bring Pelican (estimated annual readership: 306,000) to Featured Article status, I hereby present you the Quarter Million Award. Congratulations on this rare accomplishment, and thanks for all you do for Wikipedia's readers. -- Khazar2 (talk) 02:01, 31 August 2013 (UTC)

The Million Award is a new initiative to recognize the editors of Wikipedia's most-read content; you can read more about the award and its possible tiers (Quarter Million Award, Half Million Award, and Million Award) at Wikipedia:Million Award. You're also welcome to display this userbox:

This editor won the Quarter Million Award for bringing Pelican to Featured Article status.

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Books and Bytes: The Wikipedia Library Newsletter

Books and Bytes

Volume 1, Issue 1, October 2013

by The Interior (talk · contribs), Ocaasi (talk · contribs)

Greetings Wikipedia Library members! Welcome to the inaugural edition of Books and Bytes, TWL’s monthly newsletter. We're sending you the first edition of this opt-in newsletter, because you signed up, or applied for a free research account: HighBeam, Credo, Questia, JSTOR, or Cochrane. To receive future updates of Books and Bytes, please add your name to the subscriber's list. There's lots of news this month for the Wikipedia Library, including new accounts, upcoming events, and new ways to get involved...

New positions: Sign up to be a Wikipedia Visiting Scholar, or a Volunteer Wikipedia Librarian

Wikipedia Loves Libraries: Off to a roaring start this fall in the United States: 29 events are planned or have been hosted.

New subscription donations: Cochrane round 2; HighBeam round 8; Questia round 4... Can we partner with NY Times and Lexis-Nexis??

New ideas: OCLC innovations in the works; VisualEditor Reference Dialog Workshop; a photo contest idea emerges

News from the library world: Wikipedian joins the National Archives full time; the Getty Museum releases 4,500 images; CERN goes CC-BY

Announcing WikiProject Open: WikiProject Open kicked off in October, with several brainstorming and co-working sessions

New ways to get involved: Visiting scholar requirements; subject guides; room for library expansion and exploration

Read the full newsletter

Thanks for reading! All future newsletters will be opt-in only. Have an item for the next issue? Leave a note for the editor on the Suggestions page. --The Interior 21:32, 27 October 2013 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Library Survey

As a subscriber to one of The Wikipedia Library's programs, we'd like to hear your thoughts about future donations and project activities in this brief survey. Thanks and cheers, Ocaasi ^{t | c} 15:42, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

Chimney swift

Hello. I made a minor edit to Chimney swift and posted on the talk page, which you might want to check out (here). ~Cheers, ~Eric:71.20.250.51 (talk) 21:47, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

JSTOR Survey (and an update)

Hi! Just a quick update that while JSTOR and The Wikipedia Library discuss expanding the partnership, they've gone ahead and extended the pilot access again, until May 31st. Thanks, JSTOR!

It would be really helpful for growing the program if you would fill out this short survey about your usage and experience with JSTOR:

SURVEY

Cheers, Ocaasi via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:47, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Bird project bullies

Well said, Meegs, and thanks for sticking around. Wikipedia does have its quota of psychopaths for whom editing is largely a game of asserting power over others rather than contributing worthwhile content. No different from RL really. Cheers. Maias (talk) 02:12, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

Welcome back, glad to see you around again. Shyamal (talk) 03:16, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

Thanks guys! I just needed a few weeks to cool down. It's not the "losing" that pissed me off (despite what some of the MOS stalwarts are attesting), it's the whole tone of the "discussion" they have with people they don't agree with. Name calling. Belittling. Walls of text to shove down your throat just how stupid you are. "And hey, if you didn't get it the last time I posted, let me post it again, just to reinforce it — because if I post it often enough it must be true!" It's similar to what's happening in American politics, I'm afraid; nobody can have a proper conversation about differences and work around them any more. It's all shouting and histrionics. And since this is supposed to be "fun", I needed to go off and have some RL fun for a while! :) MeegsC (talk) 12:34, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

