Dave Pardoe wrote: > Along such lines about a year ago I was with a group of Audubon people > at the 950 acre Sheahan property near St Michael's which has been given > to Audubon. I was standing next to Audubon's president, John Flicker, > when someone spotted a white bird on the shore at quite a distance. They > said, What is that?; and I replied, Probably a gull. At which point it > took off and was clearly a Great Egret, Audubon's logo. John said, Dave, > You will have to work on that bird. I will also have to remember to use > my binoculars and not jump to quick conclusions. Humility is good for > the soul, they say. Back in 1993, Jane and I were in Delaware chasing the famous Whiskered Tern. It was over 100F and the humidity was unbearable. The bird failed to show throughout the day and people were wilting. Around 3:30 pm an excellent local birder, who will remain nameless, called out "White-winged Tern". Everyone perked up and then someone said, "I think it's Whiskers!" It was. The moral of the story is, if our friend hadn't called out the white-winged tern, no-one would have looked and seen the Whiskered Tern. I suppose everyone would have gotten on it eventually but with rarities, you never know how long they may put in for their daily appearance. So what if you make a mistake. Better than letting something good get away for fear of reprisal. On a different tack, I made a glorious blunder a couple of years ago while Jane and I were headed toward the Dry Tortugas on the Yankee Captain. Paul Lehman, Sandy Komito, Jane and I were sitting up on the bow looking for whatever happened by. I was intent on spotting a tropicbird. When we approached Hospital Key (?) there were a bunch of Masked Boobies flying over the water. I called out "Tropicbird" even though I knew they were Masked Boobies. My brain didn't even realize what my mouth had done. Of course there was a scuffle as people headed toward the bow to see my discovery. Now that was embarassing! The group never let me forget it during our 3 day stay on the island. Of course it was all good natured ribbing. -- Good Birding! The probability of a given Tyler Bell event occurring is inversely mailto:bell@say.acnatsci.org proportional to its desirability. California, MD http://www.audubon.org/chapter/md/smas/