[mou] Counting birds
We should not forget nearly all of us go birding for fun. The different levels of participation in the activity mean there must be some standards at some points. Hard to understand why anyone would get upset over a set of standards to regard a record as accepted or not. If some levels don't match your interests, work on the levels that work. Birders who want to set up their own standards have every right to do so and should not have to worry excessively whether a bird is countable or not countable. They are all countable, depending on what rules you want to use. That said, why not have a space on the records sheet for all possible bird species? The people who look at the validity of the records can later label them as likely escapes, game farm birds, or whatever. My suggestion is that the records be kept and not be lost. The Chuckar and Bob White are bad examples because so many people who keep decorative fowl in their back yards are also likely to lose or release a few. This fact alone is interesting and should be shared so that all birders recognize the likely status of such a sighting. Personally, if I saw one in my back yard, I'd write it on the calendar! What about birds that are in the process of establishing new populations in the state? Suppose those first few Cardinals found in Minnesota in the 30's had been regarded as uncountable as escaped cage birds. We'd have lost a lot of interesting information if we started out calling them uncountable and ignored those first few records. Another example. I've been trying to track the gradual spread of Eurasian Tree Sparrows from their once small range in St. Louis. There are several web sites that accept records from amateur banders and post maps on the sites. Several of them have some interesting records of the Eurasian Tree Sparrow at some distance from St. Louis. I tried to learn a bit about how one of these sites collected or verified records. The answer included a comment that they dropped some geographically unlikely records of the species. Too bad. Those might have been some interesting bits of new information. There seems to be an accepted recent record from upper Michigan that is kind of geographically improbable. The first bird is always improbable. The point is that all data are valuable. We may have good reasons for ignoring data but I hate to see us take the risk of destroying it. Don Beimborn By Cedar Lake
[mou] Counting Birds
--part1_127.3abcaf3d.2d5c34e9_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Dear Birders Who Read Poetry-- Mary Oliver's poem is charming, but she is showing off. Note that she is telling the reader that she KNOWS the difference between the call of a Great Horned Owl and a Barred Owl--she just doesn't choose to get close enough to know for sure. I think alot of birders who aren't so sure of the difference would want to make the effort to get closer to hear clearly, or even to try to see if the owl had ear tufts or not, but Oliver is content to meditate on the snow. Her (artistic) choice. Here is one of my poems which, though perhaps a lesser effort, is meant to be a fun poem about listing, or at least KNOWING what you are seeing: CAPE MAY POINT Snapshots of sun silhouette scoters close to shore. We pick off an eider with the scope. Farther out, gannets wheel and dive, show fish how to fly. We watch the sea-spears at 30 power, wind, bird, waves, blowing straight in our eyes. Good birding (listing even) Warren Woessner --part1_127.3abcaf3d.2d5c34e9_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Dear Birders Who Read= Poetry-- Mary Oliver's poem is charming, but she is showing off. Note that she is tel= ling the reader that she KNOWS the difference between the call of a Great Ho= rned Owl and a Barred Owl--she just doesn't choose to get close enough to kn= ow for sure. I think alot of birders who aren't so sure of the difference would want to m= ake the effort to get closer to hear clearly, or even to try to see if the o= wl had ear tufts or not, but Oliver is content to meditate on the snow. = ; Her (artistic) choice. Here is one of my poems which, though perhaps a lesser effort, is meant to b= e a fun poem about listing, or at least KNOWING what you are seeing: CAPE MAY POINT Snapshots of sun silhouette scoters close to shore. We pick off an eider with the scope. Farther out, gannets wheel and dive, show fish how to fly. We watch the sea-spears at 30 power, wind, bird, waves, blowing straight in our eyes. Good birding (listing even) Warren Woessner --part1_127.3abcaf3d.2d5c34e9_boundary--
[mou] Counting Birds
When mou net contributors get caught up in what and how to count in approve= d ways, I am reminded of Mary Oliver's lovely poem: Snowy Night =A0 Last night, an owl in the blue dark tossed an indeterminate number =A0 of carefully shaped sounds into the world, in which, a quarter of a mile away, I happened to be standing. =A0 I couldn=B9t tell which one it was =AD the barred or the great-horned ship of the air =AD =A0 it was that distant.=A0 But, anyway, aren=B9t there moments that are better than knowing something, and sweeter?=A0 Snow was falling, =A0 so much like stars filling the dark trees that one could easily imagine its reason for being was nothing more =A0 than prettiness.=A0 I suppose if this were someone else=B9s story they would have insisted on=A0 knowing whatever is knowable =AD would have hurried =A0 over the fields to name it =AD the owl, I mean. But it=B9s mine, this poem of the night, and I just stood there, listening and holding out =A0 my hands to the soft glitter falling through the air.=A0=A0 I love this world, but not for its answers. And I wish good luck to the owl, =A0 whatever its name =AD and I wish great welcome to the snow, whatever its severe and comfortless and beautiful meaning. =A0 ~ Mary Oliver ~ =A0 =A0
