Re: Records Committees

• Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
• Next message: andrew l rabin: "blue Snow Goose"
• Previous message: FRIEND55@aol.com: "Re: Point Lookout"

Records committees base their acceptance or rejection on two issues:

  1. Is the bird what it is reported to be, and
  2. Is the bird a natural wanderer, i.e., did it get to the location on its
own.

Being comprised of humans, every committee is subject to errors/mistakes.
Their judgement on the latter issue is sometimes questionable.  

Remember the BT Gull at Sandy Point a dozen or so years ago?  It was concluded
that this bird was ship or man assisted, based on the fact that there were few
records outside the Pacific area.  Thus, probability was used as the basis for
judgement, as it often is.  Yet:

  1. Several BT Gulls have appeared on the East Coast since and
  2.  It is unlikely that a person would keep a gull in captivity (outside a
zoo) and   beyond comprehension that a gull would stay aboard a ship across
the Pacific,      through the Panama Canal and up the Atlantic coast. 

As a person who has 640,000 miles at sea, my belief is that the term "ship
assisted" is mostly in the minds of  conservative birders, not derived from
experience.  Birds simply do not stay aboard ship for more than a few hours or
a few days at most.

For those who think that vagrants should be discussed in bird clubs, on e-mail
and in person, I say, the more the better.  Discussion (and debate) is what
leads to truth, and truth does not reside in one person or a couple of
individuals.

Bob Mumford
Darnestown, MD

• Next message: andrew l rabin: "blue Snow Goose"
• Previous message: FRIEND55@aol.com: "Re: Point Lookout"