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GBBC (no list police!); sharp-tailed sparrow



Hey C-birders,

Out of curiosity, I did a quick web-search on sharp-tailed sparrows, and
found a web page with some fantastic photos illustrating differences
between Salt-Marsh and Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrows. They didn't include
photos of Le Conte's, but nobody's perfect... See:
http://members.tripod.com/~phaedrus64/Nelsons.html

As to the GBBC: it may surprise some people to see me coming to Nathan's
defense after he flamed me last month. But the fact is, neither Nathan
("I joined this LISTSERV for bird-related topics not increasingly rude...
rants." 1-27), nor Dave Hewitt (" I dont think you picked the right forum
for your banter... I am pretty sure myself and others would much rather
read posts about actual birds." earlier this evening), nor any of the rest
of us has the right to tell anyone else what is or is not bird-related or
appropriate to the listserv. That decision is made solely by the person
who founded it, and runs it, and does all the work to keep it going, and
that's Will Cook, and he does a darn good job without any of our help. If
*he* says to stop talking about some subject, then we should all do so (it
happens; ask Alex Netherton {*off* the list} about the political
affiliations of Blue Grosbeaks sometime). Anyone who wants to be the list
police, and make their own decision about what we are or are not allowed
to post, should go start their own listserv.

Also on the topic of the GBBC, I volunteered a while back to help review
their data, particularly the write-in birds. I received the list of
write-ins to date today. Quite a mix of rarities we already know about
(Black-headed Grosbeak, Sandhill Cranes, Western Tanager), reasonable but
rare sightings (Cape May, Prairie, and Yellow-throated Warblers), birds
that *might* have been correctly identified but often are not (Brewer's
Blackbird, Red-cockaded Woodpecker), and the birds we always see getting
reported on such counts that never get photographed or confirmed by
reliable birders (4 separate reports of Tree Sparrow, one a flock of 12;
Mottled Ducks, which this far north are almost certainly American Black;
Black-capped Chickadees, which unless your backyard is higher than 4000
feet above sea level are Carolina). Someone reported 20 Common Ground-
Doves; even a single one would be very exciting in NC! Maybe they were
from SC and sent in a count to the NC department by mistake... Someone
else reported Purple Finches, which are entirely possible, but accompanied
them with a Wood Thrush and a Yellow Warbler, either of which is so
unlikely that both of them together throws the finches' ID into doubt. And
I'm not entirely sure *what* to make of the three reports totalling five
birds of Orchard Oriole...

Anyway, thought y'all might be interested. I also thought that Nathan
would be comforted to know that the GBBC data is not accepted completely
at face value, and Nathan's many critics might be mollified to find that
some of his criticism is valid (after all, though editors can catch
reports of 20 Common Ground-Doves or 12 American Tree Sparrows, what can
they do with the same person's relative numbers of Hairy vs. Downy
Woodpeckers?). I hope I am not violating some policy of the GBBC in
sharing these few details, or embarrassing anyone on the list who might
have made one of the above reports.

As for my own backyard, things have been quiet. A Cooper's Hawk flew
across the road and perched on a neighbor's chimney a day too early to be
counted, and a flock of Cedar Waxwings arrived a day too late today. THe
most interesting observation is that one or more local Yellow-rumped
Warblers are suddenly regular customers on the orange-flavored suet cake.
Not sure how many; never seen more than one on the feeder, have seen a few
chases, but certainly none of the BIG butter-butt flocks have come by en
masse yet.

Good birding,

JOsh


Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/