Precious

bird images
Thank you, birder and biologist who enjoys writing, for quality articles such as Flight feather and Red Warbler, for DYK proposals and copy-editing, for uploading images such as the lead picture of the Copper-rumped Hummingbird, - you are an awesome Wikipedian!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:15, 31 May 2014 (UTC)

Why thank you, Gerda! Pleasant interactions, like this one, have persuaded me to try this crazy loony bin again. Now if I can just avoid those who make my blood pressure go up… :) MeegsC (talk) 16:12, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

Great to hear that! I think I know what you mean about the blood pressure, look at "A Boy was Born", for example, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 12:40, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

Bolivia

I thought, since you're watching Bolivia, I'd point out something I noticed. The huge number of photos just added may be the same ones added by an editor with a red user name a few days ago and removed by Materialscientist with an edit summary explaining that it was "way too many photos" for the article. CorinneSD (talk) 22:06, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

Birds

I posted more questions about some bird articles at Wikipedia:WikiProject Birds. CorinneSD (talk) 00:33, 30 June 2014 (UTC)

To leave or not to leave...

Meegs, I'm sorry that you have decided to leave editing at WP. You seem to be an intelligent, articulate, kind and generous editor. I know you are upset as others have been regarding the issues with the MoS editors, but I'd just like to point out that WP is always changing -- some editors leave, but many new editors start contributing. Although I've been editing for almost two years, I've only recently started looking at articles on birds and exchanged comments with you and one or two other editors regarding birds. I very much appreciate your courteous and informative replies. Even if you feel constrained by certain formatting rules, I really believe you can still make a difference at WP and even continue to enjoy editing. CorinneSD (talk) 23:25, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

American Robin

I noticed that an IP editor went through American Robin and added the "serial comma" -- a comma after the last item in a list before "and" in several places. I know some people prefer the serial comma and others do not. Americans are taught not to use a comma before "and". I use it when it the list is a series of phrases and where it will clear up any possible ambiguity, but not when it is single words like "cat" and "dog". I know this is a minor issue, but I wanted to ask you what you thought about these edits. CorinneSD (talk) 15:37, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

Please fill out your JSTOR email

As one of the original 100 JSTOR account recipients, please fill out the very short email form you received just recently in order to renew your access. Even though you signed up before with WMF, we need you to sign up again with The Wikipedia Library for privacy reasons and because your prior access expired on July 15th. We do not have your email addresses now; we just used the Special:EmailUser feature, so if you didn't receive an email just contact me directly at jorlowitzgmail.com. Thanks, and we're working as quickly as possible to get you your new access! Jake (Ocaasi) 19:48, 23 July 2014 (UTC)

You've got mail!

Hello, MeegsC. Please check your email; you've got mail!
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Nikkimaria (talk) 13:46, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for August 5

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Speirops to Zosterops

All the speirops have been moved to the genus Zosterops. IOC and Clements both note as Zosterops. Reference:(Melo et al 2011)......Pvmoutside (talk) 16:48, 27 August 2014 (UTC)

I apologize for removing your work. I saw the IUCN reference already on the page and didn't realize you made the IUCN dead link live. You sent me a note regarding changing the genus, so I changed it to something more current. You said nothing about the IUCN change....a little communication about that change would have helped. Regarding a more current reference, it was already listed on the page.....23:01, 27 August 2014 (UTC)

plucking (hair removal) chicks

It was a combination of "Lost in translation" (plumón), ignorance from my part (I thought it would only refer to natal down) and giving less importance to a commentary that intendend only to show a different meaning of plucking for animals. Corrected to "animals". ※ Sobreira ◣◥ (parlez) 00:13, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Black catbird

Hello! Your submission of Black catbird at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and some issues with it may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! BlueMoonset (talk) 20:29, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

• MeegsC, your QPQ (quid pro quo) review is still due on this nomination. Please do one soon, and be sure to let us know when it's done (or if it's likely to be delayed) on the nomination template. Many thanks! BlueMoonset (talk) 20:29, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

Northern goshawk

Hello MeegsC! I just finished reading Northern goshawk and I have two questions for you:

1) In the second paragraph of the lead, the first two sentences are as follows:

"It is a widespread species that inhabits the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere. It is the only species in the Accipiter genus found in both Eurasia and North America. With the exception of Asia, it is the only species of "goshawk" in its range and it is thus often referred to (officially and unofficially, respectively) as simply the "goshawk"."

