I am a local patch birder.
95-98% of my birding occurs within 20 miles of my home.
I walk, and bird, five days per week on average. Sometimes six.
This leads to a mistaken assumption.
The mistake: that I thoroughly,
exhaustively, know my local patch.
Today is a good example.
I walked part of the patch. A
Scarlet Tanager sang, and was later seen.
So?
This was a new personal bird for that walk, frankly, for
that county.
Its July 21st.
Statistically, its not migrating through. Statistically, it probably wasnt
blown here from
somewhere else. Its, most likely, a
summer resident.
In other words, chances are, it lives here. And I never noticed it. Nor had
another birder who works that
particular road even more often.
I, we, missed a startlingly red bird with a distinctive song
and call.
Personal lesson: Dont
get too big for my britches. Dont say,
they dont come here. Dont say, I doubt
your sighting. Listen humbly. Review the evidence without bias. Give the
benefit of the doubt.
Second personal lesson:
Keep working the local patch. It
changes, its worth my time.
Al SchirmacherMuscotah, KS(formerly Madison, Wisconsin for 30 years)
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