Older than dirt and almost as smart, a curmudgeon who dislikes most everything, especially hate, intolerance, vandalism, rudeness, graffiti (unless it's very pretty and artistic), bad grammar, misspelling and Microsoft.

• Life 1 = Master Sergeant, US Army (retired)
• Life 2 = Volunteer Medic, EMT-Cardiac... back when that existed (retired)
• Life 3 = Police Communications (retired)
• Now = Wikipedian, singer, citizen scientist and gardener.
• Life * = Husband of one and father of three.

18 November 2024
News and notes: Open letter to WMF about court case breaks one thousand signatures, big arb case declined, U4C begins accepting cases In the media: Summons issued for Wikipedia editors by Indian court, "Gaza genocide" RfC close in news, old admin Gwern now big AI guy, and a "spectrum of reluctance" over Australian place names Recent research: SPINACH: AI help for asking Wikidata "challenging real-world questions" News from the WMF: Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Endowment audit reports: FY 2023–2024 Traffic report: Well, let us share with you our knowledge, about the electoral college
Single page Front page About Subscribe Suggestions Archives

• Host a large, active Purple Martin colony
• Maintain a small, active Eastern Bluebird trail
• Member of:
  • Cornell Lab of Ornithology
  • Purple Martin Conservation Association (PMCA)
  • North American Bluebird Society (NABS)
  • Virginia Bluebird Society (VBS)

• Participate in citizen science projects including:
  • NestWatch
  • Project Feeder Watch
  • Great Backyard Bird Count

I use free (as in freedom) software whenever possible. When forced to use a Microsoft product, Virtualbox allows me to do so without leaving Linux.

• Complete the biography of Herbert Friedmann for the GLAM project's Smithsonian Institute Archives initiative
• Update Chimney Swift article in my sandbox

Some of my current projects

Page Name/Link	Page Contents
sandbox/Cordelia Sanwood	Draft of bio of early ornithologist
sandbox/Driftwood Wildlife Association	Draft of a new article on chimney swift conservation
sandbox/Althea Sherman	Planned bio on an early ornithologist
sandbox/Aerial insectivore	Draft of a new article about this avian guild
sandbox/Neotropical migrant	Outline of future article

To support Wikipedia, every day that I log in I try to:

• Patrol a few recent changes to detect and revert harmful edits but I'm not in the Counter-vandalism Unit.
• Patrol a new page or two from the end of the backlog but I'm not really a New Page Patroller, either.
• Help with account creation when needed.

Wikipedia has changed. Maintenance activity now requires permissions from an administrator. I can and will watch for inappropriate edits and revert or correct them but I'm not interested in spending a lot of time doing those things.

• Update the article on Purple Martins to add new material from recent research on migratory routes.
• Expand articles on citizen science to add material on ornithological research that depends on trained amateurs.
• Reorganize the article on breeding bird surveys to separate efforts by region and country to avoid confusion.
• New article on Neotropical Migratory Birds to fill a gap and eliminate a few redlinks.
• New article on the Purple Martin Conservation Association.
• Expand articles on Arthur Cleveland Bent and Edward Howe Forbush.
• Article on Richard Norris Brooke and his art
• Figure out how to escape this strange world called Wikipedia.

Antandrus' observations on Wikipedia behavior help me keep going.

Teenly helps keep me humble.

I may occasionally be helpful.

• Tools
• Toolsets
• Checking open proxies

My legal name is Robert but please don't call me Robert or Bob. Those who call me by those don't know me. They're trying to sell something and found my name on a mailing list or some legal document. My mother called me Chips except when I was in trouble, another reason I dislike being called Robert.

DocTree is a nickname I use on the Internet, two nicknames joined together.

• Doc. No MD or PhD degree in my background. Back when I was a volunteer in a local rescue squad, the senior medic on an ambulance was informally referred to as "the doc" and often addressed as "Doc". Some who knew me back then still call me Doc.
• Tree. I've been called Tree since 1969 when I joined a detachment with 11 soldiers called Robert or a common nickname (Rob, Robbie, Bob, Bobby). Adding another was problematic. When I arrived, I had a pet squirrel that lived on me, clinging to my t-shirt under my fatigues or resting in a pocket. My comrades determined that anyone named Greenwood with a squirrel living on him must be a tree. He remained a pet until he tried to befriend a large dog who didn't understand that fellow pets should not be treated as a snack. I was stuck with the nickname Tree.

I discovered later that members of the Women's Army Corps (WAC) sometimes referred to the mass of male soldiers as "the forest" and individuals as "trees", especially if a male soldier dated a WAC. I not only dated one, I married her forty-five years ago. I didn't understand the giggles from other female soldiers when I was introduced as "Tree".

When I returned to the United States mainland, many knew me as Tree. I adopted my nickname and began to like it. Everyone who actually knew me called me Tree. Only bill collectors, salesmen and such would phone for Robert or Bob. So call me Tree or Doc Tree.