Mr. Wood,

I am not one to enter into the different frays that occur on the
listserves, but have been amazed by this thread. Mr. Wood, in a very short
time on this list serve , you have made your opinion clear on a variety of
issues. Giving your opinion is fine, insulting people such as the nine
records committee members, who you probably cannot even name is going much
farther. Your generalities of the issue is striking, lets try and improve
the issues with facts and recommendations for improvement instead of
trashing people or the present system. If your talking about a different
state, say it, as of now you appear to be trashing the MD records committee.

Do a little research and you will find sightings have been excepted without
photo's or video. A recent example is the first state record of Reddish
Egret, seen in Ocean City by John Hubbell. Read the links Mr. Davis sent
you and realize the records committee makes decision on hundreds of reports
from all over the state. Yes, the group can make errors, but their
following a established protocol which allows for revisiting of sightings
and corrections if necessary. Sometimes, you need to just realize folks on
the records committee are doing their best they can and may have made an
error. As previously described, please take a deep breath, especially 
before sending out a message to the listserve making accusations on folks
you have never met.

I'm done,

On a birding note, the Peregrine Falcon is still present today on the
building by the Rockville Metro.

Dave Powell

Germantown, MD


> [Original Message]
> From: Richard Wood <>
> To: <>
> Date: 2/17/2006 10:14:38 PM
> Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Banked birds
>
> Of course, no record committee ever says they are going to go out of
their way to ridicule someone's reported sightings.  I also dispute the
statement "A birder's reputation by itself, in the absence of acceptable
documentation, will never cause a report to be accepted."
>  
>  Richard
>  
>  
> Richard L. Wood, Ph. D.
> Computational Chemist
> Cockeysville, MD 21030
> 
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Phil Davis <>
> To: 
> Sent: Friday, February 17, 2006 8:10:39 PM
> Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Banked birds
>
> Dr. Wood:
>
> Certainly, no one can speak for ALL records committees; however, maybe
this 
> link from our MD/DC Records Committee web pages can help you with our 
> position on such things ...
>
> The link is entitled ...
>
>          <http://www.mdbirds.org/mddcrc/pdf/rcrejects.pdf>Not-Accepted 
> Reports -- Some background on "not-accepted" bird sighting reports.
>
> The actual URL is here ...
>
>          http://www.mdbirds.org/mddcrc/pdf/rcrejects.pdf
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Phil
>
>
> At 22:50 02/16/2006, Richard Wood wrote:
> >Paul, I thought we were finished with this.
> >
> >  To clarify to everyone, my problem with the whole thing about "is it a 
> > Western Nashville Warbler or a Western Palm Warbler" (and I'm not
angry, 
> > despite what others think) is that a) nobody I've EVER birded with has 
> > EVER looked at a bird with the thinking that it might be "another" 
> > species, and b) record committee members are so darn SMUG, despite 
> > appearances to the contrary.
> >
> >  As for b), record committee members act like your friend when you
report 
> > something "rare", then are real quick to shoot you down and laugh at
you 
> > while doing it.  That applies to the "cronies" of record committee 
> > members as well.  Some even try to offer you "assistance" with your
"lack 
> > of bird ID skills" (can you say Mark Stackhouse?) (I know that there
are 
> > birders from other states lurking on this list, that is why I mention 
> > Mark), and after insulting you, they try to befriend you.
> >
>
> ===================================================
> Phil Davis, Secretary
> MD/DC Records Committee
> 2549 Vale Court
> Davidsonville, Maryland  21035     USA
> 301-261-0184
> mailto:[log in to unmask]
>
> MD/DCRC Web site:  http://www.MDBirds.org/mddcrc/rcindex.html
> ===================================================