I can vouch for Clay's willingness to help. Over the past year he has
been extraordinarily helpful, and never condescending. There are three
or four others as well. So for the beginning birders like myself hang
in there on this listserv, but DO NOT put up with the rude egotistical
elitists ...call them out on their poor lack of manners. And lastly
post those bird links! That is how I got started with birding (and
continue) by taking the picture and then looking it up. If I still
couldn't be sure I would post a link and ask for help. It works.
Monte Phillips TX CTY
https://picasaweb.google.com/monte.phillips
Texas Bird Pics -
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Texas-Bird-Pics/1583729505213063
Listserv yxbirds-pics - //www.freelists.org/archive/txbirds-pics/
On 4/16/2015 8:18 AM, Clay Taylor wrote:
All -
I am always more than happy to help out with an ID problem (I did not see
Monte's post until it had already been answered) whether online or
face-to-face. Over the years I have received similar help from more
experienced birders, and it is good to play it forward.
If you scroll back through the archives here in TexBirds, you will see that
my answers to ID questions will ALWAYS come with an explanation of the field
marks / behaviors that are relevant to the ID problem - the Teachable Moment.
It irks me to no end to see someone simply reply "it's a *****", with no
explanation of WHY it's a ****, or how the questioner can use that
information to make the correct call the next time. That onus is on the
respondent, not the questioner.
As for Monte's initial question, I can definitely see where he thought
Cerulean Warbler, especially the back-shot - the wings and tail had a
decided blue cast, the bright white wingbars, and appearance of whitish sides
all point to Cerulean Warbler. The bill was the stumbling block, and the
next image from the front showed the "dirty" breast and Empidonax shape and
posture. Game Over.
What eventually irks me, though, is the Serial ID Requester (usually a
beginner) that simply throws up multiple images for others to identify, yet
they obviously are not interested in learning themselves. I place that in
the same category as a 2-year-old constantly saying "Mommy, mommy, mommy..."
simply to get noticed.
Proof? A week or two later they post another image of the same species,
asking "what is it?". I will give them the benefit of the doubt if they
say "I think this might be a ****, but I am not sure. What is it?" The
questioner has made an effort, and that gives us responders the opportunity
to respond with the Teachable Moment, and the questioner to hopefully have a
Learning Moment. Monte did exactly that, and if he encounters a similar
puzzle in the future, hopefully he can arrive at the correct conclusion based
on his experience with the Cerulean Flycatcher. ;-)
Good birding,
Clay Taylor
TOS Life Member
Calallen (Corpus Christi), TX
Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Ervin Fleming
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2015 7:32 AM
To: monte.phillips@xxxxxxxxx; texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [texbirds] Re: Fwd: Re: Re: Cerulean?
A delightful thread that I had considered starting myself after a couple of
recent experiences.
First, any advanced birders who consider themselves an ambassador to the
hobby need not read any further. You are many and the budding hobbyists
appreciate your help. The numbers of enthusiasts would be greatly diminished
without your help.But.............There is a reason for the birder
stereotype. Every hobby has them but from a lifetime of contact with
advanced hobbyists in other disciplines, the %ages are noticeably higher
among birders.I recently returned from a trip to Goose Island (helpfully
recommended by folks from this site).Great experience and many beautiful
birds to image. However, I accidently stepped into the realm of Zeus at one
point. My part of the visit began with, "Anything interesting?" which was
followed by the reply, "Yes." and then the conversation took off as though
the question hadn't been asked.I have been an ambassador to my hobby for 50
years. As a degreed Astronomer, I have been asked many times about UFO's and
I am always ready with a sto ry or two of my experiences that make them feel
comfortable about asking the obvious.After reading the Lincoln quote
proffered by a birder on this thread, I thought of the people who own pickups
and are harassed by their renter friends to help them move. I would recommend
a parallel t-shirt for the elitist birder which states "Yes I'm a birder. No
I wont identify your sparrow."
Tom FlemingGrand Prairie
On Wednesday, April 15, 2015 8:50 AM, Monte <monte.phillips@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Well, far be it for me to want to upset 'some' people. Fortunately there
are a dew on txbirds that aren't so sensitive.
From: Clayton Leopold <passerinaciris12@xxxxxxxxx>
To: sueorwig@xxxxxxxxx
CC: Monte <monte.phillips@xxxxxxxxx>, texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
I'm not a professional but a lot of people get upset when new/non
birders post really bad identifications. No offense but the acadain to
cerulean was pretty bad. But hey we all have to start somewhere, and I
have made terrible calls in my short birding career. Don't let the mean
and pushy birders ruin a fun hobby. Like I said you can always email me
for any help.
On Tue, Apr 14, 2015 at 5:37 PM, Susan Orwig <sueorwig@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:sueorwig@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
No, not a Cerulean. Probably Acadian FC.
On Tue, Apr 14, 2015 at 5:19 PM, Monte <monte.phillips@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:monte.phillips@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
> Found this at Lafitte's Cove. Is it a Cerulean Warbler?
>
>
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-EPQieP25mJM/VS2QkHcWFhI/AAAAAAAAGAM/yjIO00wLwX4/s800/IMG_1511.jpg
>
>
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7UNouCSZhnc/VS2QkLG1raI/AAAAAAAAGAQ/2vWEX9XRVgQ/s800/IMG_1512.jpg
>
> also some storm battered Hooded Orioles at 2 Dead Cows
>
>
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-FVaZhZWg6eU/VS2Qsj56VZI/AAAAAAAAGAg/518GRymCgpc/s800/IMG_1504.jpg
>
> --
> Monte Texas City
> https://picasaweb.google.com/monte.phillips
> âYou cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they
could and
> should do for themselves.â
> by Abraham Lincoln
>
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