Re: [mou-net] Carlos Avery
At Carlos Avery on Friday: 38 of the Sandhill Cranes foraging on the west side of Pool 4. 1 Caspian Tern at Pool 4. 5 Scarlet Tanagers on one short stretch of trail off the SE corner of Pool 9. 1 Common Raven at Pool 2. Paul Hertzel Mason City, IA Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
Re: [mou-net] Freeborn County
Rita Goranson wishes to report a pair of Western Grebes at State Line Lake in Freeborn County. This is near the town of Emmons. In the associated park was a Broad-winged Hawk, plus Yellow-rumped and Orange-crowned Warblers. Slightly east of there she also found at least one Brewer's Blackbird in a blackbird flock. P Hertzel Mason City, IA Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
[mou] Frigatebird at Spirit Lake, IA
The Spirit Lake Frigatebird seems to have spent the morning at the north end of Spirit Lake, and the afternoon at the south end. By late afternoon, it had worked its way south onto East Okoboji Lake, which sits adjacent to Spirit Lake on the south side. A small group of birders watched it there until early evening, when it reversed its southward movement and returned north to Spirit Lake. It revisited the extreme north end, but failed to cross the state line into Minnesota before reversing its direction again very near the grade. At dusk, it was still at the lake, and perhaps will roost somewhere near the north end. Paul Hertzel Mason City, IA
[mou] Records Committees/science
Richard's Wood asked "So where is the science in record keeping?". It is as much a mistake to equate the records committee process with a secretarial task as it is to equate it with a judicial task. The best description is that it is a peer review process familiar to anyone who has tried to publish scientific data. The "science" is done by the field birder (hence the phrase "citizen scientist"), who writes his/her finding in a documentation. A records committee then acts as a peer-review panel, and as an editor. It may be a terrible process, but it's the only we have, and it does a pretty job of enabling careful, science-minded citizens to contribute to our ever-changing understanding of bird distributions. Paul Hertzel Mason City, IA At 11:49 AM 7/23/2007, Richard Wood wrote: >We also have to remember that not everyone on a records' committee >IS a scientist. Anyone could be on the MOURC, for example. All you >need is to be a birder and to be elected by your fellow birders. > >Also, real scientists just don't blindly and for no reason through >out data that doesn't fit their hypotheses; that would be called misconduct. > >Richard > >Richard L. Wood, Ph. D.
