I'd like to know what makes the reviewers more "correct" than the observers.
 
 Richard
 
Richard L. Wood, Ph. D.
Computational Chemist
Cockeysville, MD 21030


----- Original Message ----
From: Thomas Stock <>
To: 
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 8:55:12 AM
Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] GBBC data is also reviewed

I'm glad to hear that the GBBC data is reviewed after seeing Bob Ringler's 
list of fabulous sightings. My mother-in-law is a birder living in D.C. with 
moderate ID skills. One day she excitedly called to tell me she had a 
redpoll at her feeders. I sped to her house but he redpoll was actually a 
Chipping Sparrow, albeit a bit out of season (this was late Feb. as I 
recall). To this day, I rib her about that one. I suspect every last birder 
on this list has such a tale to tell - about themselves.  Are there any 
takers out there? Your worst misidentification?

As a novice birder (this goes back to the sixties), I was convinced that all 
those gulls dive bombing me one summer in the dunes at Cape Henlopen were 
Black-headed Gulls. After all, they had black heads.  (Yeah, yeah - they 
were Laughing Gulls - which I didn't really find out until a more 
experienced birder told me.)  I also once called a Mourning Dove a Sparrow 
Hawk (dating myself again) on a Christmas Count - though my companions 
called me out on that one, thank goodness.  I'm ok, though, so long as I 
don't go calling Pileated Woodpeckers anything other than that...

Misidentification is at its worst, however, in poorly edited books.  In the 
18th & L Borders yesterday, I was flipping through a book entitled "Wild 
Washington: Amazing Wildlife In and Around Our Nation's Capital."  It took 
me less than a minute to find a Black Swallowtail labelled as a Palamedes 
Swallowtail (for which I doubt there's a record within 15 miles of D.C.) and 
a female Red-winged Blackbird labelled as a Seaside Sparrow. I re-shelved 
the book in disgust before finding any other gaffes.

Tom Stock
Silver Spring
altomomatic at verizon dot net