|
Following the very large numbers of Waxwings which
have turned up this winter, and requests from a number of our customers, we
are changing their rarity status from Scarcity to Uncommon from Monday 13th
December.
Over the past few weeks Waxwings have been accounting for over half of all the
messages we send. Virtually all counties have had 100’s and some 1000’s of
Waxwings. They are very popular birds for people to go and see (and quite
rightly too) but this does mean with multiple updates from so many sites it
can flood the national birdnews folder on pagers and also the main news report on the
website. |
|
For the majority of pager customers this has meant that
their 'national' news folder mainly contained Waxwing messages making it very
hard, as well as time consuming, to read other non Waxwing related news. For
website customers reading the main news report has meant having to load and
read down through large numbers of Waxwing messages from all over Britain. And
for SMS customers it has meant users with certain filters were receiving and
paying for large amounts of Waxwing messages some of which they would rather
not receive.
What does it mean if you are a pager customer?
If you have the 'National' folder on your pager it will mean that you will no
longer see Waxwing messages in this folder. Instead they will only appear in
the local folders you have on your pager.
If you have the National folder on your pager but do not have any local
folders you can get in touch to discuss having these added.
If you have a local pager service you will not notice any change.
What does it mean if you are a SMS customer?
SMS customers who have filters set to include 'Scarcities and Rarer' will no
longer receive Waxwing messages on these filters. If you would still like to
receive Waxwing reports, but not some or all of the other Uncommon species
reports, you can set up a species filter and choose Waxwings as the only
species in that filter.
If you have Waxwings included in a species filter you will be unaffected by
the change.
What does it mean if you are a website customer?
Waxwings will no longer be shown in the 'Rarities and Scarcities' news report. You can see them for
chosen areas (including the entire British Isles) by using the location report
and setting the rarity level to Uncommon, and also across the whole British
Isles by filtering for 'All the news'. Alternatively you can run a
species report and choose Waxwings.
To see Waxwing photos on the gallery you will need to make sure you load 'All
Photos' or run a filter for Waxwings under the advanced filter option..
This temporary change does not mean we will be sending any less Waxwing
messages and we will continue to send each and every report we get. Their
status will revert back to Scarcity once the winter is over and the situation
will be reviewed each winter based on the number and distribution of records.
We hope this change improves the quality and usability of your birdnews
service but if you have any queries regarding the change of status of Waxwings
and what it means for your service please do not hesitate to get in touch via
email. Please make initial contact by email and should you require a call
back we will be happy to do so. |
