Tyler,
Thank you for your thoughtful analysis. There is another consideration in deciding whether to use a slow, limited release or to go public on a forum like E-Bird or MDOsprey, which does get digested with reports spread widely to other list-serves, and that is the well-being of the bird. When one of the Little Egrets showed up at Bombay Hook years ago, there was a crush of thousands of birders coming to see it. At least this was a public site that could handle the crowd. The bird stayed for quite a while, and lots of people got to see it. One day, I was there on a weekday when the large crowds were absent, but there was an idiot with a camera and no long lens (this was pre-digiscoping era) and he was determined to get up close and personal with that bird. Initially the bird was feeding near the water outlet at Shearness Pool, and the guy was sneaking up to the chain link fence to get in close. The bird flew to the other end of the pool, but near the road, so the guy raced down there and did it again. This went on and on, back and forth, and the bird had no chance to feed and was becoming visibly nervous. I approached the guy and asked him to stop. He informed me that it was public property and he could do whatever he liked. Just about the time I was deciding to go find a ranger, the situation resolved itself when the bird took off toward the back of Shearness and to my knowledge that was the last time it was seen at Bombay Hook.
And then of course there were the uninvited birder "guests" who entered Sean McCandless' house during the kite invasion of 2003. That incident didn't affect the birds but it sure did scare Mary McCandless. We have some bad actors out there and it is so unfortunate that we have to take that into consideration.
Marcia
________________________
Marcia Watson
Bowie, MD
-----Original Message-----
From: Maryland Birds & Birding [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of James Tyler Bell
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2011 11:58 AM
To:
Subject: Re: Hummingbird in Cecil County
Unfortunately, regional rarities that aren't immediately made public tend to be handled on a case by case basis. I've dealt with two of these recently. One was the Lark Bunting in Western Carroll County and the other was the White-winged Dove in eastern Frederick County. In both cases these birds were detected by eBird and at the request of the homeowners, were not to be broadcast publicly but could be spread by word of mouth to control access. The Lark Bunting situation needed control because of a busy road with virtually no parking except two spots in the homeowner's driveway and the White-winged Dove needed some extra time to negotiate with the nearby church for parking access. It's a difficult position to be in as the person in charge of doling out information and in the case of the Green Violetear, someone is going to be offended. In this case, quite a few people because the bird didn't linger.
Phil
Davis has been working on a How To manual for handling rarities but he's incredibly busy and it's not a priority. That being said, in my opinion, the local birding community should be made aware of a rarity ASAP. That's how we worked the WWDO in Frederick County. Unfortunately, since several of the recent rarities showed up on eBird first, that limits the number of people "in the know" to the MD eBird reviewers. The likely first course of action is suppression then contact with the homeowner. If they give the green light, it'll go out on MDOsprey. Problem solved! Usually, the homeowner doesn't want to be inundated with visitors so a slow release protocol is invoked. Sometimes you get included, sometimes you don't. That's where toes get stepped on as in the case of the Violetear.
So, what's the answer? There's no convenient way to do this unless the bird is found in a place that doesn't require limited access. If the Green Violetear had shown up at a hummingbird feeder at the visitor center at Assateague, it can immediately go public. Try and put yourself in the unenviable position of having one at your personal hummingbird feeder. Would you post it immediately to MDOsprey? I can safely say I sure wouldn't!
And put yourself in the position of the person who has to dole out the information. It's a horrible thing to know about a bird that you know would be a lifer for pretty much everyone and obviously a state bird but if you let too many people know too quickly either it'll cause bad feelings with the neighbors or cause the homeowner to shut down visitation completely. It's a lose, lose situation and if you ever had to do it, you'd understand. So try to be sympathetic to all parties involved and pray that the next mega is in a place where it can be announced immediately like the Bell's Vireo at Turkey Point which was posted almost real-time thanks to cell phones.
Tyler Bell
California, Maryland
________________________________
From: "" <>
To:
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2011 7:25 AM
Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Hummingbird in Cecil County
Hi,
I will second Maryanne's suggestions that MOS develop some guidelines
to deal with these situations. They occur all the time in England and (for
the most part) birders are able to work out some means of accessing the
bird. Since there is a huge twitching scene there, and many homes are in
dense neighborhoods with narrow roads, this sort of arrangement
becomes vitally important.
One thing is that birders there often make a donation on behalf of the
homeowner to some local charity, church, school etc. These donations
can reach several 1000 pounds if the bird is a major rarity and it sticks
around. Needless to say this makes the locals a lot more hospitable to
the birders!
However in some cases the homeowner just does not want any visitors or
their house is located in such a place that they cannot accommodate lots
of people. Then the rarity is (as the Brits say) "suppressed" --
this
causes
resentment but is sometimes necessary. However fortunately an
arrangement for parking and access (sometimes even timed!) can be
made.
Worth thinking about, at least.
Gail Mackiernan
Colesville, MD
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