[wisb] Re: Violet-Ear Scam
- From: "Kevin Kearns" <dkkearns@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <pfissel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 15:20:15 -0500
Many years ago on Wisbird there was a very bitter person who was mad about
something that had been said to them on Wisbird and they had an axe to
grind. I still remember the message clearly - "There is a Great Grey Owl
sitting on a fence post on this road and he was 5 feet away from me!!!"
Since the sighting was only 10 minutes from Appleton, a great many people
went out looking for it with no success. Two days later this person wrote in
laughing all the way about how they had pulled on over on us and it serves
us right. That was a scam and deliberate deception.
The hummingbird sighting was a valid sighting for the reporter who honestly
made an error in his haste to get the news out. I agree that the original
message is a little harsh and could have been worded quite differently
Kevin Kearns
Lake Mills
-----Original Message-----
From: wisbirdn-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:wisbirdn-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Peter A. Fissel
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 9:15 AM
To: wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [wisb] Re: Violet-Ear Scam
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) #################### You
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>>
>>
>
>
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