Mark Stackhouse has been in touch with me and has asked that I post a rejoinder on MDOsprey.  That's only fair.  HOWEVER!  I want this to be the end of this discussion on the list.  Those who don't respect that request will find themselves banned from MDOsprey.

Thanks!
Norm

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Greetings Maryland Birders!

No doubt I have already met a number of you, but clearly others on this 
list had never seen my name until it appeared in this forum in a post 
that has recently come to my attention.

I feel a need to set the record straight.

First, Richard, I never intended to insult you, or anyone else, 
especially regarding bird identification issues. If you took offense to 
anything I ever said to you, you have my apology. Please note that all 
of my communications with you over these "issues" were made in private, 
and not over the listserv. No one should ever feel embarrassed to make 
a wrong call on a bird identification. As I have often told people on 
my tours, or students in my classes, there is only one difference 
between an expert birder and a beginner - the expert has misidentified 
many, many more birds than the beginner. No birder, regardless of 
knowledge or experience, will ever know all there is to know about bird 
identification, or will be immune to making mistakes in identification.

My offers of assistance to Richard were genuine and an effort to 
diffuse what was a degenerating situation over his refusal to see 
reason regarding an identification issue that came before the Utah Bird 
Records Committee, and ongoing discussions between him, myself, and a 
number of other Utah and Idaho birders regarding other sightings he 
reported but for which documentation was never submitted. The record 
Richard submitted (with photographs) was rejected by the committee 7-0 
in the first round not because of politics (committee members are 
forbidden to discuss records during the first round of voting - a rule 
we scrupulously observe), or because Mr. Wood was an "unknown," but 
simply because the bird in the photos was not what he said it was. My 
overtures towards him were my small effort to get to know him and let 
him know that the records committee was not some evil, arrogant group 
that exists to ridicule other birders. I still have never met Richard 
in person.

I have heard that politics, cronyism and bad behavior in general has 
occurred in state records committees. I have no personal experience 
that would support these allegations. I know that all of us on the Utah 
Bird Records Committee, and all of the good people I know who serve on 
the committees of other states (including Maryland), take our service 
to the birding community very seriously. We have a very difficult job, 
often having to judge records on incomplete or poor documentation, 
always being sensitive to the feelings of the person(s) submitting 
reports and sometimes (though the vast majority of records here are 
accepted) having to say that the evidence submitted simply doesn't 
support the conclusion reached by the observers. No one I know is 
"smug" about this duty, or intends to insult anyone, or has any other 
motivation than to preserve the integrity of the official state 
records.

Good birding!

Mark Stackhouse
Westwings, Inc.
www.westwings.com

801-487-9453 (Salt Lake City, Utah, USA)
011-52-323-285-1243 (San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico)