This morning I've had the grave misfortune to try to register on 2 sites which I had hoped would help me with plant indentifications. Talk about being mucked around by obscure, illogical & irrational web designers!! Whatever difficulties there might be with the Birds in Backyards forum they are nothing compared to what I've had to endure on these other two sites. BIBY is a total & absolute breeze by comparison. Which all goes to show, yet again, that everything is relative.
Ahhh! That feels better!
I would be interested to know what other forums BIBY members participate in. One never knows just how many forums there are out there and what might be of particular interest. The BIBY site I only found recently by accident. As well, I like the Daleys Fruit Tree forum, GardenWeb, Taste, SBS and I have recently been looking at frog forums because I have some ponds with different types of tadpoles in them. I have also looked at bee and chook forums and native plant sites. What do you find interesting?
i was a big game forum user untill i got old.
now i like biby.
it's my daily dose of bird nerding.
i like fishing forums as well.
LOL Woko that makes me feel so much better :) I actually had to laugh out loud (sorry!)
Beef - I love that you use the term 'Bird Nerd'. I often use that to describe myself (proudly I might add).
I am interested in a few things but expert on none. So I find people at my level on FB. The groups I am now in include "Rocks, Fossils, Minerals & Gemstones", Bromeliads, Tillandsias, Epiphyllums, just to mention a few, and I'm on the Australian section of a gardening forum, a small group but very friendly.
Karen
Brisbane southside.
The 2 sites I tried to use were IFFA (Indigenous Flora & Fauna Association) & Australian Gardening.
Night Parrot, which native plants forums have you looked at? I'm really keen to identify a heap of plants we have growing at our place as I'm compiling a photo files of native plants indigenous & non indigenous to our area & other plants I classify as weeds.
Woko I like these sites:
http://www.anbg.gov.au/gardens/
http://asgap.org.au/
Thanks heaps for those links, Night Parrot. They'll be very useful. I'm still looking for a forum where I can post a photo of a plant or animal & have someone identify it for me.
Woko have you tried the Australian Museum - they might be able to help and they have comment sections throughout their website so you can probably post on there???
Scribblygum is an ABC forum that does ID .http://abcforums.com/forumdisplay.php?4-Scribbly-Gum
Plantnet is a good resource for native plants, not a forum but id keys. http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/search/simple.htm
Garden express is ok for plants. http://www.gardenexpress.com.au/forum/
Hey Holly & Greg. Thanks so much for those. I'd forgotten Sribblygum. I used to look in there from time to time but not of a long while. Time to renew my acquaintance.
Greg, I've registered with Gardening Express & found the people there very helpful. I tried registering with Scribblygum but got into a loop. I haven't taken that one any further & probably won't. I've decided not to persevere with Indigenous Flora & Fauna Association. I've tried to post about 5 times on that one. One post was accepted. On the other four I was told my offering was being considered &, if approved, would be posted shortly. Not a sausage since.
Holly, I'll give the Australian Museum a go very shortly.
As a general observation, I'm finding that the world of forums takes up an enormous amount of time just trying to track down what's appropriate for my needs, registering & getting them to operate. As I've indicated previously, Birds in Backyards is a breeze compared with most of them, even with the problem of uploading photos.
Does anyone find the forum pages painfully slow to load in BIBY? I do. :-( Sorry I do.
Hey Akos - yep there has been a marked slow down (I am seeing it now too). Have posted in the announcements forum, I am looking into it but basically we think the server is struggling because of the size of the photos being uploaded to the forum. We are going to restrict upload sizes to try to help solve the problem.
Hope to be able to update further later on today.
Holly, I've been in contact with naturalist Martyn Robinson at the Australian Museum. He's happy to take appropriately sized photos of bugs etc that I can't identify. So thanks heaps for that suggestion.
Thanks guys!
I'm also one that would like to identify plants and creatures that make our property.
Woko, if I may ask - would you by any chance have Martin Roinson's e-mail address?
platypus
Platypus, before I hand on Martin's email address I'll ask him if it's ok to share it on this site. I know that the Australian Museum has some worries about being inundated all at once with requests for identifications.
Hi Woko, if Martin agrees you could just forward his details to Playpus alone via private message so it is not shared with everyone. You can do that using the Messages tab at the very top right of the screen. Cheers ~~~ Alison
Alison
~~~~~~
"the earth is not only for humans, but for all animals and living things."
Thanks qyn. I had thought of doing that. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out.
Woko, I'd appreciate that.
platypus
I have found this site excellent for my bug queries.
http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/
I agree Akos, I've found that site great too for just looking up local backyard insects, particularly given that I am in Brisbane, though I haven't sent specific requests for ID to there as yet.
The Chew family sure are passionate about their insects!
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
Hey Woko, The National herbarium in Canberra has got a virtual gallery of native plants. Very comprehensive..or you could try your own states herbarium website (depending where you live)...Thylacaleo...
thylacaleo, S.A.
I use the Australian Plant Index. Is that the one you're referring to, thyl?
Perhaps he means this one, Woko -> http://www.chah.gov.au/avh/
Although on second thoughts, I can't see any gallery...
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
Yep, thats the one. I also visit the SA State herbarium quite a bit to check out type species, so I guess the same would apply in your state (Queensland, am I right?)...Thylacaleo...
Some of the Flora's written 100 or so years ago are pretty indispensable and you can get re-published/re-prints for some of the more important ones. Anything with a dichotomous key is going to help, I find...see ya Woko..
thylacaleo, S.A.
Yeah you're right about the Qld bit (i.e. me being in it).
Though I've never used it, the Qld Herbarium will do plant identifications from prepared specimens. Unfortunately they do not have a standalone online resource for plant ids, such as NSW's PlantNet or WA's Florabase, to allow lazy IDs from your own desk chair. From what I can see they are participating in the AVH program though.
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
Thanks, guys. I'm heavily & vigorously into the lazy approach from my desk chair so galleries are crucial to my existence. As you say, Timmo, there doesn't seem to be any gallery on the State Herbarium of SA site.
A bit late on this thread but yep I find Gardening Express really helpful. And especially on the question of what is a weed and not a weed.
Bridges