I just wonder, is it clear to you what "respectively" means? I think it's officially in Eurasia and North America and unofficially in Asia, but usually the word "respectively" is used when there are exactly two items. Here, there are three, and I think "officially and unofficially, respectively" might be a little confusing. What do you think?

2) The last sentence in the section "Habitat" is:

"A majority of goshawks around the world remain sedentary throughout the year."

Is "sedentary" really the right word? I always thought "sedentary" meant something like "tending to sit a lot", as in a sedentary job. Is this a special meaning used just in ornithology for birds that do not migrate north and south due to changes in the weather or seasons -- that is, "staying in one area all year"? Just thought I'd ask. CorinneSD (talk) 00:28, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

@CorinneSD:, two good questions! I'm as lost as you about #1. In the US, we might colloquially refer to the species as "The Goshawk" but officially it's the Northern Goshawk, so saying it's officially just "goshawk" wouldn't be correct. Personally, I'd change the second sentence to say "...it is the only species of goshawk in its range and it is thus often referred to as simply "the goshawk"."

As for the second question, I'd change "remain sedentary" to "are resident".

DYK for Black catbird

Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 00:02, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Black catbird

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RE: List of birds of Western Sahara

Yes I guess I was wrong in adding that tag. Thanks for your work. --Tachfin (talk) 10:04, 22 September 2014 (UTC)

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Discussion at WT:BIRDS

I've observed your recent contributions to the discussion at WT:BIRDS#Capitalisation of common names and have appreciated and admired your tone. I've been tempted to add my comments, but I think you are handling it well and I feel that any addition I might make might make things worse. Thank you - and keep up the good work. SchreiberBike talk 23:21, 16 October 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, @SchreiberBike:. I've been as frustrated as the next guy about this, but somehow we've got to get beyond the bickering if we're going to build a world class encyclopedia. I'm most concerned about trying to keep as many editors as possible engaged in writing content — all hands on deck and all that! MeegsC (talk) 02:56, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

It's so easy to get focused on the drama and lose sight of what a remarkable creation we are a part of. By remarkable creation, I mean both Wikipedia and the Universe! SchreiberBike talk 03:47, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

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Betula pendula

The GA review of Betula pendula seems to have stalled! Cwmhiraeth (talk) 13:51, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

Pelican

Great to see on the Main page "the most collaborative bird article", precious again, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:49, 8 November 2014 (UTC)

Gulf St Vincent Important Bird Area

Hi MeegsC, Thanks for the message re the Gulf St Vincent Important Bird Area. I have copied your message to Talk:Gulf St Vincent Important Bird Area as I think this is the most appropriate place to discuss this matter and this is where I have place my initial response. Regards Cowdy001 (talk) 19:59, 5 December 2014 (UTC)

Elsevier

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County Seals

I am going to give you one legitimate source for one county, but that is all since you seem to have an infinite amount of free time. Here is Henry County, Illinois website where you can find their seal. I will not respond further to your threats. --Mr. Joshua Lyman (talk) 08:38, 3 January 2015 (UTC)

Get a grip: in no way, shape or form have I "threatened" you! I merely said you had Cape May county's seal wrong, and that I'd removed it. That's the ONLY county I made any reference to. If you're going to make things up wholesale (supposed threats as well as county seals, apparently) you have to expect to be challenged on it. And if you had bothered to read the whole message thread, you might have noticed that I wasn't the only one who found errors. And that's the last you'll hear from me on it. MeegsC (talk) 14:02, 3 January 2015 (UTC)

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Elsevier access

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