Is there ANYTHING that one can do when they report something that will guarantee that they won't get yelled at or criticized?
I know about Solitaires, I saw many of them in Utah. I also know that a few Gray Jays have been seen in the Twin Cities. If one looks on the reported maps of this season on moumn.org, Gray Jays have been reported further south than have Solitaires. Also, when one gets not much more than a glancing look, it's not possible to ask a bird for a DNA sample. Thus, a report that would be acceptable to the local BRC is not possible (not that I would EVER submit a report to ANY BRC ever again, it's a waste of time). Now, if I had totally disregarded ranges, like years ago, when I tried to turn a life House Sparrow into a Harris's Sparrow, I would have gotten ripped apart. Good grief. Richard Richard L. Wood, Ph. D. Hastings, MN rwoodphd at yahoo.com ----- Original Message ---- From: Laura Erickson <blue...@lauraerickson.com> To: mou-net at moumn.org; mnbird at lists.mnbird.net Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 9:54:36 AM Subject: Re: [mou] which is more likely... Townsend's Solitaires often eat fruit in winter, so if the tree was a mountain ash or crab apple tree, the solitaire would be the more likely. Solitaires are thrushes, shaped like robins though they often sit more vertically than robins usually do. As far as I know, this is not an invasion year for Gray Jays, making it highly unlikely that one would appear as far south as Hastings. Gray Jays are plump, their fluffiness and proportions giving the sense of a chickadee on steroids. I'm not on the MOU Records Committee, but if I were, I would NEVER accept a report of any rarity based on one species being "more likely" than another based on expected range. An acceptable documentation of a rare bird requires noticing head and wing markings, overall shape, posture, behavior, and what kind of habitat it's in. Even for my personal list, I've never felt comfortable counting anything based on probabilities rather than carefully seeing the important field marks. I'd want to actually see those cool wing markings on a solitaire before counting it--otherwise it's just a name and number rather than a lovely and memorable close encounter. Of course, that may be part of why my personal list isn't nearly as long as experts who take in field marks much more quickly than I do. ;-) Laura Erickson Duluth On Dec 19, 2007 8:15 AM, Richard Wood <rwoodphd at yahoo.com> wrote: > > Hi all, > > On Sunday, December 9th, I saw a grayish bird with a short black bill in a > tree in our back yard. This bird was robin sized, and when I went to get my > binocs on him, he flew. > > I have been leaning toward calling it either a Gray Jay or a Townsend's > Solitaire, though I'm not sure which would be more likely to be seen here in > Hastings. I see from this year's sightings maps, that Townsend's Solitaire > has been seen farther north, so I am leaning town the Jay. I know it wasn't > the Shrike I saw yesterday, as it lacked a mask (unless it was the Lone > Ranger off duty...). > > I'd like to know what everyone thinks. > > Good birding, > Richard > Richard L. Wood, Ph. D. > Hastings, MN > rwoodphd at yahoo.com > > > ________________________________ > Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. -- Laura Erickson For the love, understanding, and protection of birds www.lauraerickson.com There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of birds. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature--the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter. --Rachel Carson ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20071219/e89f3caf/attachment.html