[wisb] Re: Violet-Ear Scam
- From: Kyle Lindemer <kyle.lindemer@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "kathijr@xxxxxxxxx" <kathijr@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 07:33:37 -0500
I think there are some unwarranted harsh words for the birder here. The
birder that reported this to the list is a good birder and a respected
member of the local community. He was only reporting a possible rarity
that a friend sent him a photo of. I think most of us would have done the
same. This is no different than an unexperienced birder reporting a
rarity. I have left work early on many occasions to find out the bird had
been mis-IDed. If I had an address of this "Violet-ear", I would have
been one of the first sitting there waiting. The point of this network and
the FB page is to report in a timely fashion. I would rather have a timely
report of a bird that had been mis-IDed, than have the bird reported after
the ID had been verified and the bird already gone.
I find this event quite humorous. This is something that one of my
non-birding friends would have done to me, because they know how eccentric,
bordering on obsessive, many birders are (myself included). If there were
an address posted, dozens of people from hundreds of miles away would have
been on their way to Monona to see this bird. In the end, there was no
harm done to a single person other than temporarily raising their
adrenaline level. If there is a lesson to be learned here, it is to show
restraint in twitching or chasing.
Good Birding!
Kyle Lindemer
Madison, Dane County
On Tue, Sep 17, 2013 at 12:36 AM, Kathi Johnson Rock <kathijr@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> I want to apologize to everyone on the Wisconsin Birding List for the
> terrible events of today with Violet-Ear hoax. It was mortifying,
> disappointing, and demoralizing. What kind of person does this? I'm still
> trying to find out.
> Anyhow, we all learned many lessons from this---mostly, that any kind of
> sighting like this needs to be fully checked out before being posted on a
> public forum such as The Wisconsin Birding List and I certainly take
> responsibility for this. In reflecting on this unpleasant event later, the
> photo did seem a little too good to be true and it was!
>
> Master Hummingbird Bander Bob Sargent in Louisiana had many words of
> comfort and Nancy Newfield, who is a master Hummingbird Bander in Louisiana
> had this to say, which I thought might be of interest to the group:
>
> "It was a terrible prank for someone to pull on unsuspecting birders and
> that person's credibility is completely shot. Of course, the bird was
> not a Black-chinned and it wasn't even a Green Violetear. It was a
> Sparkling Violetear, which is about an inch larger than the Green
> Violetear. I'm glad that this debacle was scotched in short order. I
> am sure the good birders of Wisconsin will soldier on and they will find
> species worthy of legitimate joy. The miscreant won't soon be
> forgiven."
>
> This is what I wrote on The Hummingbird Forum and I intend to move forward
> on this premise:
>
> "I guess we must take this with a grain of salt and move on with our
> important work and focus on the things that really matter and that we
> know are real (like the hummers that we can see and hear in our own
> backyards!)."
>
> Good Birding to All!!
>
> Kathi Rock
>
>
> Kathi and Michael Rock
> Madison, Wisconsin
> Zone 4/5
> e-mail: kathijr@xxxxxxxxx
> website: http://mywebspace.wisc.edu/mjrock/web
>
> "Hummingbirds.....where is the person, I ask, who, on observing this
> glittering
> fragment of the rainbow, would not pause, admire, and turn his mind with
> reverence..."; (J. J. Audubon)
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>
--
Kyle Lindemer
Madison, Dane County
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