FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] A few notes on the Update of the Annotated Checklist

[Brainard.Palmer-Ball@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

This is an open appeal to all readers of the updated Annotated Checklist of
the Birds of Kentucky to submit to me any errors that are found.  I am
already aware of a couple of things, but I am sure that there are others
that will be found by attentive readers.  At some point in the future, I
will post an Erratum to the book on BIRDKY.

The most obvious and troubling thing that I have noted is that the bar
graphs printed darker than intended, making it quite difficult to
differentiate between the darkest gray (fairly common) and black (common to
abundant). Typically, if you look closely and in good light, the difference
is apparent (for example on Killdeer), but it will take some study to get
used to.  We were afraid the lightest gray (rare) was going to be too light,
so we went a bit on the dark side (but too far, I'm afraid).

Also, for years, I have referred to the great waterfowl lake at Madisonville
as Lake Pewee, following the naming convention initiated by others in the
ornithological literature in the 1970s. I had always noted on county and
topographic maps that the spelling for this lake was "Peewee," but for years
there was a sign out at the road going in saying "Lake Pewee Dam Road" so I
never changed.  Sometime in the past couple of years, that sign has been
changed to the other spelling -- Peewee -- and some reporters have begun to
use that name (probably correctly), so henceforth, I will move to that
spelling as well.

There was some debate concerning whether or not to include the documentary
photo section at the rear of the book, but in the end it seemed like a good
thing to do.  In the acknowledgements section of the book, I neglected to
thank several individuals for allowing KOS to use their photos for this
feature -- Robert Dever, Frank Fekel, Portial MacMillan/Chris Sloan, Jacob
Neace, Clell Peterson, David Roemer, and Stephen B. White.  Thanks to all
for their contributions.  Hopefully we will keep up better with publictation
of photo-documentations in the future.  It is AMAZING to me that we now have
more than FIFTY species of birds for which there are photographs documenting
their occurrence in the state rather than specimens . . . how times have
changed.  Some of the photos are poor in quality (mostly mine . . .), but it
is great to have them all printed in perpetuity in color, including Chris
and Portia's one of the Black-chinned Hummer showing two bright purple
gorget feathers if you look closely.  Frank's sharp photo of the Tufted Duck
is great and was a real surprise (and treat) to receive from him a few
months after the bird had departed! Kudos to Clell for curating his 1973
Band-tailed Pigeon photo for all these years!  Robert's photo of the Green
Violet-ear is really neat (and sharp!), and look closely at my fuzzy one in
good light and note the bright green of the throat and blue of the chest.
David's Prairie Falcon video clip is just one of many he has obtained of
rare birds in recent years (several of the birds I have photos of in the
section David actually found). I obtained a copy of Jacob's Greent-tailed
Towhee a couple of YEARS after the observation . . . how neat it was to see
such a good shot of it taken through the window.  Again, thanks to all and,
again, please don't hesitate to send corrections to me.

bpb, Louisville
brainard.palmer-ball@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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