[obol] Documenting rare birds
- From: Joel Geier <joel.geier@xxxxxxxx>
- To: obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2016 08:42:34 -0700
Shawneen suggested:
To those who have a rare bird to report and are disappointed when
people exhibit skepticism, please get one of the small super zooms
[cameras]. ... They weigh nothing and are great for capturing record
shots.
This may be a good suggestion for folks who plan to spend a lot of time
birding in places where they have potential to find rarities. However
for cases like the Mt. Hood wheatear report, it's not very useful.
In this case the observer wasn't even carrying binoculars, so presumably
he wasn't planning to look for rare birds. Even if he drove straight to
the nearest camera shop (in Gresham?) and immediately returned to try
for a photo, the odds of re-finding the birds would be low.
Moreover a small super zoom camera costs upward of $200. That's a lot of
weight out of your pocket, if you're a casual birder who feels compelled
to document a possible rarity that's landed in your back yard. If I had
that kind of spare cash on hand, I'd spend it on dentist's bills for my
kids.
Mike Patterson has advocated for using your mobile phone, if you happen
to have one that can take photos. Most people have one (though not
everyone carries one all the time), so this is a practical idea. Even a
fuzzy cell-phone photo can sometimes help.
But a much cheaper and even more lightweight option is to make use of a
pencil or pen, and any handy scrap of paper, to make notes and try to
make at least a crude sketch. If you're backpacking, you probably have a
corner of a topo map that you could sacrifice, or a bit of cardboard
food packaging.
The main thing is to note down what you actually observed, not just
state which bird and which state of plumage looked most similar after
you managed to look in a bird book or at on-line photos later on.
What color was the bird's back, breast, wings, tail etc.? What were the
most noticeable markings? Even a crude sketch of head markings can help.
It doesn't matter if the head looks like Tweety Bird, if you can at
least mark out the shape of the cheek patch, indicate if you saw an eye
ring, etc.
Then when you make your report, it helps to mention what other similar
bird species you considered, and why you ruled those out. If you don't
do that, then someone is bound to wonder about other possibilities.
Good birding,
Joel
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
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