I apologize for raising an unpleasant topic, but
someone has been trying to trash my name, and I want
to set the record straight.
Someone anonymously passed false information about me
to the trolls who ruined what had been an extremely
high quality discussion of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker
for many months...
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=33968
I'm surprised that someone stooped low enough to
participate in character assassination in such a
cowardly and dishonest way. I'm not sure who did it,
but one of the trolls knew things (such as the
identity of a coworker) that point to certain
individuals.
The trolls were told that everyone in the D.C. area
believes I made up most of my reports in 1998 and 1999
and that any reports that weren't fabricated were
probably mistakes since I was a beginning birder. You
better have good cause before accusing someone of
being a liar and a fool, but there is no basis for
this slander. There are many birders on this board
(and from Maryland) who can attest to the fact that
most of the birds that I reported back then were, in
fact, seen by many birders. What is a beginner? By
1998, I had already seen 600 species in the ABA area
and made extensive visits to study many of them on
breeding grounds. In particular, I made several trips
to Canada to study Connecticut and Mourning Warblers.
It's hard to believe that someone would distort events
from so many years ago in order to invent something to
slander me. What really happened back then is that I
discovered a place that had great
habitat and unusual numbers of rare birds, especially
Connecticut and Mourning Warblers. I went there every
day during migration and found many rare birds. Many
birders on this board came out to enjoy them with me.
It's time to put an end to such nastiness. Over the
years, many Virginia birders have confided in me that
they are fed up with it.
Mike Collins
Annandale
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