[wisb] Re: Violet-Ear Scam
- From: "Peter A. Fissel" <pfissel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 09:15:22 -0500
Very nicely said, Kyle. I recall falling for something very similar to
this on April Fool's Day a year or two ago, when Terry Lesea pulled an
excellent prank featuring a Brown-footed Booby supposedly at Sheboygan's
North Point. Serves me right for not looking at the calendar first.
Neither of these situations is remotely close to a "scam". A scam would
be a deliberate attempt to deceive for financial (or other perceived)
gain, such as the old "help, I'm stranded in a foreign city with no
money or passport" ploy (which we've actually seen on this listserv.)
Maintain perspective (and a sense of humor.)
Peter Fissel
Occasionally gullible Wisbirdn Monitor Guy
Madison WI
On 9/17/2013 7:33 AM, Kyle Lindemer wrote:
> 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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>>
>
>